Open Collections

Right Side of the Upper Patio Area of 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 right side of the upper level of the patio (Image 01). Image 02 shows a closer view of the inscription to the right of the door, reading in large characters from top to bottom, 觀音居竹林幾百世凈域修真慧覺參成成菩薩, meaning "Guanyin resided in the bamboo forest for several hundred generations in this pure region, she practiced true realization and to become a bodhisattva" referring to the origin story of Guanyin, and her becoming a bodhisattva. The smaller characters on the right read, 佛曆 二五三五年歲次任申梅月吉立 from top to bottom, meaning the "2535th year of the Buddhist calendar, the plum month [April] of the Renshen year, auspiciously established." Next to that are paintings depicting flowers, birds, peaches on the top (Image 03 and Image 04), and a painting of a chital, a tree, and mountains in the background. Image 05 shows the painting on the right-most wall featuring another guardian deity holding a ring and riding a dragon. The inscription on the top reads, 公元一九九二年四月十五日, referring to April 5th of 1992, in the Gregorian calendar. The very left writing identifies the name of the painter, 羅耀坤绘. Image 06 shows paintings on the wall of the right side of the patio featuring birds, blossoms, flowers, and fruit. The very top painting depicts a narrative with two figures. Image 07 shows the window in the middle of the patio wall with paintings of fruit above it. Image 08 shows the painting below the window, featuring dragons and another mythological animal/protector, which may be a Pixiu (貔貅) with the character “王” on its head. Image 09 shows the topmost narrative painting, featuring three figures. Metadata created and compiled by: Kira Johansen

Bangkok (Thailand); 13.74042; 100.5064

chi

Cluster 3.4: Typologies of Text-Image Relations

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0441352

Non UBC

Faculty; Graduate; Undergraduate

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