Cheng Kong Phor Sat Birthday
This afternoon I was at a temple to pray in conjunction with the celebration of one deity's birthday (Cheng Kong Phor Sat) which falls on tomorrow, 3rd Jan 2005. I am gonna introduce some of the deities in this temple which I normally go to during such kind of celebrations.
This is the "Cheng Kong Phor Sat", also known as the Elephant God if I am not mistaken. You can see it has a small elephant on top.
The front view of the Tai Pee Sun temple in Tanjung Bungah. The "Thnee Kong" or the God of Heaven's altar is right in front.
Another view from outside. Big "Wu Lou" on the right to burn the joss papers.
"Thnee Kong" or God of Heaven's altar.
Flags surrounding the temple.
This is quite a common deity which one can find in many temples. "Choon Tay Phor Sat" is a deity with many hands.
"Bee To"
The famous "Kuan Kong" or the God of War. Those who watches cantonese triad movies will know this "Ang Kong".
"Tua Pek Kong", is always housed in a separate building and will be offered roasted pigs to celebrate his birthday. One can ask for lucky numbers from "Tua Pek Kong" for 4D like I did this afternoon. I ain't gonna tell you what numbers I got. Go ask "Tua Pek Kong" yourself.
Below "Tua Pek Kong" is the "Hor Yeah" or the Tiger God.
In another separate area is the "Dato Kong". Nasi kunyit normally is offered to "Dato Kong"
"Mi Leh Hood" or commonly known as the Laughing Buddha.
Assortments of other deities can also be found in the temple.
Offerings to the deities.
Lotus candles.
"Mee koo" which tastes like bread for the members of the temple. Taste great with black coffee.
"Mui Sin" or the spirit of the doors that wards off bad spirits from entering the temple.
Even the birds made their nest inside the temple, on the ceiling. The twigs are called "Liu Kee".
Close up of the nest.
Strange... bubbles keep on appearing in the water offered to the deities.
"Cha Ka Lay" or puppet show is presented to the Gods one day before the "Cheng Kong Phor Sat" or the Elephant God's birthday.
Puppet show stage.
Tomorrow, on the real day of the Elephant God's birthday, there will be a singing troupe supposedly to entertain the Gods. I think the guests and visitors will enjoy themselves more. This is the stage for tomorrow's event.
Another common sight in temples where you can see a pair of dragons on the roof top.
A dragon in the sky....
Beautiful giant dragon joss sticks.
Look at the size of these giant joss sticks. Very common in temples in Penang.
Nowadays in the streets of Penang, you can see so many cars with the "Amitabha" kind of sticker. Spotted this BMW parked outside the temple.
This is the founder of the Tai Pee Sun Temple. This article was published in The Sunday Times in Nov 2, 1958 with the headline, "The rock that refused to budge".
Special thanks to my younger brother for the names of all the "Ang Kongs". I hope he is right. "Ang Kongs" means Gods in our Penang hokkien dialect.
This is the "Cheng Kong Phor Sat", also known as the Elephant God if I am not mistaken. You can see it has a small elephant on top.
The front view of the Tai Pee Sun temple in Tanjung Bungah. The "Thnee Kong" or the God of Heaven's altar is right in front.
Another view from outside. Big "Wu Lou" on the right to burn the joss papers.
"Thnee Kong" or God of Heaven's altar.
Flags surrounding the temple.
This is quite a common deity which one can find in many temples. "Choon Tay Phor Sat" is a deity with many hands.
"Bee To"
The famous "Kuan Kong" or the God of War. Those who watches cantonese triad movies will know this "Ang Kong".
"Tua Pek Kong", is always housed in a separate building and will be offered roasted pigs to celebrate his birthday. One can ask for lucky numbers from "Tua Pek Kong" for 4D like I did this afternoon. I ain't gonna tell you what numbers I got. Go ask "Tua Pek Kong" yourself.
Below "Tua Pek Kong" is the "Hor Yeah" or the Tiger God.
In another separate area is the "Dato Kong". Nasi kunyit normally is offered to "Dato Kong"
"Mi Leh Hood" or commonly known as the Laughing Buddha.
Assortments of other deities can also be found in the temple.
Offerings to the deities.
Lotus candles.
"Mee koo" which tastes like bread for the members of the temple. Taste great with black coffee.
"Mui Sin" or the spirit of the doors that wards off bad spirits from entering the temple.
Even the birds made their nest inside the temple, on the ceiling. The twigs are called "Liu Kee".
Close up of the nest.
Strange... bubbles keep on appearing in the water offered to the deities.
"Cha Ka Lay" or puppet show is presented to the Gods one day before the "Cheng Kong Phor Sat" or the Elephant God's birthday.
Puppet show stage.
Tomorrow, on the real day of the Elephant God's birthday, there will be a singing troupe supposedly to entertain the Gods. I think the guests and visitors will enjoy themselves more. This is the stage for tomorrow's event.
Another common sight in temples where you can see a pair of dragons on the roof top.
A dragon in the sky....
Beautiful giant dragon joss sticks.
Look at the size of these giant joss sticks. Very common in temples in Penang.
Nowadays in the streets of Penang, you can see so many cars with the "Amitabha" kind of sticker. Spotted this BMW parked outside the temple.
This is the founder of the Tai Pee Sun Temple. This article was published in The Sunday Times in Nov 2, 1958 with the headline, "The rock that refused to budge".
Special thanks to my younger brother for the names of all the "Ang Kongs". I hope he is right. "Ang Kongs" means Gods in our Penang hokkien dialect.
7 Comments:
love your pictures here! nice and informative... esp. for a non buddhist like me.
how come the dato kong, no picture one... er... i mean no statue/face representing dato kong? same thing like thnee kong, god of heaven. i mean all the gods/dieties are with statues (or whatever you refer them as) but not the dato kong and thnee kong. i see only altars.
I am no expert but I'll to explain. The Dato Kong only exists in Malaysia. Because of the "muhibbah" community in Malaysia (ie. Malays, Chinese and Indians), we have the Dato Kong. When the "kee thong" or the Chinese priest gets into a trance, the Dato Kong will speak in Malay. So I guess this Ang Kong is from the Malay descent.
The Elephant God is actually from the Indian descent.
As for the Thnee Kong, we pray to the heaven so there is no "kim sin" or status.
There is no statue for the Dato Kong. Normally, a medium to large size rock will represent the Dato Kong.
I asked someone today about the statue for "Thnee Kong" and "Dato Kong". Apparently, there are statues to represent the "Thnee Kong" as well as the "Dato Kong".
However, this temple did not purchase the respective statues in view of the fact that these 2 Gods are placed outside the temple. So they are afraid the statues might get stolen.
kstang
Thnee Kong got no representation leh, no statue, no image. But we must give the highest respect. I used to pai thnee kong with all the tables on chair, seaw too, kam chia and the whole works. Now that I am a Catholic, during Chinese New Year's eve, our church also got pai with joss-sticks, offering of flowers, mandarin oranges, thnee kueh, wine and using the urn. But guess what, we are praying to Thean Choo (which is translated as Heavenly Host or God) for blessings and the kueh is to remind us of our departed parents/grandparents whom had shared these kuehs with us once.
5xmom hi
Thanks. How about the statue or idol in "Thnee Kong Tua" temple in Air Itam? I was told that is the statue for "Thnee Kong".
Is this posting between Lucia and KS? ONLY making comment?
Why are there no posting by others?
KS don't you think your web is rather DULL?
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