The Kusu Pilgrimage: an Enduring Myth
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The Newsletter | No.59 | Spring 2012 50 | The Network News from Asia (continued) The Kusu Pilgrimage: an enduring myth Lu Caixia 2. 3. 1. 4. ON A SMALL ISLanD about 5 kilometres south of Singapore, Malay shrines – similarly dismissed the turtle legend. 1: Tourists pose receiving prayers for peace, health, wealth and prosperity. the enduring power of myth manifests itself in the form His account is that Syed Abdul Rahman vanished while on in front of the Both places also offer “fertility trees” on which those wanting of an annual pilgrimage, for which tens of thousands of Kusu with his friends. He later appeared in their dreams cheery “Welcome children hang stones and other items to make their wishes, devotees undertake to its shores; a practice possibly dating to ask for a shrine to be built. Ishak is also skeptical of the to Kusu Island” while gamblers pray to both Chinese and Malay deities for back centuries. Over time, a fusion of religious practices claim that the three saints were family. sign at the jetty. winning lottery numbers. It is not unusual to see followers of occurred as believers of different faiths gathered to pray different religions visiting the temple and shrines. Professing 2: The Tua Pek at a Chinese temple and three Malay shrines (keramat) on With no archival records, the only available textual to “believe in all gods”, Selvi M., (49, nurse) an Indian Hindu, Kong temple has the island, a phenomenon that is none too surprising in a references are the inscriptions listing contributors to the been expanded and visited Kusu with her Chinese Taoist colleagues during the place like Singapore, where people of diverse cultures and establishment and renovation of the shrines and temple. refurbished several pilgrimage season and prayed at both the Chinese temple religions share the limited physical space of this city-state. Much information can also be gleaned from old newspaper times with donations and the Malay shrines. Both Taoist and Buddhist pilgrims reports on the pilgrimage and the popular myths of Kusu. from devotees. make offerings at Tua Pek Kong temple, which also houses Named for its turtle-like shape, Kusu (Turtle Island in Spanning over a century, these reports shed light on how the Guanyin ( , Goddess of Mercy), revered by followers the Hokkien dialect) is one of the most visited of some the accounts have evolved with time, thus showing the 3: The Datok Nenek of both religions. 60 offshore islands belonging to, and a rare instance of malleability of oral history. Keramat, one of the undisturbed sanctity in, development-driven Singapore. three keramats, or Given the twin attractions of a mystical origin and idyllic shrines, on top of Numerous tales surround its origins, the most popular According to some local English newspaper articles published surroundings, Kusu has been marketed as a tourist attraction, a hillock on Kusu. among which is the story of a giant turtle rescuing in the 1940s and 50s, pilgrimage to Kusu began as early with mixed results. Many tourist guidebooks on Singapore shipwrecked fishermen by transforming into the island. as 1813, the year of Syed Abdul Rahman’s death, before 4: The weekends include information on Kusu and it is described in official Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles’ arrival in 1819. A petition during the tourism literature as a “holiday resort” with “blue lagoons, The Kusu pilgrimage takes place throughout the ninth month notice published on 14 August 1875 in the Singapore English pilgrimage season pristine beaches and tranquil settings”. Since the 1970s, of the Chinese lunar calendar, falling between the months daily The Straits Times further suggests that it was a fairly see the greatest Singapore tourism authorities have been keen to develop of September and November. This is when Kusu awakes established practice by then. Submitted by Cheang Hong Lim, numbers of pilgrims a cluster of islands south of Singapore (Southern Islands) – from its slumber as ferry-loads of mainly ethnic Chinese a wealthy Straits Chinese businessman and philanthropist, coming to pray. which Kusu was a part of – into a recreational resort. This devotees arrive. Many devotees first visit the temple of Tua to J. F. A. McNair, then Colonial General and Surveyor-General spurred an ambitious project for which S$50 million was Pek Kong (Dabogong, , literally meaning Grand Uncle), of the Straits Settlements, the petition sought to secure spent to beautify these islands. Since then, Kusu has been a popular deity among the Southeast Asian Chinese. Also the title to Peak Island (as Kusu was known then) and noted enlarged to nearly 6 times its original size (from 1.5 hectares seen as the God of Prosperity, Merchant God and the patron that “many of the Chinese and native Inhabitants of this god of seafarers, the origins of this deity remain debatable, Settlement” prayed regularly to the Tua Pek Kong and Datuk with some identifying him as the local representation of the Keramat on the island “for upwards of thirty years”. It further The Legends of Kusu Chinese Earth God (Tudigong, ), and others seeing him reflected their unhappiness over the British colonial authorities’ as symbolic of early Chinese pioneers in the region. use of the sacred island as a burial ground for immigrants NUMerous LegenDS about the origins two men regularly visited Kusu to give who died in quarantine on the neighbouring St. John’s Island. of the Kusu pilgrimage have surfaced thanks. When they died, they were After praying to Tua Pek Kong, some pilgrims climb 152 over time. An information panel on buried next to each other on the island. steps up a hillock to pray at the shrines of Syed Abdul Rahman, Judging from inscriptions found at the temple and shrines, Kusu lists five of them, though there The Tua Pek Kong temple and the Nenek Ghalib and Puteri Fatimah, three Malay saints who Straits Chinese devotees seemed to be the main or more are more. The most popular tale tells of Datuk Kong shrine were subsequently lived in the 19th century. Most accounts generally relate how active group in sustaining the pilgrimage in its earlier years. two shipwrecked fishermen – a Chinese erected to remember them. Syed Abdul Rahman came to the island, while the other two At the Chinese temple, Straits Chinese tycoon Ong Sam and a Malay – who were saved by a giant are said to be his mother and sister respectively. This form of Leong figures prominently among the top donors for con- turtle that transformed into Kusu. This A third legend is the retelling of a tale saint worship or keramat worship – a legacy of early Sufi Islam tributing 100 Straits dollars to renovation works in 1909, was likely inspired by the turtle-like in the Sejarah Melayu (The Malay Annals, and pre-Islamic belief – has similarities with Tua Pek Kong while inscriptions at the Malay shrines reveal that Nenek shape of Kusu before reclamation took an account of the history of the Malay worship. As some Southeast Asian Chinese have also adopted Ghalib’s shrine was constructed with donations from Baba place, when it was made up of two Sultanate in the 15th and early 16th the practice, the Malay saints too acquired the Sino-Malay (a term of address for Straits Chinese men) Hoe Beng Whatt smaller islets joined by a narrow strip of century), describing schools of todak honorific of Datuk Kong, a combination of the Malay title and others, after she “arrived at the house of” Hoe in 1917. land visible at low tide, with the bigger (swordfish) that attacked people on the “Datuk” and the Chinese title “Kong”. Syed Abdul Rahman This was taken to mean that she had appeared in Hoe’s islet resembling the turtle’s body, shore with their sword-like bills. One is thus simply referred to as “Datuk Kong”. dreams and asked for the shrine to be built in exchange for and the smaller, the head. In a similar day, a Malay boy proposed to the king granting the donors success in business. This tale reflects the account, it was Syed Abdul Rahman and that banana stems be planted along No one seems to know with any certainty when or how situation in which keramat worship came to depend almost his family who were shipwrecked and the seashore to bait the todak. the Kusu pilgrimage began. With no archival records kept exclusively on local Chinese patronage, despite being Malay the turtle emerged to tow them ashore. This idea worked with the fish becoming by the Chinese temple or Malay shrines, memories fade as in origin, as many Malay-Muslims renounced such practices trapped as their bills pierced the stems. guardianship is passed down from generation to generation. as they became more orthodox in their faith. Another legend speaks of two holy The king later killed the clever boy as he Present caretakers offer hazy accounts of the pilgrimage’s men, Syed Rahman (an Arab) and Yam feared a threat to his own rule. Said to origins as told by their predecessors. Cecilia Seet Lay Choo – As such, Chinese influences abound in the rituals observed (a Chinese), who meditated and fasted be adopted by a Chinese couple living a fourth-generation descendent of the first caretaker Bibi at the shrines, with Malay caretakers chanting blessings in on their pilgrimage to Kusu. Yam fell on Kusu, the boy’s spirit lingered on the (a term of address for older Straits Chinese women) Ooi Chai Hokkien and devotees burning joss paper and adding oil to ill and Syed prayed for him. Their lives island to protect his foster parents and Hoong – explained that the Tua Pek Kong temple’s founding lamps in front of the shrines for a small donation.