Open Collections

Temple Caretaker's Desk within the Holy Guanyin Temple (觀音聖廟) (A Nia Keng Shrine ศาลเจ้า อาเบี้ย)

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 temple caretaker's desk. The caretaker specified that his position was hereditary, and he lives in the temple. The majority of his job consists of making candles and tea. Image 01 shows the temple caretaker at his desk. On the desk are pink sheets to record donations and donor names. Behind the desk are candles available for purchase as donations. Image 02 shows the lanterns above the caretaker's desk. Image 03 shows a close-up of these lanterns. The inscriptions on these lanterns read, 慈悲娘娘寶座 "The precious seat of the merciful Mother [Guanyin]," and feature flowers, fruits, birds, and figures playing instruments. Image 04 shows the Joss paper offerings (金紙) set on the ground next to the temple caretaker's desk. Metadata created by: Kira Johansen

Bangkok (Thailand); 13.74042; 100.5064

chi; tha

Cluster 3.4: Typologies of Text-Image Relations

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0441359

Non UBC

Faculty; Graduate; Undergraduate

DSpace