[
    {
        "id": 215322,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-2001",
        "page_number": 99,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "47\n\nShenggong and Li Shan Shengmu. Also noted in Hainanese temples in the vicinity of Kluang are Under Altars, usually connected with Cantonese temples, though again presumably \"borrowed\" by Hainanese. Only two such Under Altars have been noted - both are typically at floor level and contain spirits of tamed demons unfit to be honoured with places upon the main or side altars. Finally, not too uncommon in Malaysia and Singapore where ethnic communities live cheek by jowl, a dark-skinned deity in the Hainanese temple in Jalan Pindu in Singapore was identified as General Supramaniam, placed there by a local Tamil and with the usual tolerance of Chinese devotees, though not revered by them, he has incense placed before him by passing Chinese devotees who realise and accept that he is a foreign deity and not of the Chinese pantheon.\n\nFrom 1949 until the late 1980s folk religion images were banned and removed from altars within China and therefore Hainanese deities have had to be researched mainly within overseas Chinese communities. To carry out the necessary research on Hainanese temples and gods it has been necessary to visit as many of the temples run by and in Hainanese communities outside China, mainly concentrated in Singapore, southern Malaysia and Cambodia. The regular visits to temples in Singapore over a period of years revealed changes within the temple community which would not have been apparent under normal circumstances. Accepting that the circumstances were unique in that the Singaporean authorities forced the resettlement of old and especially 'temporary matshed or corrugated iron' temples to the suburbs in the targeted population relocation of the sixties and seventies, a good example of the change was the resiting in 1984 of an atap hut temple, the oldest Hainanese community temple, in Lorong Ah Soo to a custom-built complex in Hougang Avenue 5. The layout of the altar images in the new Hainanese temple was unchanged as reflected in black and white photographs taken in Lorong Ah Soo in the late fifties and colour photographs taken in Hougang in 1985. The four custom-built temples, one of which is the Hainanese re-located temple, consist of a terraced row of four brick buildings, similar to two-car garages but with high ceilings and much wider than a standard garage.\n\nIn the years up to the 1950s not only did the diversity of language amongst the overseas Chinese in south-east Asia [Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien and Chaozhou, as well as Hainanese] impose a real barrier",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215336,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-2001",
        "page_number": 113,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "dressed in robes and a scholar's tile cap. The eyes are rounder than those of Guan Gong and they have a pink face, though they are sitting holding an open book in the left hand as does Guan Gong. The other versions are, in general, standard seated scholar-officials, with black beards and holding, in one case a seal in his left hand, and in the others a sword or fly switch in his right. In four of the images he is wearing Daoist robes decorated with the bagua signs. In every temple his image is flanked by two anonymous military attendants.\n\nImages of the Plum Blossom Immortal have no unique characteristics and vary considerably from temple to temple. Two depict him seated, and at first glance looking somewhat like Guan Gong, dressed in robes and a scholar's tile cap. The eyes are rounder than those of Guan Gong and they have a pink face, though they are sitting holding an open book in the left hand as does Guan Gong. The other versions are, in general, standard seated scholar-officials, with black beards and holding, in one case a seal in his left hand, and in the others a sword or fly switch in his right. In four of the images he is wearing Daoist robes decorated with the bagua signs. In every temple his image is flanked by two anonymous military attendants.\n\nHis festival is celebrated annually on the 20th of the ninth lunar month and his full title copied off one of the temple notice boards is Shangqing Sanwu Mei Xian Yuan Zhangui dongxian Zhang Dadi 上清三五梅仙院斬鬼洞仙張大帝,\n\nd] The Loyal and Fierce Marquis, Zhonglie Houwang 忠烈侯王, was a secondary image on the main altar in a rural hut-temple in Singapore. He was paired with Wenzhou Houwang 溫州侯王 and sat on an ornamental chair on Wenzhou Houwang's left hand side, holding in his right hand a jade-like sceptre identical with the one Wenzhou Houwang is holding in his right hand [May the State Prosper and the People Enjoy Peace]. Little was known about Zhonglie Houwang apart from a hazy memory from one of the temple elders that he had been a famous village headman many, many years earlier, his personal names now lost in time.\n\ne) A page in a loose-leaf book kept by the temple custodian in a small atap1 Hainanese temple in Lorong Ah Soo in Singapore listed the titles of the five deities [*] and nine minor spirits or aides [#] revered by devotees, some understood to be portrayed in image form on the temple altars whilst the majority were simply known by their titles and",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    }
]