Datuk Gong: The god of the Chinese, Indians and
Malays
Yahoo
Singapore News
Nicholas
Yong
Visitors to the Jiu
Tiao Qiao Xin Ba Na Du Tan in Tampines Link will notice a shrine to
a somewhat unusual figure. It is a bearded Malay man – or is he
Chinese? – sitting cross-legged, dressed in robes and
a songkok.
Before and around
him are baju kurung melayu,
songkoks, a stonekeris and stone
turtles, a symbol of fertility and vitality in Chinese culture.
Beside him are two flowing streams of water, as well as ornaments
declaring ‘Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfriti’ (Happy
Eid).
His name is Datuk
Gong, or Nah Tuk Kong. He is a guardian spirit and an earth deity
who has taken various forms across different periods and places
across Southeast Asia, attracting devotees of different ethnicities
and faiths. Mr Tok, 56, caretaker of the Tampines temple, says he
has seen Chinese, Indians and Malays coming to pay their respects
to the deity.
“All gods are the
same. We will all ask for the same things: peace, and that things
will go smoothly for us. It’s all the same,” says Tok
matter-of-factly.
The origins of
Datuk Gong
Malaysian
documentary photographer Mahen Bala is the man behind the recent
feature documentary Datuk Gong: Spirit of the Land. He
explains, “The Datuk is revered as a living spirit, and therefore
he is treated with great respect by the community in which he
resides. A shrine is built in his name, various offerings are
presented and spirit mediums are engaged to communicate with
him.”
The shrine may take
the form of an idol bearing the likeness of the Datuk – whose
features vary across different places -, a tablet with his title
inscribed on it or even a rock.
“The majority of
old shrines in Georgetown, Penang are dedicated to multiple idols,
collectively referred to as beradik or brothers,
in multiples of three, five and sometimes seven. They are also
represented by a series of coloured flags. However, in Klang,
Selangor, most of the idols are dressed up as if they were members
of the royal family, complete with headgear, keris and in some
cases, accompanied by the entire royal court,” says
Bala.
Master Chong Weiyi,
secretary general of the Taoist Federation (Singapore) Youth Group,
says the Malay figure in a songkok is very similar to the Chinese
earth deity Tua Pek Kong. “It started from the early Straits
Chinese immigrants. They will usually ask him for protection and
blessing, especially in business,” says Master Chong.
“It reflected the
aspirations of the early Chinese immigrants: they wanted to work
hard, earn money and go home to China. It gave them the strength to
look forward to a better tomorrow. It is also a way for the Malay
and Chinese communities to respect each other.”
While the exact
number of devotees in Singapore is unknown, Chong says the cult of
Datuk Gong was popular in the 1960s and 70s, and is still practiced
by the older generation. Besides shrines in Tampines, Loyang Tua
Pek Kong and Pulau Ubin, he is also venerated in many factories. “I
think they want good business, so they want to be in harmony with
the spiritual world,” says Chong.
In a reflection of
the mixture of beliefs, devotees offering prayers to Datuk Gong
must abstain from pork and alcohol for the day, while offerings to
the deity will also exclude these two. Chong says, “Since Nah
Tuk Kong is Malay, whatever the Malays don’t like, they won’t
do.”
But according to
Bala, the cult of Datuk Gong goes backs even further than the early
Chinese immigrants. He says, “Having arrived in a foreign land as
immigrants, they merely adopted a pre-existing practise. Unlike
most organized religions which relied on the teachings of a
prophet, saint or holy scripture, the worship of the Datuk is a
practise that adapts itself according to the
times.”
The cult of Datuk
Gong reflects a phenomenon called religious syncretism, or the
blending of two or more religious belief systems into a
new system. Sometimes, it involves the incorporation into
a religious tradition of beliefs from unrelated
traditions.
According to
Assistant Professor Indira Arumugam of the National University of
Singapore’s sociology department, syncretisim is what defines
culture, of which religion is a part. She says, “It is
entirely natural that religions are influenced by, react to, borrow
from and mimic each other - producing interesting hybrids in the
process. This is how religions are formed, grow and change. They do
not arrive fully formed from nothing but develop in constant
exchanges with historical and existing examples.
It is the attempt
to purify - to deny their multiple sources and cross-cultural
influences that lies at the heart of religious intolerance. What is
problematic is the refusal to accord other religions equal validity
in order to assert the singular superiority of one’s
own.”
The Datok Kong of
Kusu Island
Early on a Sunday
morning, pest controller Wong Kim Sing, 33, is on a ferry to Kusu
Island. He bears joss sticks, as well as offerings of oranges and
pineapples. The worship of Datuk Gong runs deep in Wong’s family –
back home in Johor Bahru, his father built a shrine to the deity
outside their home.
Wong is on his
third trip to Kusu. But though he has been in Singapore for 14
years, he only found out this year that there is a shrine to Datuk
Gong on Kusu. “My girlfriend told me that people will pray and can
strike 4D. I really did strike a big prize, so I am going there to
thank him,” says Mr Wong with a smile.
But the Datok Kong
of Kusu Island is somewhat different from the one that Wong grew up
with. Residing at the top of a 152-step high hillock are two
shrines to a pious 19th century
family: Syed Abdul Rahman, his mother Nenek Ghalib and his sister
Puteri Fatimah.
They are dedicated
to, respectively, Datok Kong and Datok Nenek. There are no statues
or remains entombed there – merely symbolic tombstones wrapped in
yellow cloth, the colour of holiness, and altars to
them.
While Wong was
surprised by this particular incarnation of Datuk Gong, he says,
“It’s all the same to me. I pray for the same things.”
Just as with the
earth deity, the shrines attract devotees praying for good health,
good business and prosperity. It’s especially popular with
childless couples seeking a baby, as well as those seeking 4D
numbers. There is even a ritual blessing with many echoes of
Chinese religious traditions.
According to
caretaker Ishak Samsuddin, 54, they come from as far afield as
Malaysia, Indonesia and Myanmar. He even claims that the late
President Wee Kim Wee and his wife were regulars at the
shrines.
“This is not a god,
this is a saint. The thing is alive. You can communicate with it,”
says Ishak, whose family has been taking care of the shrine for six
generations. He adds with a laugh, “I have seen many miracles here,
a lot, too many! The sick get well, businesses do well, couples
have kids.”
Thangamuthu, 46, a
manager in the marine industry, has come to the shrines with eight
members of his extended family to pay his respects. A Hindu, he
recalls that six years ago, a childless couple he knew conceived
after praying at the Kusu shrines. “I believe in all the gods, we
don’t criticize them. We will go into churches and Chinese temples,
just to give respect,” he says.
For Sri Lankan
domestic worker Malee Payarathna, 60, she finds many echoes of her
Buddhist faith at the shrines, “We trust the god, so maybe they are
helping us. All the things that they do here, we also do in
Buddhist temples, just that there are no pictures of
statues.”
Uniquely
Singaporean
Ultimately,
religious syncretism is emblematic of cultural diversity in
Singapore, says A/P Indira. The cult of Datuk Gong, being
unique to this region, is an excellent example of “an
ordinary, un-self conscious and entirely ordinary testament to our
acceptance of cultural and religious pluralism”.
“It
is one of the phenomena that makes Singapore, despite popular
prejudices, a deep, interesting and complex society. Underneath all
this sophisticated gloss is a messy, plural and society that is
alive and therefore fascinating to study.”