You know what they do to adulterous couples?

I was driving home after sunset mass in church. The traffic light indicates 90 seconds. While it was ticking away, and the little green man slowly walking, something flashed back in my mind.

When I was very, very small, my mom used to pray to my Hainanese ancestors who died in Hainan islands. Waitaminit, I was brought up a Taoist, I only converted to Catholic Christian in 2003. Another waitaminit, I think my mom was praying for her in-laws, i.e. my father’s ancestors. Or did mom prayed to her own ancestors who are Sing Ning? Wateva. God bless them.

Hainan temple, Penang, Malaysia
(photos of the deceased Hainanese, taken from the Hainan Temple in Penang)

As a little kid of about five or six years old, she would instruct me to arrange all the chopsticks, spoons and tiny teacups and wine cups on the table. No shite, back then, we really have a table for 10 persons, whole chicken, whole duck and a whole banquet. There were chairs as well. Just like a normal banquet. None of those fake styrofoam things that lazy people nowadays buy from the shops.

chinese statue
(giant statue near Kek Lok Si temple in Air Itam, this is one of those gods who makes sure people behave, not sure of his name)

So, you can see the religious background I grew up in. During the whole prayer, none of us can go near the table and chairs. We cannot snitched any foods to eat before prayers.

The almighty ancestors would be angry so as a kid, I was terribly afraid of these unseen, dead, come from China visiting souls who will smack me if I dare talk nonsense. Oh well, if you have problems comprehending, watch Mulan and you will get a better idea.

My mother would bring me to every temples and she did love to go to temples. Kuan Yin temple, Kek Lok Si and Snake temple, just to name a few.

chinese grave offerings
(this is an example of the prayer’s offerings. Photo taken at the grave where my inlaws offered a roasted pig and other foods to my parents-in-law)

I forgot which temple it is but they have these statues of people being tortured in hades. So, being all five years old and stupid, my mother had brainwashed me.

“If you tell lies, next time when you are dead, they will cut off your tongue.”

“You see that man with the hand chopped off? He gambled.”

“Ma…why did the gu mok ong (king of hades with a cow’s head and warrior body) step on the person?” (I forgot what punishment is that, sorry.)

“Ma…why did the man and woman got boiled in the pot?”

“It is not boil, it is fried in hot oil.”

“But Ma…..why did they get fried?”

lingerie for the dead
(this is the paper paraphernalia which Taoists burned for their deceased ancestors. Yeah, don’t worry, you do get lingerie in the afterworld šŸ˜‰ )

Oh well….my mother couldn’t tell a five years old girl that they got fried because they were unfaithful. So I forgot what mom braffed (bluff) me. But eventually, when I was much grown up and can read English, I knew about that. Does Haw Par Villa still exists in Singapore? That one is terribly grotesque. Those are life sizes statues of humans being tortured in hell.

orange pig
(this is the pig I made last year, using Mandarin oranges)

Now, the red stick man is running. The traffic light is turning green for me. I gotta drive. But I realized that my Christian God’s promise of Heaven is so much more comforting. And the river of fire in hell ain’t half as scary as those being deep fried in oil or being chopped off the tongue.

Still, I am thankful that my mother instilled that little fear in me as a child or otherwise, I don’t know what I would have become. We all hate religion. It curbs our freedom. It gives us that fear of the unseen and unknown. But at the end of it, that’s what keep us all humans to behave somehow. And though religion is not everyone’s favourite topic, we still turn to God that we may not know in the first place when we hit deep shits. That Almighty God that hovers around us to save us from hitting rock bottom.

Before you comment, remember that my words are always the truth. Muahahar…I am not going to argue on religion so save your breath. I am not interested to hear your views.

However, I am curious if that Haw Par Villa statues are still around temples? (if you like photos of temples or Chinese culture, take a look at my Flickr album)

6 thoughts on “You know what they do to adulterous couples?

  1. last time i went to how par villa as about 15 years ago. dunno they still exist or not la but when i went there last time the place looked new. maybe just renovated. and they have accompanying text in english and chinese explaining each scene and my father would read them to me. i thought that place belong to the minyak cap kapak bos what? or something like that la.

  2. yaya, the Haw Par villa still exists. sight of the tigers around it spooks me off, never been there before, but im sure that the statues are still around

  3. The one I remember most about Haw Par Villa is the 18 Stages of Hell.. where you see all the disgusting punishments in Hell. I swore when I walked from that place, I will be an obedient girl and dun want to go to hell when I die nanti.

  4. great amount of mothering resources to be found at (link censored by the Obnoxious 5xmom)

    Blogowner says : Lisa or whatever, Stop leaving URL here. This is a not a public billboard and you are talking to the woman who runs Malaysia one and only non-profit breastfeeding and parenting website. Next time do your research properly before leaving parenting sites for me. Tiu.

  5. According to history, burning paper paraphernalia start from Tan dynasty, where the story of 18 level of underground world start, and it is part of the teaching of Hinayana Buddhism. And what the hell illustration you see in Chinese temple,Haw Par Villa,etc are “integrated innovation” from Taoist folklore, Hinayana Buddhism, various Chinese novel and folklore story, a made in China product. šŸ˜‰

    There is no such things as hell in Tao philosophy šŸ˜‰ And for original Buddhism, the practice of Mahayana, heaven and hell is just matter of heart.

    Hmmm, seems I can write topic about things that people never get it right about Chinese šŸ˜‰

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