Leng Ern Jee Temple 灵隐寺 (15 Jalan Rajah)
Leng Ern Jee Temple 灵隐寺
(15 Jalan Rajah)
App Profile ID 190 Tutorial group D9 Eng Si Ting Name Zhang Ke Qi Feng Wen Han
Content 1. Introduction ...... 1 2. Objective of Report ...... 1 3. History of the Temple ...... 1 4. Layout and Artifacts ...... 2 5. Deities in the Temple ...... 3 6. Events & Spirit Mediums ...... 4 7. Conclusion ...... 5 Appendices: ...... 6 1. Photo introduction: Deities & Spirit Medium ...... 6 2. Photo introduction: Artifacts ...... 7 3. Story of Lu Dong Bin ...... 12
Leng Ern Jee Temple 灵隐寺
1. Introduction
Leng Ern Jee Temple (星洲灵隐寺) is one of a De Jiao Hui Temples in Singapore. The main deities of the temple are Ji Gong Huo Fo (济公活佛) and Fu You Di Jun named Lu Dong Bin (孚佑帝君吕洞宾). It also accommodates Guanyin (观音).
With a 73-year history, the existed Leng Ern Jee Temple located at 15 Jalan Rajah in Singapore (329136) has been built for more than 20 years. It has other two sister temples. One is Chee Hwan Kog Singapore (星洲德
教济芳阁) located at 67 Anchorvale Link (545071) and another is Singapore Chee Hoon Kog Moral Uplifting
Society (星洲德教济云阁) located at 1 Jalan Bilal off Bedok Road (468854). Leng Ern Jee Temple is the mother temple associated with the Teochew community. Additionally, since it is the headquarter, there is no mother temple back in China.
2. Objective of Report
Aiming at facilitating better understanding of Chinese temples in Singapore, we did a visit to Leng Ern Jee Temple on 9th September 2017. After finishing the first draft, we went to the temple again at 27th September in order to capture some additional necessary information. In the ways of observing and conducting face-to-face interview with staffs and visitants in the temple, this report will provide an overview of Leng Ern Jee Temple on its facts and details of history, deities, spirit mediums, artifacts, events and so on.
3. History of the Temple
The predecessor of Leng Ern Jee was founded during the Japanese occupation of Singapore between 1942 and 1945. With the number of members growing larger, a new home was built to accommodate members at Jalan Rajah in 1951, which located on the opposite side to the current address. From then on, the temple got its official name as Leng Ern Jee.
In the early 1960s, the three temples, Leng Ern Jee, Chee Hwan Kog Singapore, and Singapore Chee Hoon Kog Moral Uplifting Society was united together under the Ji Group, characterized by the Chinese character Ji showed in their temple names or deities. For example, the Chinese name of Chee Hwan Kong is Ji Fang Ge (济芳阁) while Chee Hoon Kog is Ji Yun Ge (济云阁). The name of deity in Leng Ern Jee is Jing Gong Huo
Fo (济公活佛) which includes the character Ji as well. The character, Ji, in Chinese meant relieving and helping, which was in pace with the Buddhist tradition of arguing individuals act with compassion for others
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in every facet of life.
Volunteers among these temples had been helping out among temples in the beginning. Unfortunately, Chee Hoon Kog stopped operating shortly afterwards, from which some volunteers moved to Leng Ern Jee, while the rest joined Chee Hwan Kog. Around 1982, Chee Hoon Kog was reestablished at 1 Jalan Bilal. These three Ji Group continued sharing volunteers and in cooperation with each other when organizing events.
In 1968, volunteers set up a Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic to provide free medical services for the public, which reflected the spirit of Ji Group. As the scale of service gradually expand, Leng Ern Jee tried to break space constraint, resulting in its removing to 15 Jalan Rajah in 1987.
4. Layout and Artifacts After entering main gate, there are two lions on the both side. A stone carving altar (see Appendix 2.1) and panel in the front gate lied between them. A censer (see Appendix 2.2) is put behind the altar in front of the main hall.
The main entrance is made up of three doors. the middle one is made for gods to enter and leave. The couplet at the main entrance writes “純陽正氣可謂仙家呂祖，道濟德魏堪稱天界活佛”. The temple plaque “靈隐
寺” was hung over the middle door. (see Appendix 2.3) Believers should enter by right side with left leg stepping over the threshold first, while exit through the door on the left with right leg. The threshold on the right is named drag mouth(龙口) and the left Tiger exit. Stepping thresholds are banned.
The main hall lies at the center, where most of the deities, Jing Gong Huo Fo, Fu You Di Jun, and Guan Yin, are placed and worshipped. In front of the main god altar, there is a censer and a donation box on the main table (see Appendix 2.4). The couplet beside the main god altar writes “靈傑蔚人文 柳筆沙箋醒濁世; 隱揚
遵聖訓 慈雲法雨護蒼生” (see Appendix 2.5). A picture of Fu You Di Jun (Lu Dong Bin) was posted on the wall in the behind of the main hall with couplet written as “寶劍斬長蛟 應共旌陽留; 僊衣遺彩蝶 好同勾漏
訪” and the writer “葉恭绰” (see Appendix 2.6). Two sculptures of Guanyin (see Appendix 1.2) and Jing
Gong Huo Fo (see Appendix 1.3) are put in front of the picture.
The administrative offices for the temple keepers is built on both side after entering main hall. The donation information is post opposite the office. (see Appendix 2.7) On the walls of aisles, there are notice boards where some information about spirit medium and history of the temple was shown.
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The Ancestor Hall, known as Yan De Tang (延德堂) is located behind the main hall with couplet written “徳
修遵孝道千秋佳境人牛眠，延績焚馨香一座明堂瞻鳯阙”. (see Appendix 2.8) There are side doors on the left and right in the ancestor hall.
5. Deities in the Temple The two main deity Lu Chun Yang Shi Zun and Ji Gong Huo Fo were invited from Bahau, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia for the new shrine established on 2nd floor of a shop house along Circular Road.
5.1 Ji Gong Huo Fo 济公活佛 Ji gong was born Li Xiu Yuan, son of a former military advisor. At the age of 18, he went to Hang Zhou and became a monk in LingYin temple. He was given the monastic name, Daoji. Unlike traditional monks, Daoji did not believe in abstinence from worldly temptations like alcohol and meat. On the contrary, he was often seen drunk and his favorite food was dog meat. Hence, he is often depicted in tattered robes with a bottle of wine in his hand. Even though he did not carry the usual image of monks, he was benevolent and was always willing to lend a helping hand to others. Many believed that he was the incarnation of the Taming Dragon as he seemed to possess godly powers. He often used his powers to help the poor and rid diseases. After his death in 1207, syncretic Taoism began to revere Daoji as a deity and eventually, he was recognized by Buddhism as well. Now, he remains a popular deity as his stories continue to be passed on.
5.2 Fu You Di Jun (Lu Dong Bing) 孚佑帝君（吕洞宾） Lu Dong Bin was born Lu Yan in Jingzhao prefecture around 796 CE. An excellent fragrance filled the room during his birth. He was born an intelligent man with many academic achievements but he failed the top-level civil service exam twice. He met his Taoist master. Zhong Li Quan in the marketplace. Impressed with his poem, Lu Yan invited his master into his home where they cooked a yellow millet. He dozed off and dreamt that he had passed the court exam, gaining success, wealth and fame. However, a change in the politics of the court caused him his prominent rank. He was betrayed by his beautiful wife, and his children were murdered by bandits. He lost everything and eventually died on the streets. Even though he lived a lifetime in his dream, in reality it was shorter than the time it took the yellow millet to cook. His dream is now known as the yellow millet dream. This dream casted an insight to Taoism for Lu Yan and pushed him to abandon everything to pursue Taoism. Zhong Li Quan set ten trials for Lu Yan to pass before he would accept him as his student. 3 | Page
6. Events & Spirit Mediums
As a multipurpose temple serving as the altar of ancestors as well as for the worship of various Gods, there are, precisely, two major aspects of events in this temple in a parallel manner. The fact remains that the religious activities are held periodically according to the Gods’ Enlightenment Day or Birthday, while commonly the folks and visitants would use this temple as an altar for worshipping purpose.
6.1 Taoism Related Religious Activities a. 19th of 3rd lunar month - Birthday of Ji Gong 道济佛祖圣诞日
b. 14th of 4th lunar month - Birthday of Lu Chun Yang 呂纯阳祖师圣诞日
c. 8th of 8th lunar month - Lu Chun Yang Enlightenment Day 呂纯阳祖师得道飞升日
d. 8th of 12th lunar month - Ji Gong Enlightenment Day 道济佛祖飞升日
The celebration of the Gods’ birthday is technically a gathering session whereby the believers will watch a performance conducted by the folk art troupe and sit around each other to have a meal together. Moreover, according to past experience, they would also contribute to burning the incense or kneel down and pray to prove their loyalty. Even though the activities might vary, the purposes are, however, consistent to express their sincere faith on the Gods.
e. Every Thursday 8pm Consultation through Hoo Kee or spirit-writing 扶乩问事
During the activities, Ji Tong (乩童), as an extremely important role, is usually involved. Basically, it refers to a type of people who act as being spiritually possessed by specific Gods in the performances. After the ritual, such medium could directly communicate with the Gods in spiritual world and even enquires similar behaviors as that God so that he could immediately writes down a series of symbols on papers at the end of such “conversation”. He might also inform the surrounding people as providing the messages that the God leaves.
f. Every Monday to Saturday 7am to 9am 中医施诊部施医赠药
It is generally a charitable activity whereby experienced herbalist doctor of traditional Chinese medicine will give medical advice to the patients who visit this temple. Being devout to the Gods that these doctors believe, they choose to make contributions for free and hence, it becomes a favorite place for local followers to take traditional treatment through Chinese medicine. However, according to the explanation by the current staffs, moderate donation is encouraged and well appreciated for the sake of covering the temple expenses in various aspects.
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6.2 Traditional Ancestor Worship Besides the pious worship to the Gods, there are quantitative memorial tablets lying behind the main hall. During our visit to the temple, most of folks we have seen were here to offer tributes as well as to burn incense for their ancestors.
Elaborating more on the tablets, ashes will be initially kept in urn according to traditions after death. However, if they could own a slot in this temple, his or her ash will then be transferred beneath the memorial tablets to be worshipped by their latter generations. By observation, we noticed there are some tables covered in red carpet. With the aid of officers here we understood that those are for the people who preserve their tablets in the temple. Since they are still alive, red towel is used to cover the wooden tablet. Especially, when a couple passed away, a significantly red memorial tablet will be used rather than the default black color. The locals use this hall for holding a memorial ceremony for their ancestors at a regular interval.
6.3 The Reflection The major problem that we encountered is the ambiguity of the stuff’s explanation. To begin with, Leng Ern Jee Temple is, in nature a complicated entity since it is built to worship lots of gods from different groups involving Taoism gods, the Buddha and Guanyin. Driven by the burning curiosity, our team decided to ask the temple stuff while the real purpose of worshipping abundant gods remains unclear as the officer only insisted that this is a Taoism temple rather than anything else meaningful. To find out the solution, we also had quantitative conversations with the local folks who visited this temple. Unfortunately, the visitors are all from Teochew community and only presented to offer tributes to their ancestors. They expressed their uncertainties to us and suggested us to ask the stuffs worked here as well. The reason that Leng Ern Jee Temple tends to be multi-functional still remains unknown eventually.
7. Conclusion
In a nutshell, Leng Ern Jee Temple (星洲灵隐寺), as one of the Taoism Temples in Singapore, serving Jing
Gong (济公活佛) and Lu Dong Bin (孚佑帝君吕洞宾) as the main deities and Guanyin (观音) as the subordinate, is a multi-purpose temple for both worshipping the Gods and ancestors without interfering each other. General activities majorly aim at showcasing or sharing the sincere belief of the Gods. Pause and ponder under the fast-paced urbanization in current era, this temple still remains to be prestigious among the folks. For some certain perspectives, it definitely proves that traditions pose strong resistance from vanishing. The rituals and worshipping processes affect people beyond the races and cultures in a way that could not be ceased.
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Appendices:
1. Photo introduction: Deities & Spirit Medium
Appendix 1.1 Information in Notice Board Appendix 1.2 Guanyin
Appendix 1.3 Jing Gong Huo Fo Appendix 1.4 Fu You Di Jun (Lu Dong Bin)
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2. Photo introduction: Artifacts Appendix 2.1 Stone Carving Altar
Appendix 2.2 Censer Appendix 2.3 Temple Plaque
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Appendix 2.4 Censer and Donation Box on The Main Table
Appendix 2.5 The Main Hall
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Appendix 2.6 The Picture on The Wall Appendix 2.7 Donation Information
Appendix 2.8 Yan De Tang
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Appendix 2.9 Lions
Appendix 2.10 other artifacts
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3. Story of Lu Dong Bin One day Lü came back from work and found out that his loved one was dying; without sadness or remorse, he started to prepare the dress and coffin necessary for burial, but later his loved one revived and lived on. Lü was still without sadness or joyous feeling. Lü was selling goods at a market and there came a buyer to bargain with him. After agreeing on the price, Lü handed him the stuff but the buyer refused to pay in full and then walked away. Lü would not argue and let him walk away.
On the first day of the lunar calendar, Lü met with a beggar. After giving him some money, the beggar kept asking for more and threw vulgar words at him. Lü left the scene with a smile. Lü was once a shepherd. During his tenure a hungry tiger was eyeing the goats under his care. Lü protected the goats by sending them down to the hillside and stood in front of the Tiger. The hungry tiger was awed to see this and left without hurting Lü.
Lü was studying at a small hut on a mountain when a beautiful woman came by and asked if she could stay there for the night since she was lost. That night, this beautiful lady was flirting and tried to get Lü to have sex with her, but Lü was untouched by such temptation.
One day Lü came back to his house and saw that he had been burglarized and lost all his belongings. Without becoming angry he started to work on his farm. As he dug into the ground he found countless pieces of gold. He uncovered the earth without taking a single piece of the gold. Lü bought some bronze utensils at a market. Upon returning home he realized that all of the utensils were made of gold and he immediately returned them to the seller.
A crazy Taoist was selling medicine on the street, telling people that his magic potion would have one of two outcomes: either 1) the drinker would die on the spot, or 2) the drinker would become immortal. No one would dare to try, except Lü, who bought and tried the potion. Nothing happened to him.
A river was elevated due to heavy rain. Lü and other passengers were on a boat crossing the river. Before reaching the middle of the journey, the weather deteriorated, and most of the passengers except Lü became worried. Lü took it in his stride and never worried about life and death! Lü was alone at home and suddenly weird things happened. Ghost and monsters were killing each
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other and wanted to do the same to Lü. Showing no sense of fear, Lü kept on doing his chores without paying attention to them. Another group of devils with blood all over them tried to take Lü’s life away by saying to Lü that he owed his previous life to them since in past life Lü took his life. Without any fear Lü said ‘go ahead and take my life since I took yours in past life, this is fair and square!’ All of a sudden the sky turned blue and those ghost and devils disappeared. Zhongli Quan (Who happened to be his Teacher and Mentor in Taoist stories) was looking and laughing at him while all these events were happening.
These trials proved that Lu Yan was a pure and dignified person. He started studying the way under Zhong Li Quan but was unsatisfied with his teachings and came up with his own version of the DAO. Lu Yan’s version focuses more on inner peace which eventually became the true DAO that is being passed on. He is said to have improved many others’ physical and mental health. He eventually attained immortality of enlightenment and is worshipped by many Taoist around the world. He is also a part of the popular legend, the eight immortals (八仙过海) and was often depicted with a double-edged sword and the de facto leader of the group.
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