Guest ExChinaExpat Posted February 15, 2013 Report Share Posted February 15, 2013 Every year, the city of Sun De, near Guangzhou, celebrates the annual blessing of the fish. Several Chinese monks from Lhassa attend the blessing to consecrate and pray. During the event, several trays are assembled containing earthy things like spices, incense, pine cones, ribbons, and so on. The people who attend donate a sum of money for the privilege to throw one of the tray onto the blessed bonfire. After the blessing is complete, the buddhist monks accompany the crowd to the rivers edge where the fish farmers release the fish to be free. Link to comment
Guest ExChinaExpat Posted February 15, 2013 Report Share Posted February 15, 2013 Volunteers begin to assemble the trays...http://i47.tinypic.com/p93dv.jpg A Bhuddist monk creates a clay figurehttp://i50.tinypic.com/141t8h1.jpg The larger of two bonfires to be set alight laterhttp://i46.tinypic.com/f6v5v.jpg Fishermen gathering the fish to be released laterhttp://i47.tinypic.com/34hjfrc.jpg More and more things added to the trayshttp://i46.tinypic.com/6t2yph.jpg Bonfire areahttp://i46.tinypic.com/15i5d2u.jpg Ribbons addedhttp://i48.tinypic.com/14mfn2x.jpg First high-ranking priest arrives with entouragehttp://i46.tinypic.com/vo7h53.jpg Mother and child blessedhttp://i47.tinypic.com/257dukg.jpg Priests assemble for blessing under tenthttp://i49.tinypic.com/2hqb5z9.jpg Bonfire lithttp://i50.tinypic.com/rw5kjr.jpg Those who donate, begin to throw the tray contents onto the bonfirehttp://i46.tinypic.com/2ymyq9e.jpg http://i46.tinypic.com/120hs7o.jpg A variety of lovely flowers are thrown to the firehttp://i48.tinypic.com/2uomflw.jpg Link to comment
Guest ExChinaExpat Posted February 15, 2013 Report Share Posted February 15, 2013 People help the fish move through the hose into the river areahttp://i49.tinypic.com/153y8h5.jpg Fishermen receive the fish into a netted area in the riverhttp://i49.tinypic.com/w7xz04.jpg Man read written prayer by the riverhttp://i48.tinypic.com/2hnmi54.jpg Priest and entourage walk to the river for blessinghttp://i47.tinypic.com/34t7brs.jpg Fishermen (and women) wait for the blessing to completehttp://i46.tinypic.com/5ocpd0.jpg Crowd gathers to listen and pray with the priestshttp://i49.tinypic.com/25hjs09.jpg Woman receives blessinghttp://i49.tinypic.com/288nxap.jpg First baby fish swimming free of the netshttp://i46.tinypic.com/1r6yv6.jpg Link to comment
Urkidding Posted February 15, 2013 Report Share Posted February 15, 2013 Cool story Jesse and thanks for some great pictures... I did notice some other foreigners there helping. Did you help or just observed? How did you find out about this occasion? Link to comment
Guest ExChinaExpat Posted February 15, 2013 Report Share Posted February 15, 2013 Cool story Jesse and thanks for some great pictures... I did notice some other foreigners there helping. Did you help or just observed? How did you find out about this occasion?There was one foreign man helping keep people from getting too close to the fire. He was the only other foreign person I saw. I was busy taking photos so just observed. I have friends in Shenzhen who invited me to attend this. It's about a two hour drive from Shenzhen to an out of the way area on the river. Link to comment
Urkidding Posted February 15, 2013 Report Share Posted February 15, 2013 Fishermen (and women) wait for the blessing to completehttp://i46.tinypic.com/5ocpd0.jpg The little girl in the background really sticks out - look at the color of her hair. Do you see a lot of little Chinese kids with light colored hair or was this one with the father that you spoke about? Link to comment
Guest ExChinaExpat Posted February 15, 2013 Report Share Posted February 15, 2013 Fishermen (and women) wait for the blessing to completehttp://i46.tinypic.com/5ocpd0.jpg The little girl in the background really sticks out - look at the color of her hair. Do you see a lot of little Chinese kids with light colored hair or was this one with the father that you spoke about? Yes. I saw her also. But, she was not with the Western man. She was accompanying a Chinese family. Perhaps a Chinese family who is friends with a foreigner took her for the day. Link to comment
Fu Lai Posted February 15, 2013 Report Share Posted February 15, 2013 really like the story and pics my man, thank you very much Link to comment
Sam and Fen Posted February 15, 2013 Report Share Posted February 15, 2013 Great Story. My wife tells me that during CNY business people go to a Buddhist Temple for blessings to get good luck in business and in China Buddha is refereed to as Bhussa but most Chinese including my wife have no idea as to where Bhussa was born or his story. I can guarantee that most people on this board will not know Buddhas birth place either. Any guesses guys with out Goggling it? Link to comment
Guest ExChinaExpat Posted February 16, 2013 Report Share Posted February 16, 2013 Great Story. My wife tells me that during CNY business people go to a Buddhist Temple for blessings to get good luck in business and in China Buddha is refereed to as Bhussa but most Chinese including my wife have no idea as to where Bhussa was born or his story. I can guarantee that most people on this board will not know Buddhas birth place either. Any guesses guys with out Goggling it? The earliest stories of Buddha come from India and Nepal, and later moved into the northwestern regions of China and Tibet. I have seen many Chinese pray and show respect to Buddha, in temples and holy sites, but most of them are not religious, or know the history Link to comment
Dennis143 Posted February 16, 2013 Report Share Posted February 16, 2013 Great Story. My wife tells me that during CNY business people go to a Buddhist Temple for blessings to get good luck in business and in China Buddha is refereed to as Bhussa but most Chinese including my wife have no idea as to where Bhussa was born or his story. I can guarantee that most people on this board will not know Buddhas birth place either. Any guesses guys with out Goggling it? The earliest stories of Buddha come from India and Nepal, and later moved into the northwestern regions of China and Tibet. I have seen many Chinese pray and show respect to Buddha, in temples and holy sites, but most of them are not religious, or know the historyI see it here in the US too. I think they are just hedging their bets and better to be safe than sorry by paying homage to whatever diety is in vogue. Link to comment
Fu Lai Posted February 16, 2013 Report Share Posted February 16, 2013 There are a couple very famous Taoism and Buddhism temples around here so I see a lot of devotion going on. Afterall they are the two biggest "religions" in China and along with Confucianism, predate all the rest. They are so engrained into society that even if you are not religious you understand the truth and pay homage. I am not a Buddhist but I naturally paid respects in Xiamen at their big temple. http://news.echinacities.com/upload/editor/wuhan-(2).jpgit's temple festival time in Wuhan until 2/25 Link to comment
Kung Fu Monkey Posted July 18, 2014 Report Share Posted July 18, 2014 Bonfire lithttp://i50.tinypic.com/rw5kjr.jpg Those who donate, begin to throw the tray contents onto the bonfirehttp://i46.tinypic.com/2ymyq9e.jpg http://i46.tinypic.com/120hs7o.jpg A variety of lovely flowers are thrown to the firehttp://i48.tinypic.com/2uomflw.jpg I was curious why they burned the object, then I surfed the internet. Here I found the answer from the internet. But sorry, I am not sure if I can translate it correctly or clearly as my English is not good enough.About this ceremony,Tibetan call it净供Jing Gong, means pure oblation worship.Taiwanese call it 烟供Yan Gong, means smoke oblation worship.Local People here call it 火供Huo Gong, means fire oblation worship.It is said that because of the smoke produced through burning the oblation can clean yourself and clean and object, so it called净供Jing Gong, But the common customs see the smoke and fire so they directly called it烟供Yan Gong or 火供Huo Gong.Significance: It says that the Huo Gong (fire oblation worship) help those unfortunate creatures who incarnated into evil ways, including our dead ancestors. It is said that “borne in the evil ways of karma, because had done evil (bad thing) in the past life, so they have to live in misery and suffer hunger and cold. We can help the evil beings by practicing Huo Gong (smoke oblation worship) and giving food to others (Note: see the master works《本尊海会I》) or the spell etc.. Through the blessing power and spell power, who can make the smoke and applied water into “food and drink” to save the hungry ghosts, so as to relieve their pain.” That is to say only this way of supplying, they can get a little benefit.Significance: It says that the Huo Gong (fire oblation worship) help those unfortunate creatures who incarnated into evil ways, including our dead ancestors. It is said that “borne in the evil ways of karma, because had done evil (bad thing) in the past life, so they have to live in misery and suffer hunger and cold. We can help the evil beings by practicing Huo Gong (smoke oblation worship) and giving food to others (Note: see the master works《本尊海会I》) or the spell etc.. Through the blessing power and spell power, who can make the smoke and applied water into “food and drink” to save the hungry ghosts, so as to relieve their pain.” That is to say only this way of supplying, they can get a little benefit.Best wishes Link to comment
amberjack1234 Posted July 18, 2014 Report Share Posted July 18, 2014 Hi another new female member. We now have several VERY nice Chinese ladies here posting on this forum. I PM with one of them as often as I can. She is a super person for sure. I hope that you will stay and meet these nice ladies and become friends with some of us too. As you can see and as they have seen there are mostly men here looking for information about how to get their Chinese ladies here to the US but don't let that scare you away. We do like to here from you girls and here from your side of the fence (way of thinking) So WELCOME and post all you like and meet the other ladies here. You will see them post. Larry Link to comment
Guest ExChinaExpat Posted July 19, 2014 Report Share Posted July 19, 2014 Hi another new female member. We now have several VERY nice Chinese ladies here posting on this forum. I PM with one of them as often as I can. She is a super person for sure. I hope that you will stay and meet these nice ladies and become friends with some of us too. As you can see and as they have seen there are mostly men here looking for information about how to get their Chinese ladies here to the US but don't let that scare you away. We do like to here from you girls and here from your side of the fence (way of thinking) So WELCOME and post all you like and meet the other ladies here. You will see them post. Larry That was a great write-up from Kung Fu Monkey. It's very difficult to get details about this particular event in Chinese language and information is virtually non-existent in English. Very grateful to Kung Fu Monkey, who may be the daughter of the great Sun Wukong http://i57.tinypic.com/2qas3yu.jpg Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now