These are pictures of an interesting Taoist ceremony I witnessed in Slim River, Malaysia in September of 2000. It is the Nine Emperor Gods (or Kiu Ong Yah in the Hokkien dialect ) Festival.
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| Village Following Procession in the River Slim River, Malaysia
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ceremony; however, I will describe what
I know. I am using it as a scene in a
screenplay I am writing. Consequently,
if any can point me to a source for
additional information related to the
ceremony, I would really appreciate it.
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| Preparing to transmit the brothers to or from a river.
Nine sons of the heavenly mother are
emperor /gods and they reside among
the stars. During the first 9 days of the
9th month of the Chinese lunar calendar,
the 9 brothers descend to earth and grant
wishes to worthy supplicants.
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a waterway, in this case, a river. The
"priests" carry an urn to the river to
receive the 9 brothers from and return
them to heaven.
The procession carrying the urn to the
river was very interesting as the urn was
followed by several "priests" dancing
like monkeys, and they, in turn, were
followed by the entire village.
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| The urn containing the Brothers enroute to the river. |
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| Dancing Priest |
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| The Procession Returning from the River |