Nine Emperor Gods Festival 3. Sending Off

Each palanquin first paid respects to the sea and then to the Taoist altar. The palanquin bearers then knelt down, as did the devoteesas a sign of respect

Nine Emperor Gods Festival 3. Sending off by Long Nan Dian Dou Mu Gong (龍南殿斗母宫)

Long Nan Dian Dou Mu Gong (龍南殿斗母宫) is at present being relocated to a new site in Singapore, and will have to share the new premises with two other temples; a Thai Buddhist temple, and Bao Gong Temple respectively in Seng Kang West. This is becoming a trend now in Singapore, and I understand that it is socially engineered by the government to contain and control religious institutions, but I would have to talk to someone in government to get an official perspective on this. Anyway, due to a lack of official temple, Long Nan Dian erected an impressive tentage alongside Eunos MRT station, complete with free vegetarian food, a Ping An bridge for good luck and prosperity, their new and extremely impressive 1000 Armed Kuan Yin statue, and a full set of nine palanquins to carry the Nine Emperor Gods.

Devotees congregated at the tentage, and busses were provided to take devotees, each carrying a candle and large incense stick, to the sending off point at East Coast Park - car park F, which is alongside a picturesque stretch of palm fringed shore line. Set up on the beach was a large incinerator which, as I arrived, was in the process of being filled with ghost money and other paper offerings, also, three impressive paper boats made of slips of paper with devotees names attached, and a large table to serve as the Taoist altar for the ceremonies. Of special note is that on the altar were nine plates of ashes, each representing one of the Nine Emperor Gods, which would later be replaced by urns of burning incense and deity tablets brought from the tentage with the palanquins. At the end of the rituals, these would be ceremonially carried by temple members into the sea to both physically and symbolically send off the deities. It seems a common conception that the incense ashes carry the spirit of the Emperor Gods. However, from a Taoist perspective, the spirits had been residing in temporary paper tablets which were I believe burned in the urns (awaiting confirmation of this), and it was these ashes which represented the spirits of the deities.

Before the main rituals started there was a period of contemplation, personal prayer and devotion on the beach, as individual followers lit incense and candles, and prayed (bai bai) facing the sea. These personal moments carried as much weight for many devotees as the grander rituals. The prevailing belief is that the Nine Emperor Gods who represent / dwell in / are representing the constellation of the Big Dipper can help mankind. For example, by removing misfortune, preventing disasters and blessing individual devotees with peace in the family, and longevity for their elders.

There were four main ceremonial events. The Taoist ritual at the altar to send the Nine Emperor Gods back to the Heavenly Realms, the parading of the palanquins first along the beach and then towards the sea and the Taoist altar, the burning of the paper boats at sea, and lastly the physical sending off of the deities by devotees who, due to new government laws, were required to wear life jackets (this is the first year this has been obligatory). From the Taoist perspective, when the ashes entered the sea, the Nine Emperor Gods would return to the Heavenly Realms. The Taoist exegesis of the Heavenly Realms finds materiality in the constellations, of which the Nine Emperor Gods form the 7 stars of the Big Dipper plus two stars invisible to the naked eye close to the same constellation. There are three realms of existence, Heaven, Earth and Water, and the higher realms, the heavenly realms, are literally in the sky and metaphorically above us spiritually.

As the beach was crowded by the time the ritual started, I could only choose one place to stand. As an anthropologist I was drawn towards the Taoist altar, but as a visual anthropologist I was drawn to the spot where the palanquins would pay respects to the sea and where the urns would travel to be deposited in the sea. The visual anthropologist won out on this occasion, and I placed myself at the end of a long line of devotees who each had planted a candle and joss stick in the sand to form a pathway for the deities (palanquins and urns) to travel along from the altar to the sea. In the spirit of participant observation, I of course did the same. Each devotee held three incense sticks of their own.

The entire scene was floodlit and as the Taoist priests chanted from a liturgical canon to send off the deities and ask for luck and blessings, and the palanquins charged towards the sea and then towards the altar as a sign of respect. Then, after a short period of intense silent reverence, the crowds began to chant the name of the temple in Hokkien “Leong Nam Dian” (Southern Dragon Temple) to which the reply, also in Hokkien was a rapturous yell of “Huat Ah! Huat Ah! Huat Ah!” meaning “Prosper, Prosper Prosper” as each of the nine urns full of burning embers were carried down to the sea, and then out to the point where the water was too deep to carry them any further. The ceremony finished well after midnight, and it was an amazing feeling to be there to observe, and where possible, to participate.

Many thanks to all the friendly people there who kindly let me join in, or make space for me and my camera, and special thanks to Victor for inviting me along and taking me home afterwards, and to Liying for sharing her excellent Taoist knowledge.

Nine emperor Gods Festival 2.

The 13th of October. There are many legends as to the origins of the Nine Emperor Gods as diverse as representing the stars of the Big Dipper, being the Nine Human Sovereigns who lived in pre-history China, and supporters of the last Emperor of the Ming Dynasty to being local pirates who landed in Penang and helped establish the Chinese community in Malaysia. For more detail of the stories, and a description of the rituals performed by one temple in Malaysia (every temple has different variations of the rituals), see ‘The festival of the Nine Emperor Gods in Malaysia: Myth, ritual and symbol’ by Cheu Hock Tong (Asian Folk Lore Studies, Volume 55, 1999, 49-72).

Back to the yew keng. There was a convoy of trucks (many of which were brightly decorated) carrying the palanquins which are used to carry the deities as well as tourist busses to carry devotees. I was lucky enough to have missed the buses taking devotees to the two locations, and was invited to climb on the back of a truck with temple volunteers who ranged from traffic controllers to direct non-temple traffic at the two sacred locations to a photographer called Tan who later introduced me and helped to conduct interviews with both the Taoist priest who officiated the ceremony, and the spirt medium (tang-ki) who tranced the 1st Brother or senior of Nine Emperor Gods.

There were only two stops on route. First, the original location of their temple which was several miles north west of their present location in an area which is now countryside, I think on Sungel Tengah Road, and second, at the pier at the northermost point of Lim Chu Kang Road with a view looking over to Malaysia.

At the site of their original temple, an altar was prepared on a small table, and a ritual was performed by a Taoist Priest called Huang Zhen Quan 黃貞泉. In attendance were all Nine Emperor Gods, each tranced through a different medium. It seems that last year it had been decided that the Nine Emperor Gods wanted to revisit the original site of their temple this year. The Taoist priest chanted a liturgical scripture, the Qing Shen Zhou 請神咒 (a scripture inviting to deities to be present) while offerings of burning money and incense were made. The horn blown by the priest symbolizes inviting the Heavenly armies to be present at the, and the spraying of the water is to purify the sacred space surrounding the altar.

The yew keng then continued to the second location where two tables had been prepared, one for the Taoist ritual and a second as an altar for several deities to whom both the Nine Emperor Gods and the public paid respects (bai bai). The palanquins went quite wild at this location, and there was a deep sense and air of respect, power and spirituality surrounding the entire event there. The tang-ki channelling the Nine Emperor Gods remained in trance, and after the Taoist ceremony had been completed, each of the Nine Emperor Gods took turns to pay respects to the deities at the altar, each being given a cup containing what I assumed to be tea which they blessed by waving their flag over it.

The yew keng then returned to the temple where the palanquins and the tang-ki trancing the Nine Emperor Gods were given a loud and rapturous welcome. The event concluded dramatically around 11PM as each of the Nine Emperor Gods individually came out of trance in a ‘dragon chair’ placed in the courtyard facing the hall where the Nine Emperor Gods anthropomorphized images are worshipped.

On interviewing the spirit medium who tranced the First Brother - the most senior of the Nine Emperor Gods, he explained that during the entire periiod of trance which lasted some 3 hours, he was completely unaware of anything in the material world, and had no recollections of the event.

Nine Emperor Gods Festival 1: Inviting the Gods

Nine Emperor Gods Festival 1: Inviting the Gods by Hougang Dou Mu Gong 后港斗母宫, Singapore

The Nine Emperor Gods festival is one of the lesser known gems of Singapore. On the 9th day of the 9th lunar month, each of the Nine emperor Gods temples makes a Yew Keng procession to the river where a Taoist priests invites the gods. They are then carried in palanquins back to the temple. There are many stories associated with the identity of the Nine Emperor Gods, the celestial variety identifying them with the 7 stars of the Big Dipper and 2 invisible stars, and others with 9 explorers who helped establish Chinese communities on the Malay Peninsula.

It was my second night in Singapore, and a great way to start my research.

Ritual and Symbolism - An anthropological perspective

http://sites.google.com/site/4fabian/ritual-and-symbolism
Ritual and symbolism may indeed communicate, but it is not clear what or how they communicate, nor is it clear that communication is the most important aspect of ritual and symbolism.

This topic is discussed from an anthropological perspective

Reinventing Zen

A Zen master went to visit a famous professor of Quantum mechanics. While the professor of Quantum mechanics quietly served tea, the Zen master talked about Zen. The professor of Quantum mechanics poured the visitor's cup to the brim, and then kept pouring. The Zen master watched the overflowing cup until he could no longer restrain himself. "It's overfull! No more will go in!" the Zen master blurted. "There is no cup," the professor of Quantum mechanics replied, "How can you know Zen when you hold on so tightly to the cup?"

The Fabian Twist

The original story can be found at: 'Zen stories to tell your neighbors - Empty your cup'.

Updated: Passing of Time in Rectangles