A Taoist Funeral Experience

My late father-in-law breathed his last on 8th October 2013 after suffering from leukemia and some other complications for several years. He has been in and out of hospitals for the last 4 years including seeking herbal treatments in China. He was just 64 years old and sadly, that's a bit too young to go. I will miss his wits and humours.

He had requested to be accorded with the rites of the old fashioned Chinese Taosim funeral after he had passed on. It was a real eye opener for me to observe this whole ritual ceremony that spread over 3 days in this dainty town of Kampar, in Perak. I have previously attended many modern and smaller scaled Taoism rite funerals but this recent one was being carried out with almost to the fullest scale that sent my eyes big.

 My photos are very limited as no one in this superstitious clan would ever dream of taking photos, let alone to even blog it like me. So I photographed them without anyone's knowledge.

1. If the deceased had passed away outside the home ie. hospital, the coffin would normally be placed outside their home's compund or at funeral parlours.

2. We hired several Taoist Monks (Namo Lou) to conduct various ceremonies and chantings in Cantonese dialect. The many ceremonies covered different criteria including the deceased crossing the death bridge, sickness clearance, blessings and many more which required the family members to kneel, bow and walk in circles for many hours each day amidst the clashing of Chinese cymbals, drums and beating gongs very loudly.

 3. The family even bought him a huge paper mansion complete with maids, Assstro and a sports car. Do you believe that these costly paper offerings for the dead will reach them? I would say the answer is both Yes and No, if you could try to understand that the departed souls are in their frequency form and it's only our thoughts and prayers of frequency form could reach them. So the departed may receive our thoughts of any form. Some who did not receive could be burning in the bottomless hell's realm.

 4. The funeral had a band too and the diva could croon out very sad & eerie songs that gave me goose bumps. This band later followed the funeral procession where they blew loud trumpets with the clashing of cymbals & huge drums being played.

 5. The minimum days to keep the deceased before funeral would be 3 days, subject to the decisions made by the family. Some would follow up to one week or more. In modern Thailand today, a funeral could even take up to many months! The above photo was the hearse which transported my father in law. The funeral took off at 10:00am after many rounds of last paying respects ceremony by the immediate family, relatives, friends and business associates.

 6. I am the only son in law and had to lead the whole procession by walking right in front with red cloth banner slung across my shoulder. I had to pay the carrier RM150 to parade the tall banner written with my name while I trailed behind him for some 3 kilometers journey!

It was the longest funeral procession I have ever attended in my life! The hearse left the home atop Kampar's Golden Dragon Hill and winded its way down to the main street. The hearse made its sombre journey across the 3 mains streets from one end of the town until the other end, passing the big fields, markets, lakes and all the business establishments.

7. The morning procession halted the traffics and attracted hundreds of curious passers by who were attracted by the loud band playing funeral songs. Of course, everyone had a good stare at me for leading the whole long procession that spanned some 50 metres. I kept flipping my hair back and wiped my greasy forehead sweats to make sure I looked handsome and smart. Ahem!

We all ended up at the new cemetery outside the town. The Namo Lou (Taoist Monk) conducted the final rites which included the tossing of a live chicken sacrifice-ritual over the grave!!! It gave me terrible goose bumps and spine chills to hear the poor chicken balking loudly "Kiok-Kiok-Kiok-Kiok"...! I closed my eyes tightly and looked down.

The second son made decision not to let the Namo Lou wrangle the poor chicken's neck so the monk threw the chicken at my brother-in-law to catch and release. The chicken had a new lease of life.

The End.

Men's Health Run 2013

When our celebrity Running Queen Lina alerted me to sign up the Men's Health Run, I was too late to dream of participating in the 12km Run. It was all snapped up so fast! Never mind, my honey & I still joined the 5km Fun Run. Actually, I was very greedy for their fabulous Goodie-Bags and this event was my 3rd time joining the fun at Putrajaya, never mind the light rain!

(Pix 1) I thought I could fool everyone about appearing on the magazine cover! Lina teased me that I was too big sized and probably fell out of the front page! Malu lah! Muahahahahahaha!....

(Pix 2) There were many usual stalls selling booster stuffs related to the running lifestyles like cleansers, corn flakes, drinks, gymnasium, slimming stuffs, minyak urut and even kasut! GO LIKE NEVER BEFORE! It was the first time I saw this kasut's products and they were so light & colourful. I could be seen 1 mile away wearing them.

(Pix 3) Fitness First had a booth which was very popular. It looked as if most runners are already members! So the FF easily rounded them up to lie down for a very tough competition of endurance!

(Pix 4) So many fellas freaked out and went flat kaput on the floor in 2 minutes. This friend still showed his thumbs up!

(Pix 5) This competition attracted the most crowd including the 2 clowns to cheer on after 4 minutes has passed! It was so tough to hold their tummies so long!

(Pix 6) I came to cheer the oldest competitor who is over 50 years old. In the end, he WON!!!! All the other younger men with 6 abs and huge arm muscles fell flat after shaking vigorously in trance.  It was not easy okay.

(Pix 7) This Kasut-Man walked everywhere and attracted many ladies to pose in front!

(Pix 8) My honey preferred to kick the Kasut-Man from behind. Ouch!

(Pix 9) Suddenly, the skies went dark and it started to drizzle lightly making the 7000+ runners worried. The 12km participants were flagged off at 8pm and followed by the 5km runners at 8.20pm.

(Pix 10) Putrajaya is only beautiful at night. I always disliked driving around in the heavy traffic during office hours as I often got lost in big circles trying to locate the Ministry's buildings and offices. Bluek!

(Pix 11) It is very romantic to walk across this lover's bridge which Tun M wanted to create our very own "Pont Alexandre III" bridge in Paris...

(Pix 12) I was proudly declared the Champion Runner by the Ayam mascot. Here I was doing SK's Ah boy signature pose!

(Pix 13) Look at the nice Goodie Bags for ladies that comes in very thick canvas material with handles & draw strings!

(Pix 14) The men's Goodie Bag is also made of thick canvas with a rugged look! All the freebies came along with a free magazine, milk, oitment, shampoo, calendar, water bottle and etc.

 

(Pix 15) We were given free Milo drinks, foodies, bananas and this very yummy delicious cookie from TOUS les JOURS! Oh boy, I have to head over to their  bakery soon as I really love this big sized heavenly cookie. Have you been to their newly opened bakery in Bangsar??

Dizang Wang Temple @ Mount Jiuhua

I am posting the final part of our recent climb around the 99 Peaks of Mount Jiuhua which has over 90 temples. We barely covered half the journey and the total number of temples. Both our legs were very sore and ached to the spine & bones! We hope to have the fate to return some day to cover all.

Photo 1: Mount Jiuhua is one of the four sacred mountains of Chinese Buddhism. It is located in Qingyang County in Anhui Province and is famous for its rich Landscapes, old Pine Trees and ancient Temples

Photo 2: Many of the mountain's shrines and temples are dedicated to Ksitigarbha (known in Chinese as Dìzàng, Chinese:  地藏, in Japanese as Jizo ), who is a Bodhisattva and protector of beings in Hell Realms according to Mahayana Buddhist tradition. Pious Buddhists often visit Anhui to climb to Greater Tiantai peak, which is regarded as Jiuhuashan's most important peak, although it is not the tallest.

 

Photo 3: When we were up in the mountains, we discovered many surprises of this Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha. 

He was born a Royal Prince from Korea and traveled all the way to China long before the first Qin Dynasty. 

Photo 4: He lived in the mountains of Mount Jiuhua and led the life of a monk doing cultivations daily throughout all his lifetime.

Photo 5: His 2 large foot prints were etched on the granite rock's surface after doing cultivation on the same spot for over 70 years. We were even more surprised to know that the body and relics of this famous monk was being kept inside a Pagoda of another temple elsewhere.

Photo 6: We quickly went around in circles to find our way to that sacred temple and found it being atop another small hill. This is the entrance.

Photo 7: Many followers knelt at every step they made, all the way up to the temple where the relics and body of Dizang Wang is being kept.

Photo 8: The temple was not the biggest on the mountains but it was definitely the most popular with the worshipers from all over the world.

Photo 9: This is the door to the entrance of the temple which had limited space inside. It houses all the hell realm's deities flanking both sides of the pagoda in the middle. Inside the pagoda is where the body of Dizang Wang lies.

Photo 10: Deity officers of the Hell's Realms flanked on the left side.

Photo 11: Deity officers of the Hell's Realms flanked on the right side.

Photo 12: This is the sacred Pagoda in the centre. The space is extremely very limited for the entire photography shots. We clasped our hands and walked around the pagoda chanting his name hundreds of times.

Photo 13: We felt very good after paying our homage there before walking many jolly hours down the mountains without taking the cable car at all. We wanted to enjoy the sights and smell of the cool Spring weather.

Photo 14: I really had a marvelous and happy time there walking across many little temples, farms, water streams and small villages.

Ancient Canals In Suzhou

We were supposed to visit Wuzhen where the Chinese folks still live by the ancient canals and run their daily chores in the laid back atmosphere. We had to miss it as it was too faraway from Shanghai.

We took this high speed train and went to Suzhou instead in less than 2 hours! We got off at the wrong station which was a highly industrialized areas of Suzhou. Look at all the green bicycles for rent! We took a taxi to the ancient canal areas which are located in 2 different spots. Look at how the taxi drivers shielded themselves from being bashed, knifed and even spat on!!!

 

This was the first touristy spot where we visited. It had rows of souvenir shops with an ancient garden and museum. The folks and youngsters were seen gambling openly by the roadsides. 

The fruit seller was selling mangoesteen and berries! 

Sorry for my blurry photos which became like that after grouping them.

This was the BEST FOOD I had in my whole trip in China. It was their native's Tau Foo Fah which added with light soya sauce and sprinkled with spring onions, dried shrimps, Pickled Chai-Por and etc. It was so heavenly unusual to eat tau Foo Fah that way.

I went to the museum because it was FREE entrance.

 I was very impressed by the huge size of the mansion with so many court yards which belonged to some high ranking magnates during the ancient times.
I was very disappointed with the old artifacts and antiques inside as they were boring stuffs.

Later we strolled along the canal banks and browsed through the many interesting shops.

 The mirror reflected-like canals looked nice with spring flowers everywhere!

 This must be the most popular Lover's Bridge as everyone fought tooth and nails to snap photos!
Look at my honey up there!

 Even wedding couples would come to pose with their studio photographers and crew in tow.
Look at her shocking red dress!!!
SO MERAH & HOT!

I stopped by this stall as the smell of the fragrant buns could tickle my nostrils from a mile away! I bought these Lion's Paws and ate them hungrily.
OMG!! I NEARLY BROKE ALL MY FRONT TEETH!!!

I bound my hands and bought nothing as I knew my itchy hands could not stop buying endless souvenirs! I must visit Wuzhen in future as they hardly have commercial shops in that area and you could still see old folks playing Chinese chess under the pine trees there!

Mount Jiuhua (Jiuhuashan - China) Part 2

This is the Part 2 of my hike up to Mount Jiuhua in China. The biggest surprise I had was to discover that the body of Dayuan DiZang Wang Pusa (Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva) was being kept inside a big temple atop this auspicious mountain! Best of all, he was born a Prince from the palace in Korea and traveled to this mountain in China a few thousand years ago! I will post about this temple in the final part of Mount Jiuhua. The last 2 other coming posts will show the beauty of Suzhou's Ancient Canal Village and Shanghai's Yu Yuan Gardens & Museums. I promise I will not bore you with no ending posts of China - That's not me!

Mount Jiuhua has got 99 peaks and over 90 different temples scattered all over the mountain range. I think we managed to cover about over 50%.

 Everywhere I climbed, the nature's scenery was beautiful in Spring.
Happiness is all around us!

Who has not sinned in this world?
Many pilgrims went up the mountain by kneeling down upon making few steps to
repent for all their bad sins and karma. It was so painful.

I was happy to see the special rainbow lights radiated blessings at these pilgrims.

 The panoramic view was awesome and spectacular.

 The rocks were beautiful and unique to me.
Looking at the heavenly light beams made me a changed person.

 Some treks had steps while many parts were rugged paths on the boulders.

Here a chief monk was showing a VIP around. I thought he could be a Governor of Anhui's rank as his protective bodyguard's entourage was attracting much attention.

 

 This is LIFE! We can choose our own paths.

The Chinese hikers are very determined to scale the mountains to worship. 

They carried canes and babies along the risky paths. I am just like them, 

always taking risks in my life.

The Spring Flowers and cool breeze made my trip enjoyable otherwise the rocks would be plain boring.
So we should eat ice cream often to make ourselves happy!

 

 I spent a lot of time people-watching and appreciating the shapes & colours in the temples.

 This temple keeps all the ancient Sutra books inside.

 We have made a wish to return again someday to visit all the 90 temples.

 

 I love this Zen photo very much. 

It speaks a thousand words. The monk knew that I stared at him from far and took many photos of him 360 degrees.