THE SUN GO KONG’S BIRTHDAY
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Photo: By William Tung from USA - Wondercon 2016 - Monkey King Cosplay, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48249854 |
Sun Go Kong’s birthday is celebrated on every 15th of the
8th month of Lunar Calendar and it always takes place in a remote
area of Gedong village on Bangka
Island.
Usually, the celebration is prepared in the afternoon and will
proceed at seven o'clock in the evening. There will be a lot of people standing around
the location before the ritual starts.
It is indeed a mystical traditional show that belongs to the
Chinese Indonesians, where red colored papers dominate the decoration of the
altar. The location is full of smoke because the people never stop burning
their joss sticks. This Chinese traditional culture has been known for
centuries and it has been celebrated since the Chinese descendants lived there.
The ritual is held every year to celebrate the birthday of Sun Go
Kong (the monkey king) that symbolizes the Divine power, energy and health.
Besides, it is also considered powerful enough to strike all the negative
influences of the evils. The Sun Go Kong holy spirit is invited to stay
inside the shaman’s body who leads the ritual.
A young man sitting in front of the altar begins to raise his arms
and puts both his hands on his chest. He closes his eyes and starts chanting the
mantras.
After a few seconds, he stands quietly and opens his eyes. It seems
as if his both hands were seized with cramp, then slowly turn into relaxation and
begin to demonstrate a series of Kungfu movements.
He walks step by step to the area and plays the Kungfu strokes
with his hands and legs resembling the movements of a monkey. He also
demonstrates the defense technique with a wooden stick as if he were a monk
from Shaolin Temple.
Having finished demonstrating his skills, the young man walks to the
altar and bows to show respect to the gods and goddesses.
The young man blesses all the fruits in the plates before passing them
around. The people believe that they will obtain good health and free from negative
influences of evil spirits after eating the fruits.
This ritual always wins the great enthusiasm and it has never been
promoted. The people know that Sun Go Kong’s birthday is routinely celebrated every
year.
According to the classic tale of Journey to the West, Sun Go Kong
was a trouble maker. He stole the golden elixir at heaven palace and fought
with the emperor’s guards. He was finally caught as he couldn’t escape from
Buddha’s palm.
Sun Go Kong was thrown to the earth and should face a five hundred
years imprisonment under the Five
Finger Mountain.
One day, a holy monk passed there and freed Sun Go Kong from the
imprisonment and accepted him as his first disciple.
Sun Go Kong was deeply touched by the holy monk’s compassion and
kindness. He protected his master from the disturbances of evil supernatural
beings.
He was very happy to travel on a long journey together with his
master. He had two juniors, one was Piggy and the other was Sandy.
A lot of Satan’s disciples had been dreaming to catch the holy monk
because they believed that the holy monk’s flesh had the power of rejuvenation.
It would help them improve their supernatural power and obtained longevity
after eating the holy monk’s flesh.
Sun Go Kong, Sandy
and Piggy fought with all their might to save their master from danger. They succeeded in accompanying the holy monk to the Western Paradise
for Buddhist Sutras.
As they had done a lot of good deeds, the king of heaven rewarded
them the immortal life and let them live in heaven.
I read and reread Journey to the West when I was a little boy. It
was very exiting as the story book had a lot of interesting pictures.
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