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Middle Section of the Holy Guanyin Temple (觀音聖廟) (A Nia Keng Shrine ศาลเจ้า อาเบี้ย), Featuring Donor Candles

From the Ground Up: Buddhism & East Asian Religions (FROGBEAR Project)

The Holy Guanyin Temple (觀音聖廟) (A Nia Keng Shrine ศาลเจ้า อาเบี้ย) is a Buddhist temple in Bangkok, Thailand. It is unknown when this temple was constructed, but the last renovations took place in 1992. The temple was constructed with the wood from boats coming from China, and Chinese craftsmen were brought over to construct it without nails and screws - everything was carved to fit into place. It was originally a place for sailors to come and stay temporarily, and they slept on the floor of the temple. Before the 1992 renovations, there were originally two levels of the temple, but since the temple has experienced various bouts of water damage incurred from flooding, it now is just sequestered to the top level. According to the temple caretaker, the neighborhood has experienced quite a lot of fires, and the temple itself has suffered from fires, but since they have instructed templegoers to pray outward "for the community," rather than pray "facing towards the deity," the temple has not experienced a single fire. The temple caretaker noted this temple is particularly special, because it is one of two temples in the Bangkok area which features the main deity as Guanyin (觀音) sitting on a lotus. The temple is managed by a committee of five different families who are owners of different shops in the area; the membership of the committee is hereditary, and this hereditary membership was supposedly established during the reign of King Rama III (1788-1851). While many different types of Chinese people frequent the temple, the temple caretaker noted that Teochew Chinese (Deung Nang 唐人) (ชาวเถิง) and Hakka Chinese (客家) (ฮักกา) people are the most prevalent. The following images show the middle section of the temple, focusing on the middle table with donor candles (Image 01, Image 02, Image 03). In front of the candles is a small bowl with Phuang Malai, or Thai Flower Offerings (พวงมาลัย). Image 04 and Image 05 show the table from the back perspective. The cloth hanging from the table reads from right to left, 答謝神恩, meaning to "repay divine grace" and features depictions of dragons and flowers. Behind the large yellow donor candles are many smaller candle holders. Image 06 shows a close-up of the large yellow candles. Image 07 shows a close-up of the donor slips pasted onto the bottom of the candles. This slip in particular has wishes for good health and amassing fortunes. Image 08 and Image 09 show more close-ups. Interestingly, the donor slips in Image 09 include Thai and English names - the English names reading “DRYDYE, YG” and “ZS INTERNATIONAL BEE BOX PRINTING CO., LTD,” respectively. Some of the donor slips are handwritten with pen and some are computer-printed. Image 10 shows an example of a computer-typed donor slip. Image 11 shows the items on the back right of the table, which consists of a kettle and jugs filled with melted candle wax leftovers. Image 12 shows the plastic-covered chandelier above these candles. Image 13 shows the hanging lanterns on the right side of the table, and Image 14 shows the hanging lanterns on the left side of the table. Metadata created and compiled by: Kira Johansen

Bangkok (Thailand); 13.74042; 100.5064

chi; tha; eng

Cluster 3.4: Typologies of Text-Image Relations

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0441358

Non UBC

Faculty; Graduate; Undergraduate

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