Gone, but not forgotten, I hope!

   Have you heard?  The gal who writes this fabulous blog has gone on vacation for six weeks!


   Oh, no! What are we going to do in her absence?


   Gee, I dunno.  We'll just have to muddle through somehow.  She did say she'd try to post some blogs while she's away.


    Yeah, but they're not usually very good 'cuz she doesn't know how to post photos remotely.


Hey, that's a shame.  Somebody ought to teach her.  It's probably quite easy.


   Yeah, well, she's technologically impaired.  I think the best thing to do is just check now and then and never give up.  I think she said she'd be back at it seriously around the end of May.


    Such a long time, lah!  Well, we faithful readers won't give up, will we?


   No way!  We'll just do what she said -- check back now and then and expect good stuff toward the end of May.


   Okay, see you then!

Qing Ming -- Part 2

Arranging paper offerings to be burned

         In the last post, we were still in the Chinese graveyard.  The family had cleaned and decorated the grave and laid out the food offerings for the spirit of the deceased man.  While he (or maybe "it") was eating the feast, the family busied itself making a big pile of paper offerings.  These were replicas of things the spirit might need in the afterworld -- lots of things!  

Bringing paper ingots

      They were brought in on a motorbike and in big boxes. The base of the pile was folded foil paper, meant to be gold and silver ingots.  Then the family members fanned out stacks and stacks of that same joss paper and spread it all over the pile.  On top of that, they placed paper shoes, about two dozen paper shirts, some with really nice tropical patterns.  More fake money went on the pile, and then they set it ablaze.  In minutes all the items they'd so lovingly piled up were nothing but ashes. Poof!  Gone to the underworld or afterlife or wherever this man's soul is residing.

The whole family helps lay out the paper offerings

Up in smoke -- the last of the graveyard rituals

  

Paper shoes -- men's and ladies'

      Then, our little group was taken to an area of George Town where several shops were selling all those paper replicas that  are burned on the graves.  We were entranced by all the different paper things you could buy.  There were cosmetics and alcohol. (I bought some paper beer in cans and bottles to use as souvenirs when I travel next week.) There were birthday cakes -- who knew that spirits continue to age even after the person dies! There were even paper lawn chairs for spirits who want to relax in Heaven.


    The last stage of our outing was to a family workshop where they make really big paper houses, also destined to be burned. They come complete with luxury cars and servants.  In fact, when people order the effigy houses, they specify how many maids should be in them and pay for each one.  

These paper house effigies are almost like doll houses.  In these photos, you see the master of the house outside standing next to his shiny paper car.  Inside, is the lady of the paper house, sitting at her paper table, with a picture of a Chinese goddess behind her.  It just about breaks your heart to think that such expensive handmade works are just going to be burned.

   I think these paper items are just great!  Someone should make a museum display of them.  If I had enough space in my non-paper house, and lots of money, I'd buy one of these and keep it as a souvenir of Malaysia.  I'd save it from a fiery grave!  

Qing Ming -- Part 1

    One day recently I spent a couple of hours in a Chinese graveyard.  We went on a Spiral Synergy outing to learn about the Chinese custom of cleaning graves and offering food to the spirits of deceased family members.  It's something they do both here and in Japan, but here it's much more complicated and colorful.  The whole family arranges to assemble on a certain day within a 20-day period, not an easy task when everybody is so busy making money!  

Sprinkling confetti on decorated grave -- Step One

     The number "4" is very unlucky normally because its pronunciation is the same as "death."  But, since this is a graveyard ritual, April 4th (4/4) was deemed the best day to do it.  We were lucky because a Chinese family was busy doing the rituals and they graciously allowed us Western tourists to intrude, take pictures, ask questions and see the whole process being done instead of just hearing about it.

     The family began by putting yellow & white prayer papers all over the grave itself.  These were then held in place by being stabbed with colorful paper flags on sticks.  Finally, multi-colored foil confetti was sprinkled all over it.   Incidentally, unlike in Western cemeteries, all the graves in a Chinese graveyard face the same way -- downhill.  It's important, it seems, to have higher ground behind the grave -- a mountain or temple is preferred -- and lower ground with a good view in front.  It's part of feng sui, I guess.

Food offerings -- Step Two

     Once the grave was ready, the family laid out food offerings for the spirit of the deceased -- fruit, cooked items, etc.  Incense was burned and everybody took turns offering prayers for the dead person's spirit. Then they waited fifteen minutes or so for the spirit to consume the feast.  The father determined whether or not the spirit was finished eating by doing a sort of two-coin toss.  Two heads or two tails mean the spirit hasn't finished yet.  So, they wait a while longer, and then try again.  When the coins finally show one coin "heads" and the other "tails", it means that the food has been appreciated by the spirit and can then be taken home to be eaten by the family.  If the food offerings are all eaten up by dogs or hungry people who hang around the graveyards at this time, they think that's OK.  They just assume that the spirit manifested itself as a dog or a person and came to eat it all up!
  
   By the way, this family was working very hard to benefit the spirit of a person who was not even a member of their family.  The deceased man's family is back in China and can't do it, so this gentleman in the green shirt was told by his father to take care of the grave here in Penang.  And so he does.  It costs quite a bit of money, not to mention time and trouble, to do this grave cleaning and honoring the deceased person's spirit.  Yet this fellow and his family do it faithfully year after year because the father requested it.    

    In the next post, I want to tell you why it gets so costly and what the final part of the ritual is.  So, check back tomorrow (or soon, anyway!) 

Step Three -- Asking the spirit if it's done eating

Trees, Glorious Trees

      One of the most lovely things about Penang, in my opinion, is the lovely trees that arch gracefully over many of the streets of George Town.  There's actually a boulevard called "Green Lane" that is a joy to behold.  

      And then you have portable trees, like this one, complete with a hand of bananas on it, being transported in a very legal manner, red flag dangling lawfully off the back. 

Someone actually abiding by the red flag law!

    In the past few months, there's been quite a controversy raging, about "tree torture," as the newspaper called the very barbaric pruning campaign that was carried out all over town.

Some would call this "tree torture"

What do you think?  Will this tree ever recover?  I hope so! 

    There's also been some nasty grumbling about nefarious developers who want a certain tree removed to make their construction process easier.  They aren't legally allowed to take down trees without permission.  So, one approach, I've heard, is to just cut the offending tree down and apologize afterward.  Another more sneaky technique is to "girdle" the tree.  This means killing a tree by removing a strip of bark from around its trunk. After a while, the tree dies because nutrients can't get from the soil to the top part of the tree. At least now people know about it.

It fell very neatly, right down the driveway

It did bring down the electric wires, though.

   The other day I was passing by the Penang Buddhist Association, and noticed a huge tree that had crashed down just minutes before. Miraculous- ly it had taken down nothing more than the electric lines.  A foot or two to either side and it would have crashed into one of the Buddhist buildings.  If it had fallen in the opposite direction from what it did, it would have completely blocked Burma Road, one of the major traffic arteries, not to mention taking out a few hawker stalls on the way.

      




 A fellow watching the goings-on with me expounded on the tree fall.  He seemed to feel that the ""tree-huggers" refuse to let any trees be cut down, but that some are rotten inside and really do need to be removed.  I commented that it was lucky the tree had fallen precisely where it did, managing to miss both of the Buddhist buildings, neatly aligning itself down the driveway.  He shrugged and said, "Of course -- the god is inside!"  I had to agree . . . .