Open Collections

Front Altar Island 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 front altar island inside of the Nanpu Temple (南埔宮) (Image 01). The inscription on the front of the island reads, 合眾平安 "may everybody be peaceful and prosperous," and there are depictions of various fruits in between the characters, including peaches and Buddha's hand fruit. Below that are two mirrored dragons. Image 02 shows a perspective of this island from the back. Image 03 shows the items on the right side of the island, featuring Joss paper offerings (金紙), a vase with peonies and various other flowers, and booklets. On the very right is a small teapot with an image of a dragon on it. Image 04 shows the items on the left side of the altar island, including more flowers and Joss paper offerings. The lanterns on the left side of the room read,慈悲娘娘寶座 "Jeweled Seat of the Merciful Mother Guanyin," 諸位福神寶座 "Precious Seat for the Deities of Good Fortune," and 觀世音薩寶座 "Jeweled Seat of the Bodhisattva Guanyin." As well as 丙甲年吉 and 南無阿弥陀佛 “Devotion to Amitabha Buddha" and 何秋海, 廖國興, which are both donor names, followed by the tag 合家喜敬, "meaning "respectfully donated to all." Image 05 shows the lanterns on the left of the island. Image 06 shows the booklets to the left of the island, reading หนังสือบทสวดมนต์ บ้านสัปปายะธรรม. Image 07 shows the three rice and three tea offerings in the middle of the island. Image 08 shows the lanterns on the right side of the island, which have the same inscriptions as the lanterns on the left side. Image 09 and Image 10 show the lanterns on the left side of the island. The inscriptions on the lanterns in these images read the same as the other lanterns in this area of the temple. Image 11 shows the beams on the left side of this section of the temple, with painted depictions of flowers and other foliage. Image 12 shows the ceiling beams on the right side of this section of the temple. Image 13 shows the ceiling of this section of the temple; the top beam has a dragon painted on it. 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

10.14288/1.0443941

Non UBC

Faculty; Graduate; Undergraduate

DSpace