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Mazu (媽祖) Altar in the Nanpu Temple (南埔宮) (ศาลเจ้าแม่อาเหนีย)

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 Mazu (媽祖) altar in the back right corner of the Nanpu Temple (南埔宮) (Image 01). Mazu is a Chinese goddess particularly efficacious in providing protection for sea travel and is popular among fishermen and sailors. Her imagery is often found in the regions of southern China and Taiwan. The table in front of the altar reads, 風調雨順 "wishes for favorable weather for crops." In front of this altar is a mat for prayer (not pictured). Image 02 shows the items atop the island, including pink peonies, three tea offerings, an a large black censer with a pink bow, and Chinese "Golden Flower" (金花) offerings and decorated incense placed inside. The temple caretaker specified that one week before the Chinese New Year, they change out these golden flowers, and burn the old ones. The inscription on the middle red incense stick reads 生意興隆, meaning "prosperity in business or trade," and has a pagoda above the characters. Image 03 shows a closer perspective of the altar. Top inscription reads, 天后聖母, meaning Queen and Mother of Heaven, (compare Vietnamese: Bà Thiên Hậu/婆天后). It can also be "Heavenly Empress" or "Holy Mother." The inscription on the right reads, 天心育物聖恩普, and the inscription on the left reads, 后力平波母德宏, although it is not entirely clear whether these are read separately from top to bottom, or together horizontally. Image 04 shows a closer image of Mazu, and the deities and guardians that surround her. The orange plaque reads,福祿壽, which may refer to the Sanxing Deities (三星), or "Three Stars." They are the gods of Jupiter, Ursa Major, and Canopus, or Fu Lu Shou. They are associated with wealth and prosperity. The red plaque under it reads, เจ้าแม่ทับทิม, which refers to Mazu, who is called the "Ruby Goddess" in Thai. Flanking Mazu are two guardian protector deities called the "Thousand-Mile Eye" (千里眼) (left) and "Wind-Listening Ear" (順風耳) (right), from the Journey to the West (西遊記真詩), and associated with the deity Nezha (哪吒). On the left side (Image 05), there are three Guanyin statues, flowers, and another large Golden Flower offering. On the right of the box in Image 06 are more flowers, and three golden trays, one of which is filled with multicolored beads. In the background there are depictions of a crane carrying an item in its mouth, and flowers. Image 07 shows the plaque above this altar, which reads 海不揚波, "the sea does not raise waves." Below the plaque are various narrative paintings. Metadata created and compiled by: Kira Johansen.

Bangkok (Thailand); 13.721964; 100.492967

chi; tha; eng

Cluster 3.4: Typologies of Text-Image Relations

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0443937

Non UBC

Faculty; Graduate; Undergraduate

DSpace