final book

51

JI TONG 52
GRADUALLY
SHOWS THE
MOVEMENTS OF
THE GOD, THE
BODY TREMBLES,
THE FISTS HIT
THE TABLE
AND STARTS
MUMBLING.

AT THIS MOME

53

ENT, THE GOD

54

WHEN THE GOD
POSSESSED,

ZHUO TOU WILL
START HELPING
JI TONG PUT ON
THE COSTUMES

OF THE GOD.

55

56

57

WHEN GOD POSSESSED,
JI TONG’S EXPRESSION
CHANGED TOTALLY.

INSTEAD OF THE USUAL
SMILEY FACE ON JI TONG
BUT REPLACE WITH GOD’S
SERIOUS AND UNSMILING
EXPRESSION, WHICH MADE
PEOPLE FEEL THE DIGNITY.

BESIDES, JI TONG STARTS
TO SAY GOD’S LANGUAGE
THAT PEOPLE CAN’T
UNDERSTAND. JI TONG’S
MOVEMENT AND THE WAY
OF WALKING ALSO BECOME
THE SAME AS GOD.

After the God possessed
body, the Go58 d will start
world. The works are ma
two categories which ar

公
事SGHOING

God will be andling daily rituals for
worshipping gods and temples. These
matters are related to the community public.

d in Ji Tong’s
to work in h59uman
ainly divided into
re:

济
世SJIHI

God will set dates for the public
to ask private affairs and solve
problems of the believers.

60

GOD’S
BIRTHDAYPeople have birthdays, and God has

his birthday too. Every October 12th of
the lunar calendar is Qi Tian Da Sheng’s
birthday, on this day the temple will hold
a grand celebration to celebrate the
birthday of the God.
Therefore, God will also possess into Ji
Tong’s body to pray for the believers who
attend the celebration and also let the
whole celebration go on smoothly. On this
day, many Ji Tong from other temples will
also be possessed by different Gods and
come to congratulate Qi Tian Da Sheng.
The believers will bring fruits that God
likes, such as peaches, bananas. Some also
bring cakes and sing birthday songs to
wish God a long life.

61

ATTEND At the birthday of Gods in other
temples, Ji Tong will also be invited
to Qi Ji to let God present and wish
congratulate. In the whole ceremony,
whenever God meets another God,
they drink tea with each other to
show respect and welcome. Besides,
they will also participate in rituals
such as walking the street, crossing

OTHERthe bridge of peace, and passing the

fire. The scenes are very lively.

GOD’S BIRTHDAY 公
事

GONG SHI

公 MOUTH
事 NEEDLE 62
PIERCINGAlso known as the “Bronze Needle Penetrating

the Golden Mouth”, performed at important
temple fairs or when specifically instructed by
the god, it is a special legal matter.

The religious rite is to use one or two copper
needles of the same height as an adult, which
runs through the cheek. Before “piercing”, Ji
Tong must first drink rice wine for an act on
anaesthesia and then use the black flag to
cover the sky to avoid filth and forbid women
to watch to avoid contraindications. Before
piercing, needle part will be tap a few times,
and then quickly insert the steel needle to
reduce the pain. Sometimes, at the moment
of penetration, spray of alcohol at the same
time to increase lubrication. Normally, copper
needles that been use are mostly slender, but
in recent years, it was replaced by thumb-
thick copper needles. After piercing, Ji Tong
must always hold it by hand to prevent
the mouth from bearing. In addition to the
mouth needles, Ji Tong will also pierce their
shoulders, earlobe, scalp, and arms.

63

Sitting on a chair full of
knife. The back, armrests,
and feet of the chair are all
nailed with the knife.
That is to say, there are full
of knife points at seven
points of force on the body
(head, back, buttocks,
hands, and feet). The knife
chair must be cleaned by
God using joss sticks and
secured with runes before

SITTINGsitting on the knife chair.

This is to prevent evil
spirits and also strengthen

ON KNIFEthe god power.
CHAIR

公 GONG SHI
事64

Passing fire represents renew lives,
strengthens the gods, cleanses the
body, and prays for peace. There are
five types of Passing Fire which are
the “Passing Golden Fire”, “Passing
Furnace Fire”, “Passing Firewood
Fire”, “Passing Charcoal Fire”,
“Passing Fire City”.
The most common is “Passing
charcoal fires.” The material used for
the passing charcoal fire is wooden
charcoal. First, pave the charcoal and
ignite it (sand sandalwood powder
is used to burn). Use a bamboo stick
to flatten about two or three inches
thick. Then enter the preparation
stage for passing fire. Under the

PASSINGguidance of Ji Tong, the believers
stepped back and forth in the
charcoal fire with barefoot.

FIRE

65

BOILING
OILAt the beginning of the ritual, Ji Tong

was possessed by the gods. After that,
the owner of the furnace, under the
instructions of Ji Tong, worshipped
incense. After the worship service was
completed, the staff began to catch fire
and poured a bucket of oil into the pot
to heat it.

The most exciting part is that Ji Tong put
their hands into the hot oil and started
cooking the oil. What is even more
unexpected is that Ji Tong took turns
dipping their heads into the hot oil pot,
and then sucked the hot oil from the pot
with their mouths, and then sprayed it to
the fire, and the fire became more and
more intense.

After the performance, people rushed
forward and put their faces with oil to
pray for their safety. Later, the staff also
added herbs to the oil pan and then
refined the hot oil into wind oil. When
the wind oil is boiling to the boiling
point, Ji Tong starts to help believers to
heal their body pain with the wind oil.

66

On some of the special event that held by temple,
the ceremony of crossing the bridge of peace and
safety will open to the believers. People who cross
the bridge of peace believe that God will bring peace
and safety to them. When the ceremony begins, God
will cross the bridge and writes runes at the bridge.
After that, the staffs will call out to each zodiac and
let believers cross the bridge according to their

CROSSINGzodiacs. God will stand on the other side of the
bridge to supervise the entire process to the end.

THE BRIDGE OF
PEACE & SAFETY

67

PERFORM OF

FIVE TREASURESOne of the most noticeable ceremonies in
Qi Ji is the performances of five treasures.
The five treasures are the seven-star sword,
shark sword, copper stick, moon axe, and
thorn ball. Bloodshed is a religious ritual to
drive away evil and eliminate evil.

Before performing the ‘Five Treasures’,
Ji Tong who possessed by God will have a
‘cleansing’ ceremony. God will ‘clean’ the
body with burning joss sticks, and the main
parts are the back, chest and abdomen.
When performance starts, there must be
many assistants by side who are the
Zhuo Tou and the experienced staffs to
assistant God.

First of all, God implied that the Zhuo Tou
to get the weapon with familiar movements.
At this time, God who will be holding the
flag on the left, weapon on the right, facing
the other God or temple. Start chopping his
head or arm, cutting tongue and chest with
the weapon until his blood drips. When it’s
over intense, the Zhuo Tou and staffs will
timely yell “good” to avoid over-perform.
At the same time, Zhuo Tou will stop the
bleeding by using gold paper. Bloodstained
gold paper can be used as a “safety runes”.

公
事

GONG SHI

68

RUNES AND

Ji Tong often draws runes for the

PRESCRIPTIONSbelievers who come to ask help from

god. The runes that usually were the
safe amulets, curative runes, townhouse
runes, exorcism runes, sleeping runes,
harmony runes, town dream runes, and
town runes.
Dispensing prescriptions according to
the instructions given by the Ji Tong,
and decoction with the runes or hearth
dan. However, the recent instructions
given to patients are to see doctors
from a certain direction, and the
prescriptions or runes given by the
gods are only for auxiliary purposes.

JI SHI 69

济
世

GET OUTAfter asking Ji Tong for instructions, it
was learned that the soul of the patient
had been arrested by evil spirits and was
not easy to return the soul. Therefore, Ji
Tong will make a substitute to replace the
patient’s soul. The religious rite is to have
a scarecrow that put on the patient’s
clothes and put it at the crossroads away
from the sick family to replace the sick
and be caught by evil spirits. Recently,
paper substitutes were used instead.

70

MEDIATION

Self thinks that was ill, after consulting
most hospital doctors, but still can’t

PASTdiagnose the cause, or suffering Mild

psychosis. When long-term healing is
not healed, believers often ask the gods.

RANCORMost of them think that their previous

life killed others for financial or sexual
reasons, and the evil spirit came to ask
for their life. The god needs to mediate
to make the evil spirit give up revenge

and warn the sick to cultivate their
morality merit to overcome disasters.

济71 JI SHI
世

LANDING

The common belief that one man’s illness

TO HELLis caused by his soul lost in hell. Ji Tong

will land to hell and ask Yan Luo Wang
(the god of death) to explain the cause
of the illness. This is usually held when
a person is in critical condition. On the
other hand, sometimes it can also apply
to the family that has members who are
unsafe and things don’t go smoothly
which suspected as it is haunted by the
evil spirit of the house former owner.

72

TUI JIGOD RETREAT

73

退乩

74

After the mission completed, the god will
ask Zhuo Tou if there is any unfinished
work. If not, he will let Zhuo Tou remove
the costume for him and prepare to
retreat from Ji Tong’s body.

75

76

When Ji Tong’s costume has
off, there will be a person sta
prepare to Tui Ji. To be as a
to prevent him from falling a

77

s completely taken
anding behind him to
support for Ji Tong
and being injured.

78

AFTER
TREM79 BLING A
FEW TIMES,
JI TONG
YELLED ‘TUI
(RETREAT)’
WHILE KICKED
HIS FEET
HARD TO
THE GROUND
AND LEAPT
BACKWARDS.
END WITH
THE POSE OF
THE GOD.

80

81

After the god retired, Ji Tong will fall like he lost his soul. The staff
who holds him will place him on a chair. Meanwhile, Zhuo Tou
and the other staffs will keep calling Ji Tong’s name to call his
soul back to the body while patting him to make him awake.

82

83

Ji Tong after returning back to the soul is
just like those who just woke up and has no
idea about what had happened after God ’s
possession. No feelings or memories of the

scars on his body. However, Ji Tong seems
particularly tired and vitally injured.

84

后
叙

In the Chinese’s belief in Malaysia, the Ji Tong has
always been a special religious figure, acting as a
communication medium between God and man.
They contribute themselves to be the messenger of
the gods to serve the people, and to dispel disasters
and doubts for believers. Gives restless people a
strength to face the difficulties of their life.

Being a messenger for the gods is not easy at all
and cannot be replaced randomly. Not only must the
person be selected by the gods, but he also must
pass the tests from the gods to become a qualified
Ji Tong and work for the gods.

In today's society, there are many fake Ji Tong
who deliberately deceive believers, claiming to be
possessed by gods and defrauding believers who
seek for help. Besides, scientists will classify Ji Tong
as a split personality. Coupled with the popularity
of technology, Ji Tong has been portrayed as a
corrupted character and has been called a godlier
by the outside world. Ji Tong is one of the religious
figures. In the media, people pay more attention to
the madness of the ceremony and the extravagance
and waste during the ceremony. However, the
contribution of the Ji Tong to the believers is rarely
reported. This has led to all kinds of prejudices and
misunderstandings about Ji Tong.

POSTSCRIPT 85

Who believes belief, who doesn’t believe doesn’t.
But the most important thing is not to be too
superstitious and addicted. Withdrawing from
their identity, they are just ordinary people like
us. Through this book, I want more people to
know and understand the religious beliefs of the
Malaysian Chinese through the mysterious and
rarely-known religious figure, Ji Tong. Let people
throw away the negative evaluation of the
Ji Tong and replace it with a sacred character.
Every religion is worthy of our respect.
In the end, I also hope that the culture of
Ji Tong will always be preserved so that the next
generation can understand and feel the culture
and passion in the Chinese’s religion.

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