In Georgetown, the other evening, I witnessed a ritual at Tiong Sim Thnuah on Hong Kong Street. They worship the nine emperors as ONE, and present a beautiful, intricately-carved statue of that deity that they refer to as “a kind of Tao Bow.” That requires a little more exploration!! They also make special use of the huki, a type of double pronged divination rod, held by one person in trance and another who is not. I like to think of it as a union of heaven and earth. This ritual was about filling the vessel (think the stars of the big dipper) with rice for prosperity, kemenyan for cleanliness and paper money for wealth, in preparation for their celebration of the Nine Emperor Gods birthday the next evening.
A wall of huki adorns the temple
The ONE who represents the NINE
The huki is held by two people. The one in trance leads the way
A dipper of rice, kemenyan, and paper money folded into boats
The energy of the huki is transferred to the devotee
