Open Collections

Stone Donor Plaque on the Right Wall 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 stone donor plaque on the right wall of the Nanpu Temple (南埔宮). Image 01 shows an overview. Image 02 shows the left side, reading甲寅年十二月廾三日南埔宮委員會立, which may refer to either 1914 or 1974 in the 60 year cycle. Next to this inscription begins a series of donor names in Thai and Chinese. Image 03 and Image 04 show the middle sections, which have donor names in Chinese and Image 05 shows the right side. The rightmost inscription reads from top to bottom, 修建委員會芳名表. Image 06 shows an overview of the plaques next to the larger one. The smaller plaque above this reads พ.ต.ท. ปรีดา - นันทนา ล้อแก้ว นคร - วัลลภา ปฐมวัฒน คุณ เดือนเพ็ญ วิซิตตระการ บูรณะเมี่อ สิงหาดม 2533 This identifies the names of four donors, the first one being a police lieutenant. It also specifies the dates which is the 2533rd year in the Buddhist calendar (佛歷) and 1990 in the Gregorian Calendar. Below this there are two "Plush Sticker" pictures with vases and flowers in them. Image 07 shows the yellow plaque to its right in Thai, whose title in the large box reads, รๅยชิ่อผู้บริจาค ต่อเติมโครงหลังคาศาลเจ้าแม่อาเหนียว, meaning "The list of donors who added the roof structure to the Chao Mae Ah Niao Shrine." Below that lists the donor names and donor amounts in list form. On the small box to the right, the title reads, รายชิ่อผู้บริจาค เดินสายโครงหลังคาใหม่ ศาลเจ้าแม่อาเหนียว This translated means, "The list of donors who added the wiring for the new roof frame of the Ah Niao Goddess Shrine." Below this are the donor names and donor amounts in list form. Image 08 shows a close-up of the "Plush Sticker." These can be seen hanging in various places throughout the temple. 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

10.14288/1.0443938

Non UBC

Faculty; Graduate; Undergraduate

DSpace