dear all,
this is one of the largest 9 ong yah temples in Malaysia, Labuan located in JLN RANCHA RANCHA. the unique thing about this temple is, it houses 3 temples under one roof. the deities are 8 Sages Temple, Gee Par Ong Kong (the sworn cousins of 9 ong yah) extremely famous in Sibu, Sarawak and the patron saints of the Hock Chew clan and 9 Ong Yah itself.
enjoy!!
regards
CT

The temple is situated below a highway:

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NOTE: PLS REFER INTRODUCTION BELOW DATED: May 12 2006, 10:44 PM

THIS IS THE MAIN STATUE THAT REPRESENTS THE 9TH BROTHER


THIS IS THE 1ST SWORN COUSIN
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THIS IS THE 2ND COUSIN
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Thanks for the pictures Chay Tiong.. I believe that the temple will be very nice once the construction is completed.
btw, having multiple temples under one roof is quite common in Singapore.. i think it is due to lack of space over here... :D

btw, care to share how the nine emperor celebration is done over at Malaysia?
I am a follower of Jiu Huang Da Di also and my temple actually do not have the statues for the god.. it is represented by a tablet..
I have found an article from sinchew newspaper webpage on whether Jiu Huang Da Di have statues.
For those interested, you may wish to read the article below. I think you might need to change the encoding settings in your web browser to read the article in chinese.
I have actually another long article on the origin of Jiu Huang Da Di. Have send to Bro Jave before and I am waiting for him to validate the info.

Yup, have seen the passage, and actually have done on the commenting on the article, but due to my PC being infected by virus, all information had been erased, been waiting for the article to appear again, finally you post up again..

This article is discussing about whether the Nine Emperors of the Northern Heaven have got Statues or forms or not.

Before the article discussed on the main point, it touches on the different views that people in Malaysia have against the worshipping of the Nine Emperors. Basically can be divided into 3 types of believes in Malaysia.

1 type, respect by the Hakka Dialect group. It is believe that Taoist Priests from China brought in the culture to Malaysia. The images of the Nine Emperor are, a guy form with 3 heads and 8 arms (look abit like the 3 headed Na Zha) and one is in painting. In the painting, it shows 9 Taoists, 7 without beard, 2 with beard.

2nd type, respect by the Hokkien Dialect group. This group of worshipping has the most influnce power in the area. In this group, it is divided into another 2 minor groups. 1 with worshipped Nine Emperors with form and another do not.

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Back to the issue.

Actually in China, the Nine Emperors do have forms (statues).

According to certain scriptures, these Nine Deities are believed to be the 9 sons of the Mother of the Great Dipper in the North.

Okay, on my personal views, Nine Emperors do have 9 forms (according to experience, at a certain period, many people had dreamt of these Nine Emperors at the same time and resulting in some areas, they do have the statues).

Many people do not agree on my views cos they believe that the title of Nine Emperor actually belongs to only 1 person. (but after research in records and actual histories, I cant find any evidence showing there's any person given the title and being appointed as an immortal...)

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These 9 Emperors are believed to be the sons of the Mother of the Great Dipper in the North is somehow correct too.

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As what are the actual looking, this is up to individual, as no one have actually see them before.

In the other article that I have, it was mentioned that people has actually mixed up Jiu Huang Da Di and the Wang Ye that were killed by the emperor.
The burning of the paper boat during the send off is actually related to Wang Ye praying to send off those Wen Shen. Somehow it has been mixed up with Jiu Huang Da Di celebration..
btw, for those who are interested to read the full article, please PM me and I will send it to you via email. As the article is very long (50 pages), I don't think it is wise to post it here plus the data has yet to be validated.
Unless bro Jave Wu can help to extract the data out and post it here for reference.
Bro Jave, if you wish me to send you the doc again, pls let me know.

BTW, I noticed that every year when we celebrate Jiu Huang Da Di birthday, the indians are also celebrating some festivals. Same nine days, vegeterian also. I am actually thinking that it is somehow related... Is it Dou Mu?? maybe someone who knows can enlighten me... :D

Thanks bro, maybe you can send the article thru email to me.. :P

I will do a read up on that.

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Dou Mu is the character in Taoism context, if she will to be put into the Buddhism Conext, she is name as the Mo Li Zhi Tian (one of the 20 Tian).

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And to put her into Hinduism context, she shall be have a name of Goddess Durga (if I dint have mistaken and match wrongly).

In Hinduism, Goddess Durga is a Goddess of Multi changes. Quite a powerful Goddess in their believe.

Link here:

http://s14.invisionfree.com/taoism_singapo...p?showtopic=131

Sharing my personal view (hope I don't offend anyone):

Deity's statues (aka kimsin) are man creation to remind/recall them of how the deity look like (in their dreams or told how it look so). In the past, most Chinese people are simple minded thus need the status. Nowadays, people decorated the statues to their own fancy (or what they think their god should look like). That is why there are so many disagreement on how a certain deity should look like. A good example is Nezha. There are so many version and the younsters will think that - oh, my Neha is three years old, so must not wear any clothing and need a pacificer!; my Nehza is five year old...already grown up, so must wear some costumes but still need the pacificer (only a small boy?); my Nezha grown up, now promoted to Tiong Tang, so must be fully dressed in a General outfits, fire wheels but now grown up so no need for the pacificer.

This is one reason why western always laugh at Chinese praying to statues!

A true taoist, with a certain level of cultivation, will not need statue to remind them of how a deity will look like. One taoist master I know have demostrated this by using 'shen sey' to draw deity picture with such detials! eg:


Thus I believed Jave is also using a form of 'shen sey' to draw those deity artworks! My respect!

yup, bro, strongly agree on your reply. :P

actually if you have reach a certain level, statues or "physically" forms of Deities to human are so-called extra.

higher level cultivated group can somehow communicate to Deities without any media like joss, tailsman, etc.

but for low level cultivated people like normal human kinds, they do need a certain media to help them to achieve the communication and connection between the Deities and themselves.

eg: Tablets of Deities name, statues, certain objects believed to be Deities weapons, etc.

dear oshgosh,
it is my pleasure to provide those pictures.
btw, over here its not a thing to have temples under one roof. this is due to the fact that its more of a pride thing between humans than anything else. if there are combined temples in Malaysia, it is only because of these following reasons to my opinion:
1) the deity's request
2) confiscation of temple's land and
3) incapability of other temples to run and manage thus combining 2 or more temples into one committee.

over here, as a matter of fact, Labuan is the only place in whole of Malaysia that houses a 9 ong yah temple and has a statue depicting their presence. Similar to all the other temples, we only have tablets and some temples only a stone wrapped in yellow cloth representing the chopped heads of the brothers. here we strongly believe the existance of all 9 brothers and the 9TH is the most powerful amongst all, therefore the main day of the celebration is on the last day itself. KOR KHOON is held on the 3rd, 6th, and 9th day of the festival, with the 9th being the grandest. its held in the afternoon and its vegetarian.
please if you don't mind, send the article that you have with regards to 9 ong yah that is about 50 pgs long to me. it will be interesting and appreciated. please eend to my e mail at cct_cheah@hotmail.com
thank you and best regards
CT

dear bro jave,
i truly agree with the article that have pointed out the believes with regards to the Malaysians, with the 1st to the Hakka, 2nd and 3rd to the Hokkien. however there is a minority and with extreme strong influence in the festival and the emperors is the Shantung People, mostly found in Sabah. they have a small but the 1st temple built in honour of the 9 ong yah in Sabah. their colour is not gold but red and they pray to 9 brothers with th 9th being the main worship and without statues.

According to certain scriptures as per stated by you, these Nine Deities are believed to be the 9 sons of the Mother of the Great Dipper in the North (Dou Mu Niang Niang). one clear example could be seen in IPOH whereby the temple's name is DOU MOU KONG and it houses the 9 emperors as well.

there is a stark similarity in all 9 ong yah temples in Malaysia. all temples dedicated to them houses KONG TEIK CHOON ONG as their priority. this hold one belief that KTCO is a mediator and a good friend or colleague with the 9 brothers.
it is true that Dou Mou Niang Niang is the mother and the deity in charge of them. that is one of the reasong why she holds power to the 9 levels and heavenly doors in Heaven. this levels and doors are further proved with some temples in Malaysia dedicated to these brothers are named as "Jiu Tien Men" or "Kau Thnee Kong"
it is to my belief and thus futher agreeing with you, bro that there are 9 individuals that make up the 9 ong yah and not the title. the reason pertaining to the title and the colloqual phrase "9 Ong Yah" is because the 9TH brother is greatly reverred amongst the 9 of them.

there is a system here to know which brother has come down through trance, that is with the drinking of tea cups. :) you see, 9 cups are placed in 1 line. if you divide 9 to 2 you get 4 cups on the left and right with the 9th in the middle, that is cup number 9, to signify the 9th brother, then the right will be 1, left will be 2 until the end. if the kitong pick up a cup then the followers will know which brother.
this normally is used to identify which brother has descend and each of them has different duties to perform throughout the festival.
regards
CT

dear oshgosh,
yes it is true that the hindus on the 9 days similar with our frstival celebrates for 9 days. this to them is called "NAVA KARAGAM" THE BLESSING OF THE 9 PLANETS
on this 9 days, they celebrate each 3 consecutive days dedicating to the 3 main goddess of the Hindu pantheon, Durga Ma, Kali Ma and Sakthi Ma, apart from the planets. they believe that these 3 deities are rulers of the planets and wheels great power from these planets.
nava karagam is the celebration of the 9 planets often represented with 9 statues placed outside the courtyard of the temple. these 9 planets are depicted with statues that also coincidently are brothers and taken care by the 3 female deities stated above.
all rules are the same with us, vegetarian, abstinence, and all taboos apply.
regards
CT

dear all,
i definitely agree with statements made by bro REBORN and Jave. you see human beings are funny creatures to me. we must see to believe and have faith through constant miracles performed and picture relations. yes i agree on the statues that are being created to depict certain related characteristics of a saint or a holy person. through this depiction, men can relate and reinforce beliefs thus providing a certain level of assurance and security thus leading to influence and finally reinforcing and creating belief.

In Buddhism, we seek to eradicate form; to be formless, no I and be selfless through cultivating the middle path. likewise in this scenario, i again strongly agree on the opinions of my brothers with the cultivation of Taoism.

A statue is a mere REPRESENTATION of a deity and it takes in a form. once devotees cultivated through form, eg. praying, offering then in time it will be formless.

like an example of prayers. the 1st time we take a prayer book and recite(FORM) then in due time we naturally recite and pray without the book(FORMLESS)

the same with statues. there are just blocks of wood carved to signify and reinforce god's presence.

A true taoist and devotee prays with their hearts and soul, thats what is called purity to all deities in the pantheon and realms.

regards
CT

hello brothers...don mind send the 50 pages long articles to mi ma??? i'm interested to read more ab it...thanks... 'saint'

hello! care to send me the 50pages please.