Vandalism in Keelung

[A memorial built in Oct 1909 in honor of the French war-dead during the Sino-French War - inscription in Kanji on the base reads: 西元一千八百八十四年及五年佛清之役，葬佛軍將卒戰死者於此。本年重修建立紀念碑以傳後世。西曆一千九百九年十月立]

  [ici reposent officiers soldats et marins Francais decedes a kelung 1884-1885 - "Here lie French officers, soldiers, and marines who perished in Keelung, 1884-1885"]

We are disturbed to see a recent news report [UDN 2012.11.29 11:20 pm]:

基隆市定古蹟「清法戰爭紀念園區」裡頭的6座墓碑20日遭破壞推倒。警方清查路口監視器及公車行車記錄器畫面，發現有毒品前科的38 歲江姓男子涉嫌重大。Six headstones in the Sino-French War Memorial Garden in Keelung [located at the intersection of Chung Cheng Road and Tung Hai Street基隆市中正區中正路與東海街交叉路口] were pushed over on the 20th. The police, after examining surveillance videos, have found that a 38-year-old Mr Jiang, with prior drug abuse records, the prime suspect.
 

基隆市警二分局申請拘票後，29日下午拘提江男到案。他坦承推倒墓碑，供稱是因為被亡魂託夢，表示埋在裡頭無人祭拜很可憐，才想破壞墓碑，讓一切回歸自然。警方訊後將他依違反文化資產保存法罪嫌，移送基隆地檢署偵辦。
The police arrested Mr Jiang in the afternoon of the 29th. He admitted vandalizing the headstones claiming that the long ignored lonely spirits made him do it and that he was simply trying to return everything to Nature. Mr Jiang was charged with violation of the heritage preservation law and transferred to Keelung DA office for further prosecution.

Another UDN report on 11/23/2012 stated that

基隆市定古蹟清法戰爭紀念園區的墓碑，20日遭人破壞。法國在台協會人員昨前往查看，了解毀損情形。文化局表示，和法方交換意見後，將以「回復原貌」方式修復，不再重新立碑。這兩天會請廠商估價，希望將修復價格控制在10萬元以內，盡快恢復古蹟舊貌。
Representatives of the French Association at Taiwan have visited the vandalized site to survey the damages. The Cultural Bureau plans to restore the headstones to their original state without erecting new ones. A contractor has been contacted. The cost is estimated to be under NT$100,000. And it is expected that the restoration will be completed post-haste.

只有懦夫才會找已往生的人麻煩. Repose en paix, messieurs.

Additional note: the same had happened in 1885 albeit under different circumstances, see a previous post: http://danshuihistory.blogspot.com/2011/05/fraters-report-on-july-1-1885.html

Briefly, British Consul Alexander Frater reported that "Shortly after the evacuation of Kelung by the French, their cemetery was attacked during the night, and the monuments and wooden crosses were thrown down. Happening to see Liu Ming-ch'uan on the 14th instant, I spoke to him about the outrage and said the French would be sure to be very angry if they heard of it. I advised that he should cause repairs to be made. He replied that he had been told of the occurrence, and had given orders for the cutting in stone of a protective proclamation, a copy of which he showed to me. He added that he had already ordered the tombstones to be put up again, and asked whether I had not heard that his orders had been carried out, to which I could only reply that I had not. The repairs were begun only on the 18th, soldiers being employed for the purpose; but the tombstones were thrown down again during the night. I was in Kelung on the 26th and 27th and visited the Cemetery. The proclamation cut in stone was not there, nor was it on the spot on paper. Two or three of the monuments had been fairly handsome ones and it was sad to see the top portions of them lying broken off. Many of the wooden crosses had been removed, and thin bamboo ones put in their place." 

Tamsui - 1975

Contributor ChoSan took these in 1975 when he re-visited Tamsui:

Whatever works when it rains - taken near MaZu Temple

A free ride home after school

Some time on Nov 3, 2012, the now 淡水區 (District of Tamsui) quietly reached a milestone. That is, its population has finally grown to 150,000. In the old days, this would have elevated Tamsui from a 鎮 (township) to a 市 (city), a cause for celebration. Tamsui has indeed come a long way. A census report on June 1, 1939, showed that the grand total of the population of Tamsui was a mere 9,517, a time when everybody literally knew everybody. Sadly or happily, depending on your perspective, now as one of the 29 Districts of 新北市 (New Taipei City), Tamsui's small-town identity is forever gone.

Coming home - Part 6 Meet-up

歸宗 - returning to the roots (Nov 6, 2012)

Update: A Koxinga 金身 will be sent from the Cheng Family Temple in Tainan to replace the one lost from the Jelutong Koxinga Temple in 1910-20:

Coming home - Part 6

This seemingly ordinary dragon table is actually 136 years old. The horizontal inscription 開山聖王 is a more formal title than 開山王 that again refers to Koxinga. The vertical inscription on the right side reads 光緒丁丑年 (i.e., 1876) - when it was dedicated, and the left side the donor's name, a Wang ? Shan (王?山, the middle name is not readable). The table was installed during a period when the Koxinga statue was the only deity in the temple.

After 192 years of being on its own, unguided yet never strayed from its origin, it is now time for the Koxinga Temple in Jelutong to link up with the original Koxinga Temple 鄭成功祖廟Cheng Family Temple in Tainan. Unlike 延平郡王祠, which was a Qing installation, the Cheng Family Temple was built by Koxinga's son and heir, 鄭經Cheng Jing.

Principal overseer Mr J Lim will travel from Penang, Malaysia, to Taiwan, and on Nov 6 to pay a courtesy visit to the Cheng Family Temple in Tainan. A delegation from Penenag is also being organized and its members will participate in the celebration of 鄭成功開台紀念日 on April 29, 2013.

His Highness will no doubt continue to look after those who tough it out and honor him throughout the ages, be they residents of Taiwan or the distant Malaysia, they are all members of the extended 東寧Tung-Ning Cheng Family.

To our brethrens in Penang: Welcome home!

Coming home - Part 5 哪吒

From the outside, the most prominent feature of the Jelutong Koxinga Temple is the five martial flags planted on the roof. This is a tradition held over from since the temple was built and yet no one knows what they meant.

Until now.

These 5 triangular banners each has a surname in the center:

These flags represent the five divine battalions led by the central battalion commander (Li) 哪吒NaZa. In other words, although never realized before, NaZa has always been present in the Koxinga Temple in Jelutong. The five battalions are 東營 (East Battalion); 南營 (South); 西營 (West); 北營 (North); and 中營 (Central), and the respective flag colors are 青 (green); 紅 (red); 白 (white); 黑 (black); and 黃 (yellow), and the commanders' names, 張(基清); 蕭(其明); 劉(武秀); 連(忠宮); and 李(哪吒).

This is in fact the 五營信仰 (the 5-batallion belief), still common in southern Taiwan. Even though it is not known when the belief first started, in view of the central role of NaZa, it appears to have been part of the NaZa worship by the Koxinga soldiers.

NaZa哪吒 is a Taoist god worshipped primarily in Taiwan as 三太子 [the Third Prince]. The statue of NaZa is seen in almost all Koxinga temples in Taiwan. This practice can be traced back to the Ming-Cheng soldiers. Where they had settled, working in the field tilling the land, small 三太子 temples were also built.

NaZa was a mischievous youth and one of his deeds eventually got him into big trouble with the East Sea Dragon King for accidentally killing the latter’s son. In order not to cause problems for his parents, he carved up himself and returned the muscles to his mother and bones to his father, thereby paying the debt of birth in full. He was subsequently given a second lease on life by Buddha. NaZa was mentioned in many ancient popular Chinese texts, often described as having unusual power in defeating evil forces. And because he rode on wheels of wind and fire, NaZa has been revered as a guardian angel for those in transportation businesses.

There was no historical account on why the Ming-Cheng soldiers had chosen NaZa as their guardian deity, perhaps as a sorrowful reminder that Koxinga, just like NaZa, was not only estranged from his father but also was no longer cared for by his parents. In any case, it is historically accurate to see NaZa in the Koxinga Temple in Jelutong.

Coming home - Part 5 大伯公

The worship of 大伯公, literally Granduncle, is unique to Chinese immigrant communities throughout SE Asia. There are a number of such temples in Penang alone. Below is the gateway to the oldest one, dating back to 1799, located in Tanjong Tokong珠海嶼:

The temple itself is maintained jointly by 5 Hakka clans as indicated by the sign atop the temple office:

And who was this Granduncle? A multiple-language memorial plaque clearly shows that the deity in residence is actually a trio, Zhang Li張理, Qiu Zhao-jing丘兆進, and Ma Fu-chun馬福春. They first settled in Tanjong Tokong in the mid-1700s,  and were honored as 大伯公 after their death. In other words, they were the ancestors of the Hakka immigrants to Penang. This is actually a clan memorial, rather than a Taoist, temple.

In contrast, the 大伯公 in the 開山王大伯公廟 is the Earth/Village God, known in Taiwan and China as 土地公, with a formal title of 福德正神. The banners inside the temple clearly indicates the true identity:

Combining the four characters from top down in the two banners, it reads: 開山王廟福德正神. The obvious conclusion is that this 大伯公 was not an ancestor as the others in Penang, but a more traditional 土地公. Normally, an earth god, only a minor deity, cannot share the same altar with a king. Why was the exception in the Jelutong temple?

Here the story gets a bit complicated and is in part somewhat supernatural.

In ca 1910-20, some businessman "from the north (probably Siam)", asked to "borrow" the Koxinga statue to be honored in wherever he came from. This was a common practice at that time. Not suspecting any malicious intents, the Jelutong temple overseers had generously agreed. And that was the last time they saw the statue. Since a temple cannot be without a deity, in semi-panic, the idea of inviting a 大伯公 in, emerged. And since there was no appropriate ancestors to choose from because Koxinga was the one, the earth god would have to be a stand-in. For the next several decades, the temple became known as the Koxinga-earth god temple. That is until 1991 when Koxinga, through a spiritual medium, had "asked" to return to the temple. And the followers immediately complied. His Highness had very specific description of a statue plus another of NaZa, both to be commissioned and fashioned in Hokkien, China. And amidst great fanfare, Koxinga finally came back to Jelutong.

Coming home - Part 5

[The main altar with Koxinga in the center. This statue resembles the one in the Cheng Family Temple in Tainan, both clean-shaven. The one in 延平郡王祠, also in Tainan, is based on a portrait with a black beard suggesting it was done during a mourning period. In Hokkien custom, sons do not shave when their parents passed. ]

The full name of Khye-Sian-Ong-Tua-Pek-Kong temple in Jelutong日落洞, Penang檳榔嶼, is 開山王大伯公廟. We already know who 開山王 is [Koxinga], but who is 大伯公 (the bearded one on the right), and why a third deity (the child on the left), apparently NaZa哪吒, is also on the altar?

Stay tuned.