Thank you. The design is a composite design that I cooked up after looking at several other thrones and incorporating features from each that I considered nice.

The throne legs are carved into the likenesses of generic ghostly minions.

thx ya

Hey nacht, not sure if this is a valid question regarding sintua. But this has played into my mind for quite abit.

Since sintua is a combination of religion, folklore and culture, is there any deities that are considered "young"? I would say young in the sense that with such a broad array of deities being worshiped from the day humanity believes in god up till today, and with people spreading sintuaism over such a long time, are there any deities that you know of that are being worshipped only in the past decade or century?

There was a post about a woman who was consecrated in Singapore who was a European or something (sorry if the facts are wrong) that sparked my curiousity.

There are a fair number, most of whom are rather obscure and quite localised, such as the expatriate Fräulein whom you have correctly pointed out (original post below).

The Hell paymaster, Uncle Moneybags, is another being whose worship really only hit its stride as of late (from the 1980s and onwards); I would consider him as arguably the most widely prayed-to 'recent deity'.

Always heard after u died u go to hell 1st. After settling the stuff, u will drink some water n forget all ur memories. Is there such thing?

After serving your sentence in Hell, and when it is time for you to be reborn, the entity known as Grandmother Meng/孟婆, who is the assistant of Judge Xue of the Tenth Court of Hell, will feed you a magic brew that wipes all memories of your former identity, in the interest of giving you a fresh start.

Whatever lessons you have learned through your penance in Hell, however, will not be forgotten, and will influence your personality when you re-enter the world.

People these days like to portray Grandmother Meng as a harmless-looking kindly old lady (see first picture below - this is a statue of her) and like to say that this brew is tea, but the oldest legends clearly state that Grandmother Meng is a ghostly, witch-like being (see second picture below - these are two very talented cosplayers posing as her), and that her brew is a revolting concoction primarily composed of animal blood.

I'm a horror movie buff; I like the old legends best.





Following here is a third picture that shows the Tenth Court of Hell; Judge Xue is presiding over the Court right there at the top, while in the bottom left hand corner you can see souls due to be reborn queuing up at Grandmother Meng's stall for a cup of her brew, before they walk through the Wheel of Reincarnation, which is a portal through which they may re-enter the mortal realm with a new physical form. Note that some luckless folks are due to be reborn as animals, and have been handed animal skins to wear in advance.



This post has been edited by nachtsider: Apr 27 2016, 08:45 PM

If one is given the magic brew & all the memories are erased, why do we pray our ancestors? Assuming they drank the brew, our ancestors probably forget who we are?

It doesn't matter if they have forgotten you or not.

They are still your ancestors, no?

Besides, given the fact that...

1. You and I have no way of knowing if our ancestors have been reborn or not, and
2. It usually takes decades to centuries for someone to serve their sentence in Hell

... the safest play is to assume that they have not yet been reborn, and continue praying for them.

Ic...didnt know it takes decades or centuries b4 they r reborn..

Falling into a brown study.

Ahh, I see. I recall reading somewhere that the Guan Yin temple in Pitt Street, Penang started off primarily as a Mazu temple, thus wondered bout the connection. Thank you for your reply, and for sharing that lovely statue of Guan Yin with us. (:

No problem.

Ma Zu's birthday took place yesterday, incidentally; here she is being fêted.

Mediums channeling Hell deities being paraded through a hawker centre, hoisted aloft on a coffin-as-sedan.

Ma Zu has NO relation to Guan Yin whatsoever.

Someone hasn't read the thread thoroughly.

'Rice grandmas' are all frauds who tell you lies.

They cannot communicate with the dead at will; nobody can.

Do not trust anyone who claims to be able to summon or channel the souls of the departed.

nachtsider... good sharing here. Took me several days to read all the posts. It is very rare to get articles in english on this subject. The pictures are awesome too. Keep up!

I've seen Tua Pek in action where the medium wears robes with a tall hat and sling bag full of hell money. He was holding a fan. Typical offerings are cigarette without filters, stout (referred as black oil), black coffee, pau and other food.

The deity looked friendly. Role as counselors and agony aunts. Sort of spiritual befrienders to listen to problems and offer advice. Cool.

Again nacht thanks for the clarification, certainly quite educational.

Another question, so we believe in reincarnation. And humanity has grown exponentially up to 7bil. Where does all these souls of humanity come from?

I was talking to a couple of friends about this topic the other day. An interesting thought came by us.

With the ever declining numbers of animal species due to humanity's desire to expand and reproduce, is there a conflict in the "factory" where human beings are reincarnated into?

My friend went one step further and said that "You see, the reason we see so many human beings acting barbarically and evil is because those who are suppose to be reincarnated into animals are being push to be human beings because we reproduce too quickly."

* We have been told that only those who have accumulated great karma and merits are being rewarded to be born human. I refuse to believe that in the current world situation we have 7billion and growing meritorious numbers of souls being churned out as human beings? The irony is that it actually lends more credit to my friend's theory above that some of these souls are not meant to be born human, but our reproduction rate has forced them to be born as one.

It is a far fetched idea and may offend people. But I think I wouldn't be the first or last to wonder about questions like this. If you have any takes on this, would appreciate it nacht.



This post has been edited by RChance: May 6 2016, 05:17 PM

I'll let you in on something that a good number of people are unaware about.

Not all human souls are reincarnated souls.

Completely fresh souls, not having being born previously, still do exist.

They can come into being at random from acts of conception.

Barbarous humans can simply be fresh souls that went down the wrong path in life, or reincarnated souls who did not learn well from their time in the next world.

Souls that are slated for reincarnation as animals will not be 'pushed to be human beings because humans reproduce too quickly'.

There is no 'human population quota' to be met.

Hi Putra, thank you so much for reading my thread; I'm glad you're entertained. Please stay tuned; I promise to keep things fun.

The tall boxy hats that Tua Ya Pek and Li Ya Pek wear are based on the hats worn by police constables during the Song Dynasty; they denote their status as officers of the spiritual law.

As mentioned previously, Tua Ya Pek's magic fan is a tool that he can use to draw the soul out of a person or creature's body, by waving it over the person/creature in question.

The Hell bank notes he carries in his sling bag are objects he can use as talismans to either bless the worthy or curse the wicked.

Unfiltered Camels are his favourite blend of cancer sticks; I have yet to see him partake of coffee, though Guinness Stout is always a hit with him ('black dog'/黑狗, not 'black oil', is what they call it in my neck of the woods, however, on account of the dark colour of the stuff and the Guinness bulldog mascot).

He is a cop first and foremost, with the responsibility of subduing spiritual criminals, but yes, he isn't beneath counseling those in need of a spot of advice.