Yesterday, on the 6th day of the Nine Emperor Gods Festival, Cheryl, Kirk and I decided to head down south to Kuala Pilah Nine Emperor Gods Temple (Si Thian Kong - 西天宫) as we found out that the Thai mediums which the temple had invited were going to do their fire crossing that night.
Of course we left for the temple early (3pm) from KL in anticipation that there will be quite some activity late in the evening before the actual fire-crossing ceremony, which usually happens at night.
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One for the show...performing for the Nine Emperor Gods.
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We managed to catch the opera troupe perform a ritual performance for the Nine Emperor Gods in the evening, before the Thai mediums went into trance and was performing many self-mutilation acts like tongue cutting and hitting their backs or stomach with knives and axes to draw blood to empower talisman for the devotees.
 | Cutting... Drawing blood for talisman.
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 | I Believe I Can Fly!
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Spray... When things get too hot to handle!
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 | Run, run across the fire pit.
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 | I will carry you through...
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But the best part was the fire-crossing ceremony, as this type of fire pit made by burning wood into embers that is typical of Thai mediums is usually very much hotter than the ones done with compressed charcoal bed typical of Chinese temples in Malaysia.
Having crossed this type of fire pit before in Jinjang, I know that speed is essential and that mediums and people crossing it will end up running or literally flying through the hot embers.
At the end of the day, the local folks and Sing Sua Sifu kept us company with food and drinks until the wee hours of the next day, and it was truly an exhausting but fun trip.
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It is a wrap...
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