© Penelope Gan – All Rights Reserved – Malacca, MALAYSIA

The Daoist Nine Emperor Gods Festival or Kow Ong Yah, falls on the 9th day of the 9th moon in the Chinese lunar calendar. The festival is always a wet affair but don’t let that be a reason for you to stay away!

It is a major celebration in Penang, Malacca and pockets of Kuala Lumpur with devotees observing a strict nine-day vegetarian diet to purify themselves and to fulfill their vows to the Nine Emperors of Mankind (the Emperors are the sons of Thien Hou, the Queen Mother of Heaven).

Vegetarian food stalls with yellow banners line the streets, serving up a creative list of meatless dishes. Some of the stalls are open 24 hours and are a tourist attraction in itself.

The main highlight of the festival are the mediums who go into a deep trance and perform unbelievable feats. These include the mind-boggling act of immersing themselves in hot oil, piercing themselves with sharp, long spears and walking through fire unscathed!

Popular temples for the Nine Emperor devotees are located in Gat Lebuh Macallum (on the island) and Jalan Raja Uda, Butterworth (on the mainland) as well as Ampang.

Like other Chinese festivals, float processions are a norm. On the last day, a procession starting from the temple grounds to the nearby shore will be held to “send” the deities back to heaven in a boat decorated with gold paper. Amidst the sound of clashing cymbals and thumping drums, the boat is set ablaze as devotees watch it drift into the night.

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“I believe that our lives are deeply interconnected with those around us and our environment. That the world we live in is of our own making”

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or is it?

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Three probable outcomes it appears: Good. Nothing. Doomed.

Three time frames: Past. Present. Future.

And that pretty much sums up the (pseudo)science of astrology for me for the longest of time.

Whilst numerous traditions and applications employing astrological concepts have arisen since its earliest recorded beginning in the 3rd millennium BC, coupled with the fact that it has played an important role in the shaping of culture, early astronomy, the Vedas and various disciplines throughout history, it’s place remains at the edge of superstition and hocus pocus fun and uncanny truth for me. With that in view, I’ve always ‘tempted’ faith and traded on the thin line of desired ‘predictiveness’ and ‘divinatory’ knowledge by visiting tarrot readers, cartomancers, crytallomancers, cheiromancers, and fortune tellers at large.

Having never visited a Vedic astrologer before, I was excited at the prospect of seeing one and I was over the moon when through an interpreter I was granted permission to photograph and document the Vedic astrologer’s ‘art’ …

Indian astrology uses a different zodiac than Western astrology and is a branch of Vedic science. It is widely believed and commonly used by Indians at large with State money being used to fund research into Vedic astrology until recently.

Vedic astrology made centre stage – appearing on numerous major international press – in the first quarter of 2007 when Bollywood bombshell Aishwarya Rai was sued by some human rights activist groups for allegedly ‘marrying’ a tree – thus, bringing to light the belief of Mangal Dosha, or ‘manglik’(1) as it is more popularly know.

A person who is born a ‘manglik’ is believed to have devastating effects on marriage; causing discomfort and tension in relationship, leading to separation and divorce, and in some cases, it is believed to have cause untimely death of one spouse!

It is further believed that the negative consequences will be resolve if two ‘manglik’ marries as they ‘cancel’ each other out, but for a single-‘manglik’ marriage, the negative effect can be resolved if the ‘manglik’ first performs a ceremony called kumbh vivah, which involves the ‘marriage’ to a banana or peepal tree, or a silver or golden idol (Murti) of the Hindu God Vishnu.

Although increasing number of individuals are placing less emphasis on consulting the astrological charts during the selection of life partners and Indian pop-culture have downplayed the supposedly negative effects of marrying ‘manglik’ by popularising such unions in movies such as Biwi-O-Biwi (1981) and more recently Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006), one can’t help wondering if Abhishek Bachchan’s character Sunny who marries Simran (Dia Mirza) – a ‘manglik’-  against the astrologer’s recommendation, is indeed art imitating life, or a precursor to his fans on his impending marriage to Aishwarya Rai in April 2007 … and if indeed Aishwarya Rai is a ‘manglik’.

As for the perfect union between Shiva and Parvati, one that has seen many manifestations, reincarnations and remarriages, one can only assume the planets were all well lined up for them with great celestial forces pulling them together, for only the divine Parvati could see past Shiva’s asceticism; of snakes, smoking pipes, ashes, matted hair …

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(1) Mangal Dosha is an astrological combination that occurs if Mars is in the 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th or 12th house of the Vedic astrology Ascendant chart. A person who is born under these conditions is known as a ‘manglik’.

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© Penelope Gan – All Rights Reserved – Lal Qila (Red Fort), Delhi, INDIA

The Azan (Arabic: أَذَان‎) which sums up the teachings of Islam:

there is no God but Allah; Muhammad is God’s Messenger; salvation is found through obedience to the Will of God, of which prayer is an important expression

is called out five times a day by the muezzin from the mosque or minarets, to summon Muslims for prayers – Salāt (Arabic: صلاة‎). The pronouncement is loud (usually via loudspeakers attached to minarets) with the intent to make available to everyone an easily intelligible summary of Islamic belief, intended to bring to the mind of every believer and non-believer the substance of Islamic beliefs, or its spiritual ideology.

The Sunnis opine that the Azan was neither written nor said by Prophet Muhammad, but by one of his companions, Umar. It is stated that Umar, a prominent companion of Muhammad had a revelation form God on the call for prayers. The news of this revelation by means of a dream was soon related to Muhammad who adopted the idea of a call to summon muslim for prayers and had  preferred the use of a call as the means rather than the bells or horns that were used by the Christians and Jews respectively.

At the sound of the first Azan, Muslims make haste for prayer – Hayya ‘ala-Salāt. By the second call, iqama, the Muslims are line up and ready for the beginning of the prayers (as shown in the photo above where two employees of Lal Qila abandoned their post hastily at the call of the first Azan to proceed to a clean, quiet and open space in the fort’s grounds).

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© Penelope Gan – All Rights Reserved – Sakon Nahon, Thailand

Present throughout Thailand, Burma and Sri Lanka, Theravada Buddhism is also known as the Southern School of Buddhism, whose tradition is grounded in the discourses recorded in the Pali Canon – the oldest Buddhist scripture known.

Theravada literally means the Way of the Elders, and is named so due to its strict adherence to the original teachings and rules of monastic discipline expounded by the Buddha. The Thai Forest tradition is one branch of the Theravada Buddhist tradition which upholds the original monastic rules of discipline laid down by the Buddha in its strictest form.

The Theravada Forest tradition strongly emphasizes meditative practice and the realisation of enlightenment as the focus of monastic life. As such, forest monasteries are primarily oriented around practicing the Buddha’s path of contemplative insight, including living a life of austerity and frugality with few possessions.

Despite being located in remote areas of Thailand, forest monastics continue to live in daily interaction with and dependence upon the lay community who provides  material support such as alms food and cloth for robes in exchange for spiritual teachings.

Unlike laypeople, the forest monks follow an extensive 227 rules of conduct. They are required to be celibate, to eat only between dawn and noon, and not to handle money. They also commonly engage in a practice known as “tudong” in which they wander on foot through the countryside either on pilgrimage or in search of solitary retreat places in nature, where they are one with nature – eating and lying where able.

The forest tradition pre-dates Buddha, whom at the age of twenty nine, giving up his palace life in search of the way beyond birth, sickness, aging and death joined the Brahmins and other spiritual seekers in ancient India in the wilderness and mountains.

Buddha: Born in the forest . Enlightened in the forest . Taught in the forest . Died in the forest.

Theravada forest monks continues the practice, teachings and codes of monastic conduct expounded by Buddha 2,500 years ago, introduced by Ajahn Sao and Ajahn Mun; popularised by Ajahn Chah where to date there are more than 200 forest branch monasteries in Ajahn Chah’s lineage spreading throughout Thailand and the West, notably in England, France, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Italy, Canada and the United States.

In almost all Buddhist lists of virtues, dana (donation) is always the first one. Many literature argues that dana is one of the central practices in early Buddhism for, without it, Buddhism would not have survived and flourished in the many centuries of its development and expansion.

The Buddhist relationship between donors and renunciants is built on interdependence where householders give according to the teachings on donation called danadhamma, and renunciants returns the householders’ offerings with a gift of teaching called dhammadana.

A Buddhist would say that dana goes beyond an exchange between a monastic or spiritually-developed person and a layman, in that, the act of dana has the effect of purifying and transforming the mind of the giver where generosity arising for the act of giving leads to being reborn in happy states and the availability of material wealth. Stretching the argument further, some believe that giving without seeking anything in return leads to greater spiritual wealth and reduces sufferings.

When presented conversely – that the lack of giving leads to unhappy states and poverty – it is of no surprise that monasteries attracts thousands of devotees weekly, with trays laden with food and pockets weighing down with donations.

Larger and more popular monasteries, that are known to collect in access of USD 50,000 in hard cash donations per dana session that last 3 hours at most, have also developed varying and complex art of giving, where the ritual form of exchange dictates how to properly acquire and use wealth, how to properly give and receive individual and communal gifts, how to think about using and transferring merit, and what constitutes proper food, robes, lodging, and medicine.

Passing the complex web of rituals as teachings in themselves that is central to the “dana contract”, my personal observation tends to defer with the ‘teachings’; having performed dana and pilgrimages under the Theravada Buddhism school over the past 3 years.

With Luang Phos heavily guarded by armed body guards; escorted by politicians, the rich and the famous; driven around in X5s; blessing those with pockets that hangs the lowest; and having pre-recorded chanting and dhamma being replayed, I can’t help but wonder if modernisation, crowd-control and  refinement of knowledge in finances have overtaken Shakyamuni Buddha’s ‘art of giving’ in his bodhisattva phase (before the final culmination into Nirvana) which was symbolised by the sacrifice of his own body when he has nothing else to offer an unexpected guest in the Jataka folktale where Shakyamuni Buddha is born as a rabbit, and unable to present any other food to a Brahmin, roasted himself in a fire*.

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* as illustrated by Osamu Tezuka in his graphic novel Buddha Vol 1: Kapilavastu

© Penelope Gan – All Rights Reserved – Nakonratchasima, THAILAND

Look closer. This is not Sak Yant – the protective tattoos believed to not only ward off evil but have abilities to even stop bullets. Nor was this taken at Wat Bang (Buddhist Temple) Phra – the place flocked by thousands of people from Thailand and beyond to have their bodies inked with powerful designs.

This is an elaborate Harley Davidson-heavy metal-rock-coke sniffing-grunge skull tattoo on the arm of a novice monk in Wat Ban Rai…. and he’s just one of the many, many novices scattered all over Thailand spotting body art and nicotine fixes… having a second shot at life.

Having countless of such novices in Wat Ban Rai does not make it unique nor does it’s location in Nakonratchasima – some 5 hours drive from Bangkok – or the monk’s Thevarada Forest tradition of living in makeshift huts without electricity or flowing water existence juxtaposed against the grandiose temple structure makes Wat Ban Rai worth a visit let alone a mention.

Like Wat Bang Phra, Wat Ban Rai shot to fame for it’s ‘notoriety’ – a nationally prominent monk who embraces commercialism wholeheartedly. Visiting Wat Ban Rai is akin to visiting a spiritual-one-stop-for-all-cures mall; selling a variety of religious merchandise and good luck tokens such as Luang Phor (Reverend) Khoon bumper stickers, blessed amulets to fake bank notes with Luang Phor Khoon’s face in place of the Thai King’s! which resulted in a brief conflict in 1994 that was purportedly smoothed over when Luang Phor Khoon made a generous donation to Thailand’s national welfare budget in honour of the King.

Said to possess magical powers and blessed with the name “Khoon” that means “to multiply”, devotees links this grandfatherly figure monk with good luck and the ability to multiply one’s wealth and success. It is no wonder than, Luang Phor Khoon became one of the most loved and powerful monk in Thailand, in charge of a monastery which generates an estimated US$20 million (prior to Baht devaluation) per annum in sales and donations, and counts government leaders and the Thai royal family among his followers.

Unlike his many followers, I was not fortunate to meet Luang Phor Khoon during my recent trip as he had passed on 3 weeks prior to my arrival. As a consolation, I was being treated to some amusement when I sighted a car ornament dangling from the rear view mirror of my coach that read “ruay.ruay.ruay” (rich.rich.rich) beneath Luang Phor Khoon’s smiling face – definitely not one of the millions of articles blessed by him (I hope)!

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© Penelope Gan – All Rights Reserved – Zang Dhok Palro Phodong Monastery – Kalimpong, INDIA

He kicked at the pebbles and chased a cat along the way, like any young boy would do, creating a brief moment of uneasiness for me. But the moment he arrived at the monastery, he suddenly turned sullen – quiet, distant and serious.

Traditionally, the eldest son of a Tibetan family would stay on with the family and the second male child will be sent to the monastery. These children generally fell into three categories: pious believers, children of poor serfs* who entered the monastery to make a living and those sent to temples to meet a quota.

Life in the monastery is difficult with many rules to follow. There is a regular pattern. Apprentices rises at 5:30 a.m. in the summer and 6 a.m. in the winter, amid the sounds of mantra chanting. Breakfast is zanba, a traditional dish made of barley flour, washed down by ghee tea. After lunch, there’s a two-hour rest period. Afternoon study starts at 3:30 p.m., when they learn politics, laws and the religion, culture and history of Tibet.

Although it might sound dull to many young men and children, these apprentices says that their life is not all that different from that of their peers. Watching TV, listening to pop music, playing games are part and parcel of their routine.

* Temples had quotas for the serfs, and those who joined for this reason were called zunzhas. Among the ranks of lamas, generally 70 percent were from impoverished families.

Being an inspiration for 6 million Tibetans, and the approximate 100,000 impoverished Tibetan refugees in India and Nepal who had followed his lead into exile, it is no surprised that photos and newspaper cuttings (in various languages) of the 72*-year-old Buddhist monk, the 14th Dalai Lama (or Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso (born Lhamo Döndrub)) is seen every where at TRSHC.

The 14th Dalai Lama is not only revered as a spiritual leader, but that of a subtly, passive defiant monk whom they place their hopes for a free Tibet and reunification with love ones.

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On hearing that the Chinese Communist had invaded Tibet in 1950, the 14th Dalai Lama’s advisers purportedly placed two balls of kneaded tsamba (barley flour) in a golden bowl filled with water to seek divine confirmation if the Dalai Lama should leave Lhasa. With the affirmation received, cups of buttered tea was set out for good luck and a troop made their way over mountain passes in freezing 24° C below zero weather to a monastery at the Indian border, marking his first trip to India.

Returning seven months later, the 14th Dalai Lama’s political and religious position and power had shifted; the Chinese gave him 10 yellow limousines, a telephone that connects with Peking (Beijing), a household full of Communists and in 1954 an ‘invitation’ to Peking (Beijing) for ’special tutoring’. With time and under suppression, more and more of his duties were passed on to the Panchen Lama, then a 21-year-old ‘puppet’ to the Chinese Communist.

Set against the backdrop of the Chinese Communist’s aim to gain legitimacy of its existence by carrying out what it regarded as the reunification of China, oppression and erosion of the Tibetan’s uniqueness (i.e. the Buddhist religion and culture), on 17th March 1959, the 14th Dalai Lama set off to India once again on an epic 15-day journey on foot with an entourage of 20, including 6 cabinet ministers.

Crossing the 500-yard wide Brahmaputra river, enduring harsh climate, extreme heights and avoiding Chinese sentry guards, the 14th Dalai Lama finally crossed the Indian border at Khenzimana Pass, taking refuge at the Tawang Monastery, 50 miles inside the Indian border. Offered asylum in India and settling in Dharamsala, in Northern India, his exile to India was followed by about 100,000 Tibetans, most of whom settled in the same area – making it known as ‘Little Lhasa’ and is currently the center of the Tibetan government in exile.

Despite half-a-century has gone by and the destruction of hundreds of gompa’s across Tibet,  Beijing continues to crack down harshly religion and Buddhist tradition and brutally ‘crushes’ any oppositions leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of death through starvation, torture and execution.

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* By the Gelugpa Buddhist reckoning, the 14th Dalai Lama is 572 years old, since he is the reincarnation of all his predecessors.

]]> http://penelopegan.com/photoblog/2010/01/14th-dalai-lama/feed/ 0 http://penelopegan.com/photoblog/2009/12/chaam-atsaras/ http://penelopegan.com/photoblog/2009/12/chaam-atsaras/#comments Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:18:17 +0000 ganpenelope http://penelopegan.com/photoblog/?p=424 © Penelope Gan – All Rights Reserved – Phodong Monastery – Sikkim, INDIA

Similar to other religious theatrical performances in other parts of the world,  Atsaras (jokers) plays an important part in Chaams. Their movement in the dance are not governed by any religious rule but rather they are granted considerable freedom of movement up to the degree where there is even no restriction against them from mimicking the dancers personifying deities of the highest rank. The persona or characteristic they put on not only entertains the spectators but is often a counteract to a certain degree the sinister, oppressing, impressions created by the numerous wrathful, threatening deities and their attendants.

Atsaras is an adaptation from the Hindu word ācārya (Sanskrit: आचार्य; Pali: acariya) that means ’spiritual teacher’. Accordingly, the masks of Atsaras are usually dark brown or black, with prominent noses, often bearded, and with long hair or with a hair knot at the top, as customarily worn by Indian mendicants. Female Atsaras evolved much later followed by others taking on different characterization. Nonetheless, Ha Zhang – dressed in a huge, bald-headed mask showing a fat smiling face with Chinese features – and ‘the white old man’ remains as the principal Atsaras of the Chaam.

In addition to entertaining the public with their mimics, the Atsaras have the tasks of readjusting the masks and costumes of the dancers which might get into disorder in the course of the dance.

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]]> http://penelopegan.com/photoblog/2009/12/chaam-atsaras/feed/ 0 http://penelopegan.com/photoblog/2009/12/kagyed_chaam/ http://penelopegan.com/photoblog/2009/12/kagyed_chaam/#comments Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:18:33 +0000 ganpenelope http://penelopegan.com/photoblog/?p=297

© Penelope Gan – All Rights Reserved – Phodong Monastery – Sikkim, INDIA

The Kagyed Mahakala Chaam (dance of the Great Protector) is performed by monks on the same days across a few Kagyupa monasteries in Sikkim, Ladakh and Nepal in honour of the Mahakala after seven days and night of rigorous reading of the Buddhism scriptures Ya Yig and the Chaam Yig of 400 pages each.

Dedicated to Yinshey Gonpo, monasteries are said to have hosted the Kagyed Mahakala Chaam for more than 275 years with the dance steps  purported to have been choreographed by the first Karmapa, Dusun Khyenpa, based on his ability of seeing deity and its unique characteristics.

The dancers, especially the Chaampons (main dancers), undergo general meditation since the eight month, which intensify for seven days just before the main Kagyed Mahakala Chaam day. Similarly, the goma (red faced mask) dancers also meditate with the Shawa Chaam (stag dance) dancers simultaneously with the reading of Gonpo pecha, Dacha pecha, Purcha pecha and Lingthi pecha.

Whilst the chaam dance ritual are almost virtually identical across the 4 schools of Tibetan Buddhism, the Dorjee Lopon (single black hat dance) and Shanag (black hat dance) is unique to the Kagyupa sect. In the Dorjee Lopon, the thunderbolt religious master dances alone by carrying the Dorjee (thunderbolt) and Thilbu (sacred bell) in his right and left hands respectively. The specialty of the Shanag (black hat) is that it is not only heavy but also miraculous; as soon as the monk dancer puts on the black hat, he is supposed to be in that particular manifestation, and talks or acts or dances according to that manifestation.

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Behind the scene and on-the-road story upload HERE {warning: just rants by me}

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