The conflicts were fought among local Chinese secret societies over the control of mining areas in Perak which later involved a rivalry between Raja Abdullah and Ngah Ibrahim, making it a war of succession.

[1][2][3][4] The Governor of the Straits Settlements, Orfeur Cavenagh intervened and the Mentri of Larut, Ngah Ibrahim, was made to compensate the Ghee Hin with $17,447 on behalf of the Sultan of Perak.

The 14th escaped to inform his clan and the Ghee Hin retaliated by attacking a Hai San village, razing it to the ground and killing 40 men in the process.

At this time, Raja Abdullah a claimant to the throne of Perak (in opposition to Sultan Ismail who was installed in Abdullah's absence) after Sultan Ali (r. 1865–1871) died in 1871,[16] and an enemy of Ngah Ibrahim, took sides against the Hai San and Ngah Ibrahim and the wars between the Chinese miners transformed into civil war involving the Malay chiefs of Perak.

Weeks after the Hai San regained Larut, the Ghee Hin, supported by Raja Abdullah, counter-attacked with arms and men from Singapore and China.

[30][31][32][33][34][35][36] In her book The Golden Chersonese and The Way Thither (published in 1892) Victorian traveller and adventuress Isabella Lucy Bird (1831–1904) describes how Raja Muda Abdullah as he turned to his friend in Singapore, Tan Kim Ching.

The letter expressed Abdullah's desire to place Perak under British protection, and "to have a man of sufficient abilities to show (him) a good system of government".

Liao sees the establishment of the temple as an "effort to reconcile" after the wars, and "as part of a cultural strategy to symbolically integrate all Guangdong immigrants into one community".

In the resulting Perak War (1875–1876), the British defeated the rebels, executed Lela and expelled both Raja Abdullah and Ngah Ibrahim to the Seychelles on the accusation that they had been involved in the conspiracy to assassinate Birch.