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which is reserved exclusively for the occasion. The offerings must include red pork and two long stems of bamboo in leaf; these are laid out on special tables placed on small stools so that they do not touch the ground and be defiled.
The Jade Emperor's image has been noted on altars in nine temples in Hong Kong and in two in Macau. It is also to be seen on numerous altars throughout South-East Asia and in Taiwan. In Taiwan his image appears alone or with two or three attendants on a number of secondary altars and even on side altars. In Hong Kong he is the main deity in six of the nine temples and is the major deity on a secondary altar in the other three.
The most fascinating image of the Jade Emperor in Hong Kong is to be seen in the upper level hall of the Monastery of the Ten Thousand Buddhas in Shatin where he is flanked by two of his ministers. In a large number of temples in which he is the main deity the Jade Emperor is supported in this way by the two stellar deities, each in his own secondary altar flanking the main altar with the Jade Emperor. They are the Lord of the Northern Bushel and the Lord of the Southern Bushel, Nanpei Tou (jjdk-1-). There are also a number of images of attendants flanking the image of the Jade Emperor, and on occasions the Civil and Military Judges (Wenwu P'ankuan).
He is the main deity in a tiny temple near Shaukiwan on Hong Kong island, a tiny image in a small single-room temple occupied by one elderly lady, the temple keeper. The original occupants were refugees from Yunnan province in the early fifties, dead these many years. By the mid-seventies the temple was being kept spotlessly clean by the elderly lady who had been an amah to a long-departed English family. She explained that she had to earn her keep somehow, especially as her husband had already 'long time gone topside'.
In Penang people will tell you that the small red shrine outside their shop or house is dedicated to the Jade Emperor even though neither his name nor title is recorded anywhere.
Supporting the Supreme Deity is a Board or Ministry of Thirty-Six Ministers, with duties to supervise junior celestial officials and clerks, whose images are rarely to be seen on altars though on temple murals all thirty-six are frequently portrayed. Their role is to control and run