Open Collections

Gold Donor Inscription 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 a donor inscription painted in gold on a wall inside the Niao Shi Temple (鳥石寺). Image 01 shows an overview. Image 02 shows a close-up of the Thai on top, with the first line reading, บริษัท ชมลิน 1995 จํากด, which likely refers to a donor company called Chomlin. Image 03 shows a close-up of the Chinese in the middle, which is a donor inscription relating to the 永發利有限公司 company. For another mention of this company, see the entry "Kau Cim Fortune Paper Stand Inside the Niao Shi Temple (鳥石寺) (ศาลเจ้า โอวเจียะ หยี่อาเนี้ยเก็ง) (Sanchao O Jia Yi Ania Keng)." The donors are all members of the Wang (王) family. Image 04 shows a close-up of the bottom, with the Thai on the left reading who the inscription is dedicated to. อทิศให้ คุณพ่อเต็กเพ้ง แซ่เจียม คุณเมไฯ้เอ็ง แซ่เตีย The Chinese on the right echoes the Thai. Metadata created and compiled by: Kira Johansen

Bangkok (Thailand); 13.719533; 100.482269

chi; tha

Cluster 3.4: Typologies of Text-Image Relations

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0441514

Non UBC

Faculty; Graduate; Undergraduate

DSpace