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Opera Stage in the Courtyard of the Nanpu Temple (南埔宮)(ศาลเจ้าแม่อาเหนียว)

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

The Nanpu Temple (南埔宮) (ศาลเจ้าแม่อาเหนียว) is a one-room Guanyin 觀音 temple in Bangkok, Thailand. According to the temple caretaker, the temple is over two hundred years old and is one of the five oldest shrines in Bangkok. It was originally constructed from the wood of the boats used to by China immigrants who moved into this neighborhood in Thailand. The temple is open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. The temple has regular chanting groups of mostly women that come every Thursday and chant in Chinese. The temple is run by a committee, but the name and nature of the organization is largely unknown; the temple caretaker said that the committee members are picked from the neighborhood using divination tactics and visit the temple only once a month. The temple caretaker specified that the majority of the people who live in the immediate proximity of the temple are family, and that they are "descendants of Guanyin." It is unclear whether he meant descendants from those who established the Guanyin shrine or literally descendants of Guanyin herself. He continually referred to the community around the shrine by this name. The temple is also said to have a decent amount of tourist activity. Fieldwork participants visited two times over the course of 2023. During the first visit in May of 2023, the temple caretaker made specific note to bring attention to the valuable incense pots given by King Rama V or King Chulalongkorn (จุฬาลงกรณ์) (1853-1910)(1868-1910), as well as antique ceramic plates from China that they held in their cupboard. Many people offer to buy these items, but the caretaker never dared to sell them, believing that his fate would be similar of the two past temple caretakers, who Guanyin supposedly took in their sleep as they were cheating the temple out of donation money. When fieldwork participants visited again in December 2023, however, these items had vanished. The following images show the courtyard and the performance/opera stage outside of the Nanpu Temple(南埔宮). Image 01 shows an overview of the courtyard standing from the perspective of the temple front, featuring parked motorcycles and bikes, as well as the inhabitants of the surrounding houses. The opera stage can be seen in the background with stacked plastic chairs atop of it and a multi-colored triangle banner. The opera stage's main purpose is to give performances to Guanyin, and is more than one hundred years old. The temple caretaker specified that every November, performance groups from Northern Thailand come and perform at various temples throughout Thailand. The temple pays the performance troupe roughly 35,000 baht ฿ for two nights of performances, all funded largely by money from donors. The performance is the same for both nights and the caretaker stated that "every shrine has two nights." The temple caretaker noted that those whose wishes are granted by Guanyin come back to screen one Chinese, one Western-style, and one Thai movie for her as a three-night package. There are various stone tables and benches for sitting. Red lanterns hang from the metal covering and feature auspicious phrases or four character idioms known as chengyu (成語). The temple caretaker specified that during the Ghost Festival, which occurs every year for a month starting on the 15th day of the 7th lunar month, dried food is placed atop these stone tables to "give to ghosts who do not have a family." Image 02 shows the right side of the courtyard, featuring another altar table and the paper burner behind. Metadata created and compiled by: Kira Johansen and Saly Sirothphiphat.

Bangkok (Thailand); 13.721964; 100.492967

chi; tha; eng

Cluster 3.4: Typologies of Text-Image Relations

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0443925

Non UBC

Faculty; Graduate; Undergraduate

DSpace