Tuesday, September 01, 2020

You Are Looking for Me??? - the King of Hades (大士爷) Effigy

你找我啊??我来啦。。。 
(You are looking for me??? I am coming....)

This year, it is very hard to find large scale Hungry Ghost celebrations (also known as Phor Thor) in Malaysia due to the Covid-19 pandemic as we are still in the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO) imposed by the government.

To be able to find a King of Hades or Da Shi Yeh (大士爷) effigy to photograph is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Luckily a friend informed me that at Sunway Mentari they will be holding their Hungry Ghost Festival as usual albeit in a small scale, complete with the King of Hades paper effigy.

The image is the reflection of the King of Hades effigy on a puddle of water on the road at Sunway Mentari Hungry Ghost Festival which is happening from the 1st to the 5th Sept 2020. Caught his reflection in a puddle of water on the road as if he is coming out from the Underworld...



And this is how the altar setup is like... Everything is there, the King of Hades, Tua Pek and Jee Pek, the Gold and Silver Mountain, ships for the souls to reach salvation (3 small ones)... paper house for the departed etc. although somewhat scaled down in size to fit in the praying location.

大士爷 Da Shi Ye
This is how the altar setup looks like at Sunway Mentari Phor Thor... all there but
scaled down to fit the location as they cannot hold big outdoor event under
the RMCO (Recovery Movement Control Order.

If you want to know more about the taboos during this festival, see my previous post about "Hungry Ghost Month Taboos..."

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