46
offered entertainments similar to those offered to deified humans such as opera, banquets and regular meals with tea and wine. Offerings to Pestilence Wang Yeh usually consist of incense, oil, tea, wine, cakes, cooked rice, vegetables and fruit and never meat, poultry or fish. In a number of temples images of the Pestilence Wang Yeh have 'hell money' placed under them, though this is possibly due to the devotees' desire to please and appease every god in the temple irrespective of their role.
Seances are held in some Pestilence Wang Yeh temples with a medium communing with the Wang Yeh himself to discover the cause of a specific disease; that is, what the actual demonic attack consists of, so that the devotee may take all the necessary precautions.
Some spirit mediums in Pestilence Wang Yeh temples perform their rituals and exorcisms under the watchful eye of the image or images of Wang Yeh brought to the temples by devotees from their own home altars.
Pestilence Wang Yeh have also been seen in temples in Kiangsi province bordering northern Fukien, though no reference to them in other areas adjacent to Fukien province has been noted in native or foreign travel or religious books.
The dates of Pestilence Wang Yeh festivals vary from temple to temple though a popular date is the 26th of the fourth lunar month; another is the 15th of the eighth lunar month. Each year during the fifth lunar month festival a 'plague boat' (Wang Ch'uan) made of paper or, in large communities, of wood, is laden with captured demonic spirits (the cause of disease) and pushed out to sea or set afire on the shore. This is a three-day event during which the Wang Yeh are entertained and feasted before the boats are despatched in flames together with their passengers, the demons. In practice images of the Wang Yeh and their wooden tablets remain in the temple and nowadays only paper tablets bearing the name of the Wang Yehs are despatched with the demons.
It has been the practice for a new small shrine to be set up in honour of the Wang Yeh wherever the boat drifts ashore. The Wang Yeh boat festival is rarely seen nowadays in Taiwan; it was popular elsewhere until fairly recently, for example it was seen in Malacca until the mid-thirties. In Malacca it was referred to as the Wang Kang and was held for the five days from the 21st of the tenth lunar month every
46
offered entertainments similar to those offered to deified humans such as opera, banquets and regular meals with tea and wine. Offerings to Pestilence Wang Yeh usually consist of incense, oil, tea, wine, cakes, cooked rice, vegetables and fruit and never meat, poultry or fish. In a number of temples images of the Pestilence Wang Yeh have 'hell money' placed under them, though this is possibly due to the devotees' desire to please and appease every god in the temple irrespective of their role.
Seances are held in some Pestilence Wang Yeh temples with a medium communing with the Wang Yeh himself to discover the cause of a specific disease; that is, what the actual demonic attack consists of, so that the devotee may take all the necessary precautions.
Some spirit mediums in Pestilence Wang Yeh temples perform their rituals and exorcisms under the watchful eye of the image or images of Wang Yeh brought to the temples by devotees from their own home altars.
Pestilence Wang Yeh have also been seen in temples in Kiangsi province bordering northern Fukien, though no reference to them in other areas adjacent to Fukien province has been noted in native or foreign travel or religious books.
The dates of Pestilence Wang Yeh festivals vary from temple to temple though a popular date is the 26th of the fourth lunar month; another is the 15th of the eighth lunar month. Each year during the fifth lunar month festival a 'plague boat' (Wang Ch'uan E) made of paper or, in large communities, of wood, is laden with captured demonic spirits (the cause of disease) and pushed out to sea or set afire on the shore. This is a three- day event during which the Wang Yeh are entertained and feasted before the boats are despatched in flames together with their passengers, the demons. In practice images of the Wang Yeh and their wooden tablets remain in the temple and nowadays only paper tablets bearing the name of the Wang Yehs are despatched with the demons.
It has been the practice for a new small shrine to be set up in honour of the Wang Yeh wherever the boat drifts ashore. The Wang Yeh boat festival is rarely seen nowadays in Taiwan; it was popular elsewhere until fairly recently, for example it was seen in Malacca until the mid- thirties. In Malacca it was referred to as the Wang Kang (#) and was held for the five days from the 21st of the tenth funar month every
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.