hi, my family owes an altar honouring hua guang da di (erlang shen). the altar has been around for about 50 years or so. but i am rather curious why is the main god( hua guang da di) not placed in the middle of the altar and instead on the side.

our altar consists of Gan Tian Da Di, Tua Pek Gong, Hua Guang Da Di, Qian Li Yen, Shun Feng Er and 2 Tian Gou Gong. total of 7 statues. but i don know if the current position is correct or not. hence i would like to seek advice here.

currently on the altar now, gan tian da di sits in the middle, hua guang on the right and tua pek gong on the left of. both on either sides of gan tian da di.

hope that anyone who knows this can reply and advice me if the current positions are correct or wrong. thanks.

Hi Limruihe,

Firstly, a very warm welcome.

Just sharing my 2 cents(sense) thinking.

Since the arrangement have been around for more than 50 years, its not advisable to shift anything (unless things are not so smooth. Then again, rearrangement may benefit someone but will not benefit another person. The cleaniness of the altar and the way you pray is more important.

The position of each deity doesn't signifys its 'ranking'. Most superituous people will have odd number status (to balance the power/responsibilty). It was believed even number is no good as the power/responsiblity is shared equally and whenever there's a issue to be addressed, both will wait for the other to take action...thus no action will be taken.

So, don't worry too much. Live peacefully and fully is more important.

Cheers!

btw, can you take a picture and share it here? Thanks.

hi. sorry cause im new to this website thus i am not sure how to upload photos using the features here. will you mind giving me the procedures of how to upload the pics?

thanks a lot. XD

Hi Limruihe,

It's quite easy, really.

Go to www.photobucket.com and open a free account.
Then upload your picture there. Once uploaded, it will show you 3 link, namely,
i) Email & IM
ii) Direct link
iii) HTML Tag
iv) IMG code

Copy the IMG code and paste it in your thread/posting.
(B4 you copy the IMG code, you can control the size of the image by clicking on the "resize" option)


Try it and have fun.

Enjoy!

hi. thanks for ur help. and i have uploaded a picture of the altar. =D

Hi ruihe,

From the pic you posted here, the position is somehow really out of place, but like what wat bro Reborn said, since you all hav been paying respect to the deities in this form, we shouldnt touch them anymore unless the deities requested for a change in the future.

According to the ranking of the Deities, Gan Tian is in the center, this is a no-doubt issue - cos Gan Tian is known as Xu Xun, which Xu Xun is one of our 4 Taoist Heavenly Masters, so his rank is much more higher than Hua Guang and Bo Gong.

Just that, the position of Bo Gong n Hua Guang must swap, cos Bo Gong cannot sit on the "Big Position" - Bo Gong is only consider as a Deity of Wealth or in common culture, he's a Deity in-charge of Earth, as Hua Guang is a Heavenly Marshal.

The position of Qian Li Yan and Shun Feng Er is correct. :P

Wow! Wow! Very nice and neat altar!

It's Hua Guan Da Di and not Er Lang Shen.

Can you please let us know

i) why Qian Li Yan and Shun Feng Er are there. These two usually follows Mazu (do you have Mazu before?);

ii) why the present of the two dogs (of leopard?)
Very interesting arrangement and setting.

Many thanks for sharing.

Best regards/

hi to all.

thanks for the replies.

i don have much idea why qian li yan, shun feng er and ling gou jiang jun are present in this altar. but as far as i know, these gods were previously honoured in a small temple and it was then shifted to another place after the orginal place was torn down. These were the statues which my grandfather took over from.

as for why the ling gou jiang jun turn out to be like leopards, we sent all the statues back to china last year to have them repainted and washed. when they were sent back, they turned out to be like that. in the past they were so black that people mistook it for hu ye gong.

erm. i would also like to ask what is the difference between wu cao da bo gong and the normal da bo gong?

Hi All,

In some context, Qian Li and Shun Feng are 2 generals that assist Hua Guang in detecting any negative entities.

As for the Ling Gou, cos alot of folks used to mistaken Hua Guang as Er Lang, this is one of the reason why in some Hua Guang temples, they tend to dedicate a statue to the dog instead of the Fire Crow - Fire Crow is one of the assistants of Hua Guang.