There are graves up on them yonder hills
Dec. 28th, 2002 11:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ilaiWe set out to Lingde Temple (靈德寺, Lingtek Si) in the area of the city called 六張犁 (Laktiunle/Liuzhangli) to pay respect to our ancestors on Saturday. Dad drove us there, as the temple rests along a mountainous path. Since the drizzling rain made the path somewhat treacherous, Dad decided it was better that we not go further up the mountain to visit Grandma's grave, so we stayed at the temple and burned incense for our ancestors and for Grandpa.
Tradition holds that even the dead need to eat once in a while, so we brought two boxes of fruits, canned fish, and other food. My brother and Mom set up red plates full of food for our ancestors in front of the ancestral tablet (靈牌/靈位, lingpai or lingwei), which had been taken off the shelves at the temple and placed on a small altar. In a separate storage area for ashes, Dad and I pulled out Grandpa's urn from a metal rack and set up his food on a card table. A few plates were also set up on the altar in the shrine of the Earth God (土地公/Tudigong/Thotikong).
The dead also need money to spend in the underworld, so we stacked some silver-plated money for the dead (銀紙/gintsoa) on the ancestors' altar, and some gold-plated money (金紙/kimtsoa) on the altars of various gods. Once this was done, we bought some incense and were ready to begin our round of worship (拜拜/baibai/paipai). It's probably not properly called worship--it is a ritual by which one holds a bundle of incense with both hands, independently waving the incense and bowing in oscillatory motions of differing phase and frequency. Of course, it makes more sense to wave the incense with a higher frequency than bowing. Afterward, a stick of incense is removed, and its bottom stuck in a bowl of ash so it remains vertical. One clasps his hands and waves them a few more times to finish.
We first visited 天公 (Tiangong/Thinkong), the highest of the gods and their supervisor according to tradition. His incense is placed in a giant metal bowl with three legs outside the temple proper. My memory of the ordering afterwards is a bit murky, but I believe we next stepped back inside the temple and paid our respect to 地藏王 (Dizangwang/Tetsong'ong) and 五爺 (Wuye/Goya), who have a large altar that occupies most of the temple. 土地公 (Tudigong/Thotikong) has his own miniature house outside, which we visited before we stopped by the entrance of the temple for the Door Good (門神/Menshen/Mngsin). Afterward, we paid our respect to our ancestors and then to Grandpa.
We now waited for our ancestors to finish eating--apparently eating takes time even if you're in the netherworld. When the incense had burnt halfway, we went to see if they had finished. The way of asking ancestors or god a yes/no question (擲茭/zhijiao/poapoe) is to take two red crescent-shaped pieces of wood, rounded on one side and flat on the other, and let them drop on the floor. If the same sides land up, then the answer is no, and if one piece lands rounded-side up and the other its flat-side up, the answer is yes. Dad took a few tries before he got an affirmative answer.
The final step was to burn the silver- and gold-plated money so they would go to the gods and ancestors; outside the temple proper was a special furnace for this purpose. We took turns folding the money in half and sending it into the fire. After we'd fed all of the money into the flames, we cleaned up and headed back to town.
Tradition holds that even the dead need to eat once in a while, so we brought two boxes of fruits, canned fish, and other food. My brother and Mom set up red plates full of food for our ancestors in front of the ancestral tablet (靈牌/靈位, lingpai or lingwei), which had been taken off the shelves at the temple and placed on a small altar. In a separate storage area for ashes, Dad and I pulled out Grandpa's urn from a metal rack and set up his food on a card table. A few plates were also set up on the altar in the shrine of the Earth God (土地公/Tudigong/Thotikong).
The dead also need money to spend in the underworld, so we stacked some silver-plated money for the dead (銀紙/gintsoa) on the ancestors' altar, and some gold-plated money (金紙/kimtsoa) on the altars of various gods. Once this was done, we bought some incense and were ready to begin our round of worship (拜拜/baibai/paipai). It's probably not properly called worship--it is a ritual by which one holds a bundle of incense with both hands, independently waving the incense and bowing in oscillatory motions of differing phase and frequency. Of course, it makes more sense to wave the incense with a higher frequency than bowing. Afterward, a stick of incense is removed, and its bottom stuck in a bowl of ash so it remains vertical. One clasps his hands and waves them a few more times to finish.
We first visited 天公 (Tiangong/Thinkong), the highest of the gods and their supervisor according to tradition. His incense is placed in a giant metal bowl with three legs outside the temple proper. My memory of the ordering afterwards is a bit murky, but I believe we next stepped back inside the temple and paid our respect to 地藏王 (Dizangwang/Tetsong'ong) and 五爺 (Wuye/Goya), who have a large altar that occupies most of the temple. 土地公 (Tudigong/Thotikong) has his own miniature house outside, which we visited before we stopped by the entrance of the temple for the Door Good (門神/Menshen/Mngsin). Afterward, we paid our respect to our ancestors and then to Grandpa.
We now waited for our ancestors to finish eating--apparently eating takes time even if you're in the netherworld. When the incense had burnt halfway, we went to see if they had finished. The way of asking ancestors or god a yes/no question (擲茭/zhijiao/poapoe) is to take two red crescent-shaped pieces of wood, rounded on one side and flat on the other, and let them drop on the floor. If the same sides land up, then the answer is no, and if one piece lands rounded-side up and the other its flat-side up, the answer is yes. Dad took a few tries before he got an affirmative answer.
The final step was to burn the silver- and gold-plated money so they would go to the gods and ancestors; outside the temple proper was a special furnace for this purpose. We took turns folding the money in half and sending it into the fire. After we'd fed all of the money into the flames, we cleaned up and headed back to town.
