Traveling in Phuket, Thailand (II)
In Thailand there are many small shrines—one every few steps—and most look like this.
Shrines of this kind are everywhere.
Passing by a place, I unexpectedly found one where the outer Five Camp Armies had been installed.
In some schools of Daoism, troops and horses are recruited; the Five Camp Armies are the forces stationed in the five directions of east, south, west, north, and center, and these forces are often organized into the Five Camp Armies. The Five Camp Armies are further divided into the inner and outer five camps. The inner five camps must be overseen by orthodox spirits of general or commander rank; if there is no general or commander, and the deities worshipped are other gods, these can only be installed as the outer Five Camp Armies, and the paper used for offerings is longevity gold. Usually gold paper is used to worship the gods, but here road food is also offered, showing that this is a joint worship of yin and yang.
Beside this, I saw some unknown kind of shop—or maybe a temple—had opened, and went to ask in English whether I could take photos. Unexpectedly, the owner knew simple Chinese and said yes.
An image of Lord Guan is enshrined here; on the left are several High Master’s robes. Chatting with the owner, he brought out a painting and pointed to it, saying: “Iron Court Marshal.” However, he could not read Chinese characters, and his finger pointed from left to right.
In Thailand there are many people who came from the Chaoshan region of China, so the pronunciation of the divine names as they are chanted is still basically understandable.
The tiger used at this altar is an “ascending mountain tiger,” which signifies rising higher step by step; but an ascending mountain tiger should be looking up at the moon, and in this image the tiger also pounces upon mountain rocks, which shows this again means warding off evil and settling the residence—guarding against yin evil from entering. So the Daoist methods here are mainly orthodox methods, focusing on exorcising evil and bringing peace.
What is more eye-catching is the five-colored flag hanging on the wall—a distinctive touch.
Those familiar with taboo characters (huizi) will clearly see that some of the sacred characters on the flag look wrong. I suspect the original flag, being of great age, had rotted away, so the flag was remade; and when copying the original flag, some parts could not be seen clearly, so they were mis-transcribed.
The High Master’s robes look largely the same.
Through conversation I learned that local resorts often have rumors of supernatural events, so tourists are few. The cause was the great Indonesian tsunami of years past; monks had come to perform deliverance rites for the dead before, but with little effect, so he opened this shop here—on one hand performing ritual rites to deliver the spirits of the dead from that time, and on the other recruiting the Five Camp Armies of troops and horses. But in the process he also encountered some problems, so I, this poor Daoist, discussed things with him and resolved some details; the specifics I will not go into.