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.

But i think since sintua incorporates many other deities even those not originally Chinese, such as Datuk Gong, it could be part of this thread.

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.

*hijack the thread*
i think explain the differences would do much good rather than dismiss this notion. Sorry boss, I hijack your thread a bit and will settle in the fastest way possible.

Just curious if the "lady with snake-like" hand posture means the hand is snake form or raise the hand like a snake and the lady is sitting with the legs at the side position?

Thailand has rich history on their deities (buddism mostly since they are 99% buddist) and they are incorporated with their local culture. Buddism did not forbid integration with local culture as long as they do no harm. Before buddist arrive in thailand, thailand already has a rich history of dark and white magic, and they also have their own "heros" they worshipped like khun peng. Think of it like bomoh in malaysia and indonesia. These are already a local practice since ancient times. Even other places like africa has their own local version of these ancient arts. When buddism is spread to thailand, most of these bomoh/sifu/masters of these arts was touched and they discarded their "dark arts" and uses only their white art (the art of helping ppl) while incorporate the teachings of buddism into their practice and hence the birth of thailand amulets and "barang"/takruts/stuff. They are totally different from sintua and is more like a local adaption of their buddism practice. Understand?

This post has been edited by Wolves: Feb 14 2015, 11:15 AM

Yes, who is she?

As for Thai deities, I think most also worship the Hindu gods like Shiva, Brahma, Krishna, etc. Even the famous 4-face Buddha is not really Buddha but the Hindu god Brahma.

This post has been edited by yeeck: Feb 15 2015, 02:00 AM

if you say the one with the hand posture like a snake and with sitting leg on her side, that is nang kwak. It is a local thai deity, the goddess of fortune. She was a businessman's daugther and brings great fortune to her father when she was borned and everywhere she goes, the business will bloom and hence the local "deitified" her as the goddess of fortune. As i mention, its not sintua. Its Thai's local adaptation. She is similar to the "fortune cat" from Japan. In Thailand, every business would put at least one in their shop just like in Japan, most shop would put one fortune cat at least on their cashier.

As mentioned earlier as well, Thai is 99% buddist and the spread was from india/tibet. Hindu was "older" than buddism and hence some do "share" similar character but different "description". Just like Kuan yin from China is the same as Avalokistewara from Tibet/India but in China, kuan yin is mainly a women but Avalokistewara is mainly shown as male and some is unisex. Its how the "locals" describe and the deities "manifestation" to them in "real form", dreams, their mediums or through any other means. During the olden times, there is no camera nor any way anybody can "record" what they seen/dream/felt. So, they are mainly described and deities has the ability to "change" their outlook, they do manifest in different forms. So each places might portrait different images and the language barrier is problem. Each uses their own mother tongue hence different names but refering to the same deity. So, the "Hindu" gods might appear in the buddism deities and even sintua but each "religion" has their own way of "pleasing" the same deity. Therefore, you should not mix them up.

Therefore, since your curiousity is answered and "we" already explained the differences, we should not hijack this thread and we should go back to sintua religion before the "landlord" kick me out of his apartment (this thread) and ban me...

This post has been edited by Wolves: Feb 16 2015, 01:02 PM

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!

Why are you sticking your mouth with hell bank notes instead of sticking out your tongue? LOL

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.

Looking at the hat of the medium, even in death, the Chinese wishes for money & prosperity..lol.

This post has been edited by yeeck: Feb 20 2015, 10:08 PM

Happy Chinese New Year to all Chinese religion followers!

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!

At 2:40, is that the Filial Son but done by a female?

Sharp eyes. The female medium is, indeed, channelling the Filial Son.

This temple, the Hall of Sevenfold Jade/七玉殿 is right in my neck of the woods, by the way. It is one of the few temples in Klang dedicated exclusively to the Hell deities, boasting Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva in the main hall, and a special air-conditioned, cave-like basement room where the Black and White Brothers and other lesser Hell beings reside.

You can visit them at 4, Jalan Cox, 41300 Klang; they hold consults on Saturday nights at 9:30 p.m or thereabouts. The temple is admittedly somewhat difficult to find, being off the beaten track; it is located down by the river bank near the Fairy Park funeral parlour, close to Wisma TLT and the old Pawagam Sri Intan.

Are these real? I've no idea

That depends on whom you ask.