Open Collections

Right Patio Area of the Niao Shi Temple (鳥石寺) (ศาลเจ้า โอวเจียะ หยี่อาเนี้ยเก็ง) (Sanchao O Jia Yi Ania Keng)

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

The Niao Shi Temple (鳥石寺) (ศาลเจ้า โอวเจียะ หยี่อาเนี้ยเก็ง) (Sanchao O Jia Yi Ania Keng) is a Guanyin (觀音) temple in a quiet neighborhood in Bangkok, Thailand. According to the temple caretaker, the temple was established 200 years ago by Teochew Chinese (唐人) (ชาวเถิง) people. The temple is run by a committee whose membership is passed hereditarily, but at the time fieldwork participants visited in May 2023, there was only one surviving committee member, whom the temple caretaker deemed "too old to walk." The temple is known in the neighborhood for effecting miracles. The caretaker told participants stories of how people who wish to sell their land bring signs reading "SOLD" and leave it in the temple, and then their property is sold, after which the templegoers come back and burn the sales certificate. Some other templegoers claimed that they put the names of ill family members under Guanyin altar, and their family members miraculously recovered. It was said that the CEO of a large grocery store chain called Makro came to pray at this temple when he was a taxi driver, and as he regularly prayed, he became more and more wealthy. He now returns to the temple once a month to donate and help the caretaker renovate certain spaces. There are two regular chanting groups of roughly 60-70 people who frequent the temple. The groups are made up of both older men and women who wear white and speak Chinese. Each of these groups comes around only once a month. The temple is open from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. everyday. The following images show the right patio area of the Niao Shi Temple (鳥石寺) (Image 01). On the table in the middle of the picture, there are various objects for donation and purchase, including large candles and incense sticks. The pillars flanking this table have the same cloud and golden dragon motifs that are depicted on the rest of the pillars in the temple grounds. The lanterns hung from the ceiling have the inscriptions 恭喜發財 "Congratulations and prosperity" and 財源演進 "Wealth flows in abundance." In this section, there are also papers to make donation scrolls. The temple caretaker instructed fieldwork participants to make a donation and then write their names and dates of birth on the papers. Once written, the temple caretaker assured the fieldwork participants that they will "pray and chant" the names to enhance the possibilities for good luck, health, and wealth for the full year before they burn the papers. In the back of this section of the temple, there is a Buddha figure with a golden 佛 above it, meaning "Buddha." Image 02 shows a closer perspective of this. This deity's name is Phra Sankajai, who is often confused with the monk Budai (布袋), often venerated as the Maitreya Buddha. Phra Sankajai was a disciple of Gautama Buddha, and is often pictured sitting atop a lotus flower, as he is in this picture. The lotus flower is blue, and he has monks' beads, malas (佛珠) placed around his neck. Metadata created and compiled by: Kira Johansen and Saly Sirothphiphat

Bangkok (Thailand); 13.719533; 100.482269

chi; tha

Cluster 3.4: Typologies of Text-Image Relations

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0441491

Non UBC

Faculty; Graduate; Undergraduate

DSpace