Cultural Showpiece: Celebration of a Chinese Deity's Birthday

 In this post I share with you some photos and videos I have taken at a Chinese Temple in celebration of their patron deity, which is the God Erlang (or Erlang Shen). This is the Chinese deity with the so-called "third eye" who famously fought with the Monkey God (Sun Wukong) in the novel "Journey to the West".

The first picture is that of the Deity Erlang Shen. and the second shows is Howling Sky Dog (or, Xiao Tian Quan) and is often seen helping the God in his battles. There are a few versions of his earthly story and how he attains his deitification. In one of the popular versions, he was the son of a human and a heavenly goddess. His earthly name was Yang Jian. He helped fought against the Shang dynasty tyrannical king and brought its downfall. There is a Chinese drama on Yang Jian called "Investiture of the Gods". It is very interesting but also quite long - 65 episodes altogether. 

The celebration included a few days of Chinese Opera show. I believe the troupe was invited from China or Taiwan. Also invited to perform were 3 lion dance troupes and 1 dragon-and-phoenix dance troupe. It was really a spectacular sight to behold the dragon and phoenix. 

There were drum performances too by a group of boys and girls. 

The festival culminates with the medium going into a trance and then performing the rituals. The show ended with the deity, via the medium, taking Q&A from the devotees. I did not stay on but there was supposedly distribution of protective charm to those who wanted it. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO GOD ERLANG SHEN! 

Hope you guys have enjoyed this blog post - which I hope is also sharing of cultures and traditions within the mixture of local Buddhism-Taoism and local practices. Do check out my post on Journey of the West in my blog. There are several posts, one of which is this - https://buddha-and-me.blogspot.com/2010/11/monkey-god-and-pilgrimage-to-west-pt-2.html

 #Erlangshen #chineseopera #liondance #dragondance