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Vesak Revisited: Buddha The Fortune Teller
Over the Langkarama Buddhist Temple in Assam Kumbang, Taiping, the frail Indian woman who tried to lift the statue of Buddha, later, have had her fortune told. A Chinese man was deciphering her fortune from a piece of paper. That was very unlike what happens in a Chinese temple. In Chinese temples, there is always a shelf somewhere which looks like pigeon holes filled with little pieces of papers with Chinese characters written on them. One just has to kneel down in front of the statue of the deity of the temple, ask a question earnestly in the heart, shake a container filled with numbered bamboo sticks and lo - the bamboo stick which falls out will lead you to one of the said pigeon holes. The strip of paper in the hole will have the answers to your question but perhaps, you'll need an expert to decipher it. In the Langkarama Buddhist Temple, I think you'd just have to pay fifty cents to press a button in a glass case containing a Buddha statue. That will turn a needle and the needle will stop at the number that leads to your fortune; it works just like roulette, don't you think? I think the late Rev. Abhinyana was very annoyed by this practice when he saw it here during Vesak Day and went on to express his annoyance on the same practice elsewhere. There must be such a wheel of fortune in Wat Chaiyamangalaram inBurmah Lane which houses Penang's famed Reclining Buddha if I remember right but never mind that, right now, I am just wondering if Buddha has been a fortune teller in his lifetime...
Over the Langkarama Buddhist Temple in Assam Kumbang, Taiping, the frail Indian woman who tried to lift the statue of Buddha, later, have had her fortune told. A Chinese man was deciphering her fortune from a piece of paper. That was very unlike what happens in a Chinese temple. In Chinese temples, there is always a shelf somewhere which looks like pigeon holes filled with little pieces of papers with Chinese characters written on them. One just has to kneel down in front of the statue of the deity of the temple, ask a question earnestly in the heart, shake a container filled with numbered bamboo sticks and lo - the bamboo stick which falls out will lead you to one of the said pigeon holes. The strip of paper in the hole will have the answers to your question but perhaps, you'll need an expert to decipher it. In the Langkarama Buddhist Temple, I think you'd just have to pay fifty cents to press a button in a glass case containing a Buddha statue. That will turn a needle and the needle will stop at the number that leads to your fortune; it works just like roulette, don't you think? I think the late Rev. Abhinyana was very annoyed by this practice when he saw it here during Vesak Day and went on to express his annoyance on the same practice elsewhere. There must be such a wheel of fortune in Wat Chaiyamangalaram inBurmah Lane which houses Penang's famed Reclining Buddha if I remember right but never mind that, right now, I am just wondering if Buddha has been a fortune teller in his lifetime...
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