GEORGE TOWN: The crumbling, disfigured figurine of a tiger in one of the oldest Nine Emperor Gods temples in the country may not look like much now, but it certainly holds at least two centuries’ worth of artistic and cultural history.

About 200 years old now, the original sculptors of the Senior General Black Tiger figurine in the Tow Boo Keong Temple in Jalan Cheong Fatt Tze (formerly, Hong Kong Street) were made with materials to represent the five elements in Chinese philosophy, but the passage of time eroded the figurine to the point that it now has to be sent to an expert restorer.