Open Collections

Temple Doors 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 temple doors of the Nanpu Temple (南埔宮) depicting Guanyin 觀音. The temple caretaker was very adamant that these doors were among the most unique features of the temple; he said that those who maintain the temple are happy when tourists take pictures so that "the world knows she is really sacred." The caretaker noted that they close the door so that Guanyin can watch performances and operas at the stage opposite the temple. To place a theater stage or opera opposite the temple for Guanyin to "watch" the performances seems to be a prevalent feature of Chinese Guanyin temples in Bangkok. The doors themselves are special, because they are made of one piece of wood and have no screws; therefore the wood was carved so that the doors could rotate without the need for hinges. Image 01 and Image 02 show an overview of the doors when they are closed, and Guanyin is facing the outside. There are only subtle differences between the clothing of the image of Guanyin on each door, but other than these details the paintings are more or less identical. Image 03 shows the right door opened to the inside. The Chinese character on Guanyin's dress is 福, meaning "blessing" or "good fortune." Image 04 shows the left door opened to the inside. The Chinese character on Guanyin's dress here is seems to be related to 壽. Metadata created and compiled by: Kira Johansen.

Bangkok (Thailand); 13.721964; 100.492967

chi; tha

Cluster 3.4: Typologies of Text-Image Relations

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0443933

Non UBC

Faculty; Graduate; Undergraduate

DSpace