200
NOTES AND QUERIES
cap, the songkok. His inclusion is quite logical when you consider that the Chinese know that every location has its resident Ti Chu Kung (土地公), the tutelary spirit of the building and its surrounding land. The immigrant Chinese appear to have accepted that the local Ti Chu Kung in a Malay area must be a Malay, and burnt incense and laid offerings before him, and prospered. His image is seen in many rural areas of Malaysia, in the niche within the entrance to local temples or under the main altar, where in Chinese temples in other areas the tablet dedicated to the Chinese Ti Chu Kung usually would be found.
The usual title of the Malay, Ti Chu Kung, is Na To Kung (拿督公), or Na-tuk, the Cantonese form of the Malay honorific title of Dato. In Fukienese and Ch'aochou communities in Malaysia he is also referred to by the same title, Na T'o, but using the characters 哪卓 and 藍卓.
In many parts of Malaysia nowadays Na T'o Kung's image, or a rock dedicated to him, stands beside or near an image of the Chinese Earth God. This is not unexpected as in temples elsewhere, such as Hong Kong and Taiwan, the image of or the tablet dedicated to the Earth God would be beside or certainly separate from the tablet dedicated to the Ti Chu Kung.
Occasionally, Na T'o Kung has a shrine to himself. A very rough but adequate shrine, for example, stands at the edge of a rubber estate near Labis in Johore, Malaysia. There is no image, no keeper nor nearby resident, only a tablet, and an urn filled with the stub ends of consumed incense sticks.
A sketch by a Fukienese god carver in Singapore (plate 1) depicts Na T'o as a seated elderly man dressed in the cap, jacket and robes of the Malay, holding a walking stick in his right hand and a pipe in his left. He has a dark skinned face with a short moustache and is described as the "Malay Landowner Gentleman”. Some places have him swathed in white “arab” robes, and some images of him depict him clutching a book or writing materials in his left hand instead of a pipe.
There are several local versions of his origins. One of the more widespread is that he is the spirit of a popular, long dead Malay foreman on a rubber estate, a Haji named Osman. Another claims that he is the spirit of a long dead Arab, the forebear of a major Malay family.
200
NOTES AND QUERIES
cap, the songkok. His inclusion is quite logical when you consider that the Chinese know that every location has its resident Ti Chu Kung (✯✯✯), the tutelary spirit of the building and its surroun- ding land. The immigrant Chinese appear to have accepted that the local Ti Chu Kung in a Malay area must be a Malay, and burnt incense and laid offerings before him, and prospered. His image is seen in many rural areas of Malaysia, in the niche within the en- trance to local temples or under the main altar, where in Chinese temples in other areas the tablet dedicated to the Chinese Ti Chu Kung usually would be found.
The usual title of the Malay, Ti Chu Kung, is Na To Kung (**), or Na-tuk, the Cantonese form of the Malay honorific title of Dato. In Fukienese and Ch'aochou communities in Malaysia he is also referred to by the same title, Na T'o, but using the characters 哪卓 and 藍卓.
In many parts of Malaysia nowadays Na T'o Kung's image, or a rock dedicated to him, stands beside or near an image of the Chinese Earth God. This is not unexpected as in temples elsewhere, such as Hong Kong and Taiwan, the image of or the tablet dedicated to the Earth God would be beside or certainly separate from the tablet dedicated to the Ti Chu Kung.
Occasionally, Na T'o Kung has a shrine to himself. A very rough but adequate shrine, for example, stands at the edge of a rubber estate near Labis in Johore, Malaysia. There is no image, no keeper nor nearby resident, only a tablet, and an urn filled with the stub ends of consumed incense sticks.
A sketch by a Fukienese god carver in Singapore (plate 1) de- picts Na T'o as a seated elderly man dressed in the cap, jacket and robes of the Malay, holding a walking stick in his right hand and a pipe in his left. He has a dark skinned face with a short mous- tache and is described as the "Malay Landowner Gentleman”. Some places have him swathed in white “arab” robes, and some images of him depict him clutching a book or writing materials in his left hand instead of a pipe.
There are several local versions of his origins. One of the more widespread is that he is the spirit of a popular, long dead Malay foreman on a rubber estate, a Haji named Osman. Another claims that he is the spirit of a long dead Arab, the forebear of a major Malay family.
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