The City God Temple of Yongchun County, Fujian Province China

The City God Temple of Yongchun is located at the central administration district and next to the Yongchun General Hospital. An ancient temple first built in the late 1900s and renovated in 1991 with the support of oversea donors. The size of the temple is not smaller than a standard football field.

This temple is well known in Yongchun County of Fujian Province, China. Besides dedicated to The City God aka Cheng Huang Gong, there is also an Imperial Official of Fude, the Goddess of Guanyin, as well as 24 Division Secretaries. At the same time, the temple management also provides venue for public to conduct gongteck prayer ceremony.

Every year on the 23rd day of fifth lunar calender month is the temple official celebration in respect of The City God. The temple management as well as the villagers will engage a traditional Fujian liyuan aka opera troupe to perform. Our Hian Eng Taoist priests will perform a ritual of thanksgiving during the celebration. In addition, every fifteen day of each lunar calendar month, the temple will engage our taoist priest to conduct a blessing ceremony for the general public. I am personally in favour of the present design the architecture of ancient China Criminal Court. Its not only conveys a message of good and evil, but also a cultural heritage which is educational in nature.

Katsuragi Shrine in Tokushima Prefecture, Japan

Japan’s long history has left a vast cultural heritage. Ancient Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines venerated for hundreds of years and masterpieces of the gardeners’ art are lovingly preserved throughout the country. In the midst of the modern world, the Japanese still value the old and the traditional.

The Japan’s indigenous religion, Shintoism, in layman language called the way of the gods. Its shrines are found everywhere throughout the country from small postage stamp-sized fox shrines sandwiched between skyscrapers to the broad, wooded expanses of the complex dedicated to the Sun Goddess at Ise. Shinto is a complex mixture of practices, beliefs and traditions of each of the local communities and it is hardly to believe in a modern, technologically advanced country like Japan, a religious view capable of regarding everything from mountain to the emperor as a god is possible.

The Japanese love festivals and to maintain traditions and observe ancient rituals, many folks join societies which keep the old customs alive through instruction and practice. At a typical Shinto ritual, groups of jostling, shouting young men and women carry portable shrines around the neighbourhood, stopping the traffic. While I was performing a taoist ritual in one of its occasion, a Shinto priest, Masatoshi Nohda 能田政俊 of Katsuragi Shrine 葛城神社 offers me a cup of sake beer directly taken from the praying altar for me to consume before the ritual end. I know that they have practised something differently from ours or somebody may call it as a cultural shock.

Templing at Tian Ling Dien, Puchong Selangor of Malaysia

Puchong is a main town in Petaling Selangor, Malaysia. It used to be a rubber estate and tin-mining town about 40 years ago. In the past, it consists of only one two-lane road running through estates and villages. Since then, urbanization has occurred rapidly in recent years with many industrial parks, commercial buildings and residential areas mushrooming along Jalan Puchong, the main road. Tian Ling Dian Chinese Temple is located within the vicinity of Bandar Puchong Jaya. In conjunction with its 6th Anniversary Celebration, taoist priests from Hian Eng Daoist Group are invited to conduct a ritual of thanksgiving during the celebration month. Last year its local devotees have witnessed a special ritual called “Spiritual Area Cleansing” by our taoist priests. It is a combination of mock attack by priest with sword and Chinese healing arts display that lasted for at least an hour. The purpose of this event is to eliminate all kind of evils, negative forces as well as outer black magic that appear to be closet within the visible scene such as houses or objects. This year, our taoist priests have staged another taoist skill called “Cooking Oil Cleansing”. Its purpose is to expel evil essence or non-compliance factor into the frying oil tripod. If those kind of energies do exist, four numinous animals of heaven, namely blue dragon, white tiger, red phoenix as well as black warrior together with the thirty-six heavenly generals would be called and ready to make offensive attack at once just to make the place safer to live.

A Citation for Soul Prayer at Sea

This event was occurred in a merciless ocean during the Qing Ming festival. Just before sunset, I received a telephone call from a funeral parlor operator and asking me to conduct a taoist prayer for a dead seaman. Upon arrival at the World Trade Center of Singapore, I looked at the sky and stars twinkled in the dark night. I guess it would be a good weather to conduct the ritual at sea.

We took a speedboat towards the direction of the Strait of Malacca. We were stopped by the Malaysia Police Coast Guard during the journey and after showing our travel documents, we continued our search for a cargo vessel. About eleven o’clock, we were finally discovered the ship in spite of bad visibility. It was understood that the dead seaman was accidentally fell down from his working tower. When the accompanied medical staff carried out health check for each crew on board, I went to conduct the prayer together with the funeral parlor staff.

It saddened to look at the body of the deceased. On knowing that the deceased was a Chinese who came from Hui An County of Fujian Province, we used the traditional offerings of incense and paper money for praying. When I started to chant scriptures, the night turned into a calmless ocean, and the strong wind seemed to be acted in accordance with the instructions from Goddess of Mazu for a rescue mission. We hope that the deceased could finally rest in peace. When the funeral parlor staff carried the body of the deceased to the speedboat, its Taiwanese vessel captain made his final salute with his sorrow expression. After several hours of sea journey, we finally arrived at Port of Singapore. When the deceased body was carried ashore, the rain poured down suddenly.

A Talk on Healing Prayers at Kuan Sheng Tong Temple, Singapore

Perhaps you or your friends are faced with a terminal illness, and looking for treatments. Traditional treatment methods such as medication, surgery and counselling are focusing primarily on physical rehabilitation. During the visit of a group of qigong students from the United Kingdom at Kuan Sheng Tong, I shared with them the use of Healing Prayers.

There is a boy who suffers a disease and he does the prayer. He said: “Master, you know that I am in the stage of struggle of pain and despair. You know that my wish is to cure the disease. I know you have the ability to cure me. I also know that you will choose what is best for me. I pray I will be close to you, and you will be my comfort and strength. I pray that no matter what the final result turns out to be, you will be my honor.” I told the qigong students that from his beginning to do the healing prayer, he has demonstrated his eagerness to live longer by following both the physical rehabilitation methods as well as his faith of belief is determined by reliance upon God for healing. It is usually our hopelessness that compels us to seek a supernatural source to alleviate our serious illness or disease, and ultimately a cry for God to heal us miraculously.

Qigong is a form of energy movement, which originated from ancient Chinese healing techniques, combined with a slow movement, deep breathing regulation and guidance to facilitate the flow of the whole body and increase vitality. If our qigong masters can give patients the necessary healing powers and prayers, their chances of recovery can be higher.

A Funeral Ceremony at Yongchun County, Fujian Province China

Yongchun County is located in the southeastern part of Fujian Province in China. Total land area approximately 1400 square km and its population about 500,000. Dongping Town is a mountainous area in Yongchun County. Between the town and village is separated by large tracts of rice paddies.

During my stay in Yongchun County, I was called to conduct a funeral ceremony for a passed on lady who lived more than 90 years. The whole atmosphere of the funeral scene was not sad, but also many people came to pay their last respects. It could be considered large buried scenery as far as a small town was concerned. The death of a person was also a matter for the whole village. The villagers were busy setting up tentage and handling bamboo tables and chairs as well as kitchen utensils in orderly manner. As we were presiding over the spiritual enlightenment ceremony as early as six o'clock in the morning, the village women came very punctual in the morning just to prepare meals for our taoist priests. Relatives and friends carried with them handy of offerings for the memorial service before the funeral procession took place. Once the spiritual enlightenment ceremony was over, the funeral parlor staff carried the body of the deceased into the coffin. Thenafter the head of the village hold a memorial service outside the bereaved family home.

Death can be considered life outside of a new community as majority of the villagers think so and therefore a funeral party in a way has been formed as a prelude to a trend, such as the western brass band, chinese drum, stilt walking and traditional dance troupe and etc. is nothing new in the funeral procession. The walking distance from the bereaved family home to the sending off area can be as far as five kilometers. Nowadays you would be expected to witness some unexpecting in the funeral wake which I am fully agreed because the lack of a written consultation is a peculiarity of our folk culture and practice.