June 5th, Singapore, a religious street parade (yew keng) where deities incarnate tranced through spirit mediums pay respects to deities in temples and rid the areas they visit of malevolent spirits. This video features a medium trancing a deity called Di Ya Pek (Hokkien) / Da Er Ye Bo (Mandarin), an Underworld enforcer deity being pierced with swords. In Taiwan this deity is known as General Fan. The reason for the parade was to celebrate the one year anniversary of the temple group (tua). There are different explanations of why mediums in trance pierce or strike themselves with various weapons.
Elliott (1955) states that the underlying assumption behind spirit medium practices is that “a spiritual being of vast and undefined powers possesses the body of a human medium and enables him to inflict injury upon himself without feeling pain, and to speak with divine wisdom, giving advice to worshippers and curing their illness”. In essence, the medium is considered to be a deity incarnate, and through the medium, devotees can communicate directly with the deity. Mediums use a selection of weapons including a range of articles for self-mortification, whips and swords for exorcism, and talismans and sacred choreographies, all of which are empowered to do battle with forces of evil: “Tang-kis pierce their bodies with swords and skewers in order to take on the spirit power imbued in these weapons … driven into the very flesh of the tang-ki, the weapons super-charge the tang-ki with spirit power” (Chan 2009).
The event was remarkably festive, and I was lucky enough to be invited into the truck carrying these two mediums (the gentleman pierced with swords, and the gentleman pierced with a light tube) on their pilgrimage to various temples. They are both extremely gentle and generous individuals. It was a great day out!
