Bro Natch has surely conveyed much of the needed to be said information readily available.

I shall post a link here to a Taiwanese program that emphasizes on various temples in Taiwan as well as TWO temples from Malaysia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXl9sDSuh4w

Are they they only spirit that inhabits trees/plants not necessary bamboos. Do they co-exist with others ?

That's interesting, because usually in old growth plants, usually there's already a shrine to Datuk Gong.

in that case, if one really need to cut down tree/bamboo, what one ought to do to in order not to offence the spirits but at the same time eradicate any these spirits' dwelling place?

or this should be a work only can be tasked to a medium?

Eh...wasn't it mentioned before that Datuks are mostly historical Malay figures?

How so? Being an earth deity is more like the Taoist concept of Tu Di Gong. Unless...what the Guai Tan series said is true hehe...that local masters after their death can become the local Tu Di Gong.

hello guys,
need a little help here

How to worship a 关二哥？
any specifice date or just chinese calender 初一 and 初十五？
what i need to prepare for the worship? chicken? siew yuk?
is 关二哥 vegetarian?

But wine, sacrificing a black ox and white horse should be fine since he swore the 'Oath of Peach Garden' in the Romance of the 3 Kingdoms, right?

Hi Nachtsider,

I've been lurking around this thread for some months so thought I should drop by to say hi.

Let me just share a bit about myself. I'm a banana and was raised in a fundamentalist Christian family in Klang Valley although I identify as agnostic nowadays. My only interaction with Sintua practices was during my relatives' funerals, which never made any sense due to the language barrier.

Thanks for all the in depth elaboration in polished English, I finally understand what was previously incomprehensible mumbo-jumbo to me. Relatives could give me no satisfactory answer when I asked, with tradition just something to be blindly adhered to.

I would consider myself somewhat of an anthropologist so after stumbling across this thread, I find reading about what you have been sharing about Chinese folk religion very fascinating and have been doing more reading on my own.

For instance, take the practice of datuk worship, since it was obviously a practice rooted in traditional Malay society but since eradicated with the advent of a more conservative brand of Islam. I find it intriguing that the Malaysian Chinese community has adopted and syncretized the practice while many Malays are not aware of its roots.

So, they are the ones who started everything?

Are these based on folklore or were they revealed during trances, etc?

Go drive along chinese populated places, and in chance you will find a Datuk Gong Temple with their malay name in tact 

Natchsider, can you verify if Datuk worship in its present form is a Malaysian Chinese "invention" as Yeeck is implying or, adopted "as is" from the historical Malay community. Like, historically did the Malays build shrines and made offerings?

Sorry, I am a few days late and I have been missing for quite a while from here I just want to point out something here about "offering"/"Sacrifice". I am of course not talking in the sense of "sintua" religion but since "sintua" is a local adaptation from the buddism and places heavy focus on the dharma, therefore what the dharma says will have some significance. In buddism, NO FORMS OF OFFERING THAT REQUIRES TAKING ANOTHER LIFE IS ALLOWED! For whatever reason, for whomever it is, for whatever excuse nor logic there may be, NO KILLING is allowed. And that is how one person can differentiate if the "spirit" is good or evil. ANY GOOD spirit will NEVER ASK YOU TO KILL AS SACRIFICE TO THEM! and those who "does", they are EVIL spirits/deities to begin with. ALL SPIRITS have some limited abilites (most are limited but there are some powerful ones that have abilities without limits) depending on a few things. There are no exception to the NO KILLING AS SACRIFICE rule. Its just makes the person who does the killing accumulate bad karma and no GOOD spirits/deities/protectors will want that.

However, I have to point out another thing which is about "wine". As I say above, Sintua religion is a local "adaptation" of buddism. As BUDDIST, of coz wine is to be avoided but these are what called presepts and are with exception and so on (ie, erm... how to say so i dont sound bad... its like ponteng sekolah.. not good but if you did it... you wont be "expelled" terus and you can redeem yourself if you can give good excuses? forgivable "sin" depending on "why" you did it? hmmm... anyway.. dont do it if you can!). But as a MONK you MUST follow the precepts (200 plus of it.. not the normal 5 for layman only). And as the sintua religion, it seems they are "ok" with wine and depending on the "spirit"/"deity's" character, wine is a norm (not all as some are stricter on themself". So, you must really know the deity well. Not all are "ok" with wine.

Natch, am i right?

The information in this thread is a real eye-opener to me. Thanks so much for sharing with us.

Back to talismans, is there an expiry date attached to it?  My mother always told me that it need to be "renewed" yearly i.e. seeking a fresh new one from deity yearly.

Please enlighten me. Thank you.

玄天上帝

威嚴女身男相古老體態

Hi, there has anyone heard of "Japanese buddha"? I would like to know more about it. Though I heard from stories that, he/she does grant your wishes but there are consequences. Anyone has info on it? Thanks. 

I have only heard about it, apparently it will be on the altar covered with yellow cloth. Just curious about it. 

Hey man, you are right it might not be a Buddha. But that's what they called it here (Penang). So I was directly translating it. I think Nacht's won't mind as long as it doesn't turn into a ghost stories thread (haunted bungalows) as there are worshipers who worship it.