Understanding the Chinese gods

One of the things many people struggle with before turning to another faith is leaving the one they had practised behind. It is never easy and I hope no one can just chuck or throw their previous faith aside without some deep reflections, soul searching and long consideration.

I myself went through a year of transition period before I finally let my sisters-in-law arranged for the Kuan Yin and my in-laws’ ancestors tablet moved out of my house which I had not occupied for more than a year.

(the statues of Dai Pak Goong or Tua Pek Kong, one of they deities worship by Chinese who practise a mix of Taoism)

The ceremony was done with proper rituals and full of respect. The Kuan Yin statue was ‘invited’ to the temple while my in-laws and their ancestors tablet (a small red sign with their surnames and region they lived in China) were sent to another temple.

Therefore, I don’t feel comfortable when the Christian evangelists made fun or treated these statues others worship lightly.

(Kuan Yin statues left outside the Kuan Yin Temple in Pitt Street)

I personally feel that these deities are for real and did help their worshippers to a certain extent. It takes faith and though they are not the god that we Christians associate with, they were once some prominent people. So, I always treat others’ faith with respect.

The above is the life story of Dai Pak Goong or Tua Pek Kong which I found in Cheah Kongsi. The old gentleman statue is worship by many because Tua Pek Kong is translated as Grand Eldest Uncle (from the father’s side) and is seen as a guardian angel to his worshipers. In fact, my mother-in-law had my husband ‘adopted’ by Tua Pek Kong when he was young as he was a sickly boy. Every 15th day of the 8th moon (the mooncake festival), my hubby will diligently go to the temple and donate a small angpow and bring back some pink buns. However, hubby never pray at other times. It is just a habitual thing that he does as his mother had got him into it since he was a boy.

I hope this post has been enlightening to Christians or other faiths who do not ‘pray to statue’. Sometimes, it is not the statue they are praying, but rather, their hopes, wishes, dreams, sufferings, agonies, fears they are expressing. Have respect for other faiths and people will respect us back.

These past two days have seen me traipsing from mosques to churches to temples and I am so at peace that I don’t feel my own faith challenged but rather strengthen because I am matured enough to accept others’ faiths while I am close enough to my own without worrying if I have faltered.