Nope, lol.

As I've mentioned earlier, Tu Di Gong and Tua Pek Gong are two aspects of the same god. Tu Di Gong is the Earth God aspect; Tua Pek Gong is the Wealth God aspect.

A Tu Di Gong can outrank a Datuk, or vice versa, depending on his influence in the area of land and how long he has been reigning as its landlord.

The Cheng Huang or City God has a different scope of duty from both the Datuks and Tu Di Gong; I will speak about him later.

I'm sorry, I don't follow.

What exactly is there to reconcile?

Try looking harder, haha.

There is one right in my neck of the woods (see photo below).

Another City God temple in Penang is one of the oldest temples in Malaysia, if not THE oldest.

It's possible for a virtuous individual to attain divinity.

Theoretically, everyone has this potential; most of the sintua deities were once human beings, after all.

The uninitiated will call it Taoism, but in truth, Taoism and sintua are different religions.

As I have mentioned, sintua contains a lot of elements that Taoism does not subscribe to - this includes mediumship and certain deities such as the Monkey King, Na Zha and Guan Yin.

A lot of people who think they are Taoists are actually sintua practitioners.

Mao Shan and what-not are similar, but not the same.

Divination does have a part to play in Chinese folk religion, yes.

A true sintua practitioner would understand that EVERYONE goes to Hell - see my earlier posts on the meaning of Hell in the sintua context.

He would understand that if he is being punished in Hell, he deserves it, and that he should accept his punishment like a man, plus reflect and repent accordingly.

And he would understand that the gods are not all-powerful, nor would they intervene if someone is being deservedly punished.

Which is why the more I listen to this fella Vince's testimony, the more I think he's full of crap.

Since when does becoming a medium afford you any sort of special protection, or grant you exemption from final judgement?

You become a medium as a form of atonement for your negative karma, nothing more.

If a monotheist god appears to occupy the throne, I wouldn't give two hoots.

He never exerted any influence over my life, the same way the ghostly beings in black and white did.

My loyalty lies to them, not to this guy who never made his presence felt one bit.

That ten years' service would mostly have been penance for previous bad karma, as I mentioned earlier.

Hi Coco, glad you're enjoying the thread. Here are the answers to your questions.

The small lantern would, indeed, be a makeshift altar to Tian Gong.

A sincere prayer by a pious, virtuous person can transcend language barriers of any sort.

If a person dies suddenly or unexpectedly (i.e. in an accident or through foul play), their passing may be overlooked or undetected, thus resulting in their soul not being collected as it normally would be. Also, those who die violent deaths may find themselves bound to the place where they died, unable to leave unless they are collected, or unless the relevant rituals are performed to release them.

Other souls are under probation, yes, as you've suggested. Others are fugitives, perhaps escapees from Hell or elsewhere. Others are performing spiritual cultivation on earth, perhaps in the service of one or more gods. And there are others who are not the souls of the dead, but supernatural creatures who may have never even been human to begin with.

Hell is traditionally depicted as being located deep underground (the Chinese name for Hell, di yu/地狱, literally means 'prison of the earth'), but it is very vast, way more vast than the subterranean regions of the earth could ever encompass. It should more appropriately be regarded as a separate dimension in its own right - if you play Dungeons and Dragons, the Shadowfell would be a good analogue.

There are many zones in Hell. Some of these are boiling infernos, others frozen wastelands. The terrain and scenery are very varied, depending on where you are. It is said that some zones can even be tailor-made to suit the punishments of individual sinners.






The origin of the Gates of Hell being opened during the Seventh Month lies in the story of Maudgalyāyana, also known as Mu Lian/目连. He was one of Buddha's first disciples, who journeyed to Hell and discovered his departed mother in a state of starvation as a result of being miserly and mean-spirited when she was alive - she was now a hungry ghost, one of hundreds.

Mu Lian developed a means to offer food to the hungry ghosts, as well as to contribute to their eventual salvation by providing charity to monks and the needy, thus accumulating merits on their behalf (the Ullambana). This eventually evolved into the beliefs surrounding the Hungry Ghost Festival, in which the prisoners in Hell are let out during the Seventh Month for a temporary reprieve, to partake of food offerings provided by their loved ones and good Samaritans alike.



The spirits are guarded, of course, to prevent them from escaping or otherwise causing havoc. But the Hell deities can only do so much, of course. Mishaps do happen, unfortunately.

Those with the second sight get sensitised to the sight of spirits. Whether it is the Seventh Month or otherwise may thus make no difference to your mother's friend at all.


Li Ya Pek, the Black Ghost, does indeed wield magic chains, which he uses to bind his prisoners with.

This is me dressed up as him, by the way.

Thai occult stuff is totally beyond the scope of this thread, sorry.

Hi Fox, glad you're enjoying the thread. I'm trying my best to make it accessible and understandable to neophytes and longtime believers alike.

To everyone participating, and those who are merely lurking, stay tuned. I plan to keep this show on the road for as I'm able.

I do, as a matter of fact.

The fact that I pray to the Hell beings is actually quite relevant to my job as an ER doctor, as I deal with those who are at death's door on a very regular basis.

Who is the City God?

The City God/城隍爷 is the chief spiritual bureaucrat of a habited area or built-up settlement - each such place has its own incumbent. He is responsible for the well-being of the locale and its inhabitants - functioning as mayor, judge, police chief and public works officer all in one. City Gods have different rankings - a City God in charge of a capital city, for instance, ranks higher than one in charge of a village or small neighbourhood. The area's lesser spiritual officials, such as the lower-ranking Earth Gods, report to him and assist him in performing his duties.

While not a Hell deity per se, the City God does have involvement with the Hell side of things. It is his job to furnish the Hell judges with comprehensive reports on the good and ill deeds of his human subjects, so that their trials can take place smoothly and that rewards or punishments may be dispensed accordingly.

To aid him in this task, a number of Hell beings serve amongst his staff - they are 'outsourced' from Hell to work for him, and may include one or more pairs of Black and White Brothers, Ox-Head and Horse Face, et cetera. City God temples are often adorned with hellish décor such as scenes from the Ten Courts of Hell, so as to accentuate his role as a Hellish liaison.

As mentioned earlier in the thread, a deceased soul's first destination after death is the tribunal of their local City God, which is akin to an arraignment court. There, the deceased pleads guilty or otherwise to their misdeeds, which are then tried when they transported to Hell thereafter.

Below is a picture of a City God accompanied by the Hellish beings in his employ.

Datuk worship is very seamlessly interwoven into Chinese folk religion by this point in time, due in no small measure to the fact that Malay people practically do not conduct it any more. We have almost completely taken over this religious practice from the Malay people. Also, barring the fact that the Datuks themselves are Malay spirits, the current methods of worship are essentially Chinese in nature, incorporating elements such as incense sticks and Chinese-style ritual chants. The whole thing is very Sinicised.

One can't quite say the same for Thai occultism, which maintains a very distinct identity and methodology of its own that does not entirely harmonise with Chinese folk religious practices.

A little something from my YouTube channel - some rare festival footage of several mediums channelling the Black and White Brothers.

Note their limping, 'zombie-like' walks, in keeping with the fact that the beings they are channelling are ghostly creatures.

I'm not that mean, lol. But thank you nevertheless for helping to keep the thread on track, my lupine friend.

My New Year garments have arrived on time - special thanks to sales.convenience for helping me obtain them.

Bidding all and sundry a happy and prosperous Year of the Goat - 祝朋友们大吉大利, 万事如意!

Ever heard of the phrase 'putting your money where your mouth is'?

Who is the Filial Son?

Long, long ago, there lived an unfilial young man who preferred to gamble, drink and womanise rather than care for his ailing mother. Only once she passed away did he realise how wrong he had treated her, although it was of course too late by then. The distraught youth lamented so severely by her grave that he wept tears of blood, wasted away and died shortly thereafter, as well.

Upon his arrival in Hell, the Ten Judges, as a punishment for his lack of filial piety, turned him into a wretched, perpetually depressed ghostly being, doomed to forever lament his neglectful ways - the Filial Son/孝子爷, god of mourning and funerals. Aside from presiding over last rites and ensuring that the deceased receives a proper send-off, he is a living (unliving? undead?) reminder that one should be kind to kith and kin while they are still alive, particularly parents and elders.

Statues of the Filial Son depict a sad-looking young man, sometimes with painted-on tears of blood coursing down his cheeks, dressed in sackcloth mourning garments and carrying a lantern emblazoned with the word 孝 ('filial'), the way the next-of-kin at traditional Chinese funerals do. He also holds a wand of warding - a tool that he uses to ward off malevolent presences from funerals and burials. Mediums who channel the Filial Son dress identically to his statues, and are prone to weeping uncontrollably.

The 'prosperity' statements written on the hats of the Hell deities actually originated as ironic/sarcastic statements, sick jokes of sorts, given the fact that one normally encounters them only when one is dead: "See me and you'll prosper - 'prosper' as in get dragged down to Hell to be judged and walloped. Heh-heh-heh-heh."

Over time, it evolved into the belief that a deserving individual who crosses paths with them may receive a reward, possibly monetary in nature.

Happy New Year to all fellow sintua devotees again - 祝朋友们大吉大利, 万事如意!