Thursday, December 15, 2016

Big Uncle Second Uncle (大二爷伯)


Somehow the Malaysian Chinese worships very different sort of deities from those in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Normally speaking, people outside Singapore and Malaysia would not touch those ‘yin’ spirits (阴魂) as they are believed to bring bad lucks and death. Two of those ‘yin’ characters are the so-called ‘Big Uncle’ and ‘Second Uncle’. These two uncles are believed to be tasked to fetch a dead soul to the local lord temple (城隍庙) for further judgement. This is very different for the outside world as the task of bringing a dead soul falls onto the shoulder of the ‘cow head and horse face’ (牛头马面) and the interrogation place would be in the hell and not the local lord temple.

It is very difficult to judge which is correct or otherwise. If we analyse further, the local lord belief falls under Taoist influence while the hell is mainly Buddhist system. So, if you asked me where would a dead soul go; I am as blind as you honestly speaking.

Another very interesting belief is that the Big Uncle and the Second Uncle somehow are bestowed with power to give fortune; but the Buddhist’s cow head and horse face are not allowed to give money. Maybe this is the reason why the Big Uncle and Second Uncle are widely worshipped by Sing-Ma folk religions. But is it worthwhile to beg for money from those ‘yin’ spirits? Are they so willing to help and not asking for any favours? A friend of mine just told me his story today:

This story was told by Edward’s friend, let us just call this gentleman Beng who is a 4D lottery fan.

One day, Beng went to the shrine of Big and Second Uncle to ask for a good luck charm. The spirit medium who was possessed by one of the uncles wrote a charm for wealth and luck for Beng. The good luck charm really worked! According to Beng, one night he saw the apparition of the Big Uncle in front of him and the next day, Beng won MYR15,000 from his lucky number. Beng was certainly very happy and excited but his joy only lasted for about 5 days.

On the 5th day, Beng’s grandmother passed away and then his grandfather also passed away; and his neighbour who was ill for quite some time also died within one month’s time after Beng’s windfall.

Now the question remained to be answered is: was it a coincident or was it that the Uncles who had taken the lives of those old folks after bestowed the fortune to Beng?

It is actually hard to judge unless we can inspect the astrology of all those who had died. But in the 8-Characters (八字) there is a saying that goes:

财运,事业伤母辈。

Fortune (money) and career harm motherly characters.

Accordingly, it is not a nice thing if a person suddenly gets a windfall or being promoted as these sudden changes hurt his/her mother-sides. So, I would be particularly careful with sudden promotion which bring in huge fortune for this would almost follow with a sudden family problem.

I am not quite sure what happened to Beng’s case, but the sudden winning of MYR15,000 might have taken away the lives of his relatives; or it could be the ghostly Uncles wanted some repayment in life terms after bestowing with money. Whatever case it might be, it is better to keep away from those ‘yin’ characters for good.

1 comment:

  1. In my peesonal point of view, human is yang while ghost is yin, therefore we shouldnt get too much involve or rapport with them although they are bestow as deity, nevertheless no matter what they still belong to hell realm. As Chinese quote: human cannot live or marry to ghost and live together.

    In my past experienced, i had tried this yin deities that mentioned to gain some lucks and smooth in job and life's. I went few times to tuapek dipek vary temples to get blessing in the hope for some lucks improvement. However, each time after blessed, the result always opposite from expected. Certainly, bad things will happen within 3 months. Even there was a time my dad together with me went to the famous tuapek dipek temple in malacca whereby the temple surrounded with cemetery during the tuapek dipek big day. After the blessed, my dad business declined since the first day of blessed until he sat in the house do nothing until exactly after 3 months, his client just came back to him and business slowly back to normal.

    I also dream of tuapek and dipek few times. Of course i guessed 4 number to buy 4d. But never strike before. But, each time after the dream, my car will give me problems which mean money to spend on it. In such situation, i think ying deities bring badlucks rather than good.

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