Open Collections

God of Heaven (土地公) Floor Altar in 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 God of Heaven's (土地公) floor altar next to the Xuanwu (玄武) altar in the Niao Shi Temple (鳥石寺). Image 01 shows an overview. In front of the altar is a golden censer with incense and Chinese "Golden Flowers" (金花) placed inside. There is a red bow tied around the censer. The Chengyu (成語), or four character idiom, on these golden flowers reads from top to bottom, 財源廣進 "abundant financial resources pouring in." In front of the altar is a prayer mat (not pictured). On either side of the altar alcove are three sets of Fu lions, or 石獅. Image 02 shows the figures on top of the alcove, featuring two different sets of the Sanxing (三星) deities, Fu, Lu, and Shou (福祿壽), gods of fortune, prosperity, and longevity. On the bottom right of the picture is either water or tea offerings. Image 03 shows a close-up of the altar alcove, which includes many of the Father of Heaven figures. The frontmost deity has a hand-written inscription on the bottom, reading 土地公神位 from left to right, referring to the Earth God, and the figure to its rights has an inscription which reads, 地主爺, referring to the deity's name. There are lanterns hung from the top of the alcove on either side, with the characters, 有富貴, meaning "have wealth and prosperity." Image 04 and Image 05 show close-ups of the back of the alcove and the main altar figure. The top inscription reads, 泰福中, in which the 泰 refers to Thailand (泰國) and the 中 refers to China (中國), and that both should have prosperity (福). The characters on the left and right are cut off, but they begin with 日進千鄉寶 on the right, as part of this couplet 日進千鄉寶，時招萬里財 (on the left), which guarantees wealth in the future. Metadata created and compiled by: Kira Johansen

Bangkok (Thailand); 13.719533; 100.482269

chi

Cluster 3.4: Typologies of Text-Image Relations

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0441497

Non UBC

Faculty; Graduate; Undergraduate

DSpace