MalayMail-Aug 19
Religion, arguable one of the last bastions of olden rituals and traditions, is beginning to make way for modernity in Malaysia, at least at a 113-year-old Hindu temple in Johor Baru.After dipping its toes into the digital world during the Covid-19 pandemic, when devotees were made to scan QR codes for MySejahtera registrations to enter the temple, the management of Arulmigu Rajamariamman Devasthanam decided to take the plunge. Earlier this year, the Hindu temple — the oldest in Johor and hailed as the state’s “mother temple” — rolled out a mobile app as well as two self-service kiosks for devotees. Hindu temples typically have counters manned by staff who collect cash payments and issue receipts for devotees seeking prayer services (archanai). Archanai is a Hindu ritual worship that involves elements such as offering, prayer recitations, and puja (worship) ceremonies that go beyond individual prayers. With the two digital kiosks at the Arulmigu Rajamariamman Devasthanam, devotees can seamlessly request and pay for archanai services to specific deities and receive prasadam (sacred food). The ARMD mobile app goes even further and allows devotees to request and pay for these services entirely from their smartphones, and later scan a QR code at the temple to obtain digital receipts.
The digitisation was first mooted by temple chairman V. Raja Selan last year and was swiftly implemented by the time the temple was re-consecrated for the seventh time in June 2024. Hindu temples are traditionally re-consecrated every 12 years through kumbhabhishekam rituals. Read more at:
