#jitong

I learned on Twitter that the Teo Chew Vietnamese Buddhist Temple of the Houston, Texas, USA, Chinatown has an altar to the Monkey King. The barely visible words on top of the picture read "Tề Thiên Đại Thánh" ("Great Sage Equaling Heaven", 齊天大聖). I have contacted the temple to learn more information.

A Facebook friend shared this information about the Monkey King’s worship in Vietnam:

They also shared this video of a 106-year-old monkey god temple in Bac Lieu, City, eastern Ca Mau Peninsula, southern Vietnam:

I was running errands on Saturday in Wanhua District, Taipei City, Taiwan, when I noticed a religious shop was selling the "Five Treasures" (wubao, 五寶). I've previously mentioned that this set of five weapons is used in the self-mortification rituals of Monkey King spirit-mediums (Ch: jitong, 乩童; Hokkien: tangki, 童乩), and the resulting holy blood is believed to ward evil. Well, I'm now the proud owner of my own set of Five Treasures. But these are just to admire; I'm not going to flog myself with them anytime soon. 

In November of 2020, I traveled with a small monkey god temple on a bus trip south. The resident spirit-mediums walked from one ritual fire to the next performing self-mortification with the Five Treasures. I was told that each fire represented one of five protector spirits called the “Five Camps Spirit Generals” (wuying shenjiang, 五營神將), who protect the five cardinal Chinese directions. I just learned that each weapon represents a direction. 

1. East (green dragon) - spiked mace 2. West (white tiger) - sawfish nose sword (I have a metal variant) 3. South (red pheasant) - seven-star crescent moon ax 4. north (black tortoise) - seven-star jian sword 5. Centre (yellow dragon) - spiked ball

On November 6th and 7th I followed the Zhengan Monkey King Temple of Shilin District, Taipei (Shilin Zhengan Gong, 士林正安宮) on a religious pilgrimage to the south of Taiwan. Before leaving, the head spirit-medium (Hokkien: tangki, 童乩; Chinese: Jitong, 乩童) channeled the Great Sage and cut his tongue with a ritual sword, creating consecrated talismans by smearing the blood on yellow strips of paper. (The blood on his back was the result of self-mortification with five ritual weapons, including the sword.) He also consecrated their new black command flag, which is the locus of their exorcistic power. 

Some of the talismans were later used to seal a metal, house-shaped altar containing holy incense ashes acquired (jiao xiang, 交香) from the oldest Monkey King temple in Taiwan, the Wanfu Monkey King Temple (Wanfu An, 萬福庵) of Tainan.

I will post more pictures and video when I get a chance. I’m currently using an internet cafe as my laptop is out for repairs.