Written by london swaminathan
Date: 1 February 2016
Post No. 2498
Time uploaded in London :– 15-27
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Hindus have divided the zodiac into 12 signs starting with Aries, Taurus… and the Chinese have divided their zodiac into 12 signs with 12 animals starting with rat and finishing with pig. Each sign is allocated one year and the year of Monkey begins on 8th February 2016.
Chinese have very strong belief in astrology in spite of the cultural revolution of Mao and the communist rule. My recent tour in Hong Kong and Australia for two weeks gave me a new insight in to their belief and the big business of astrology. Tourists, particularly from the Chinese community spend lot of money to buy the lucky symbols.
1.Laughing Buddha is considered a lucky symbol and every Chinese house has one of these figures. The largest Buddhist temple in the southern hemisphere, Nan Tien temple has a huge laughing Buddha at the entrance.
2.Chinese believe in lucky symbols and those lucky symbols in red colour ribbons are sold throughout Hong Kong. I have seen it hung in many houses and restaurants I visited during my trip. Hong Kong vendors sell these in their road side stalls.
- The 12 animal zodiac signs are kept even in tourist spots like Peak Tram attraction in Hong Kong.
4.Even the British Airways desk at the Hong Kong International airport has displayed a big monkey to welcome the Chinese community who are going to celebrate year of monkey in a weeks’ time on 8th February 2016.
- I went to the famous Wong Tai Sin temple in Hong Kong which is known as a wish fulfilling temple. Three great religions of Buddha, Tao and Confucius have their shrines there. The huge temple and the attached ornamental garden have Fengsui designed buildings.
Twelve zodiac animals are depicted with huge statues under which people stand and wish that their dreams are fulfilled. If a person born under rat sign comes, he goes to the rat sign and stands below it and wish his dreams come true. Wong was a great saint of fifth century CE. A big crowd was there in the morning when I visited the temple.
5.Kau cim is one of the practices used to find one’s future. Believers buy a bamboo tube in which incense sticks are there. One kneels before the temple and shakes it till an incense stick falls down. One will exchange it for a paper with the same number on the fallen stick. If one takes it to a soothsayer, that person will interpret it and tell your future. There are lot of soothsayer stalls in the vicinity.
- The biggest Buddhist temple known as Nan Tien temple is in Wollongong, fifty miles from Sydney in Australia. It has a lucky tree at which people throw lucky ribbons. Whoever throws the ribbon will get what he or she wants. The temple itself sells the red ribbons. We also bought two ribbons and threw them at the Kalpaka Vrksha.
- Just outside the huge temple, the twelve animal signs stand in open air, with the predictions written in Chinese and English. Tourists throng these places to take photos with their respective signs.
Nan Tien temple is very big and it has got Buddha statues at three levels. In the upper two floors Five Buddhas and Three Buddhas are in huge forms. There is dress code. A western woman was refused entry because she has not covered her body fully. Top floor has five huge colourful Buddha statues. Temple sells vegetarian food. The entire complex is no smoking, no alcohol, No meat area.
At the top of the hill there is a huge bell. Anyone goes there rings the bell with their wishes in mind. So we see this type of belief everywhere. The Chinese community’s enthusiastic following proves that they strongly believe in it.
–Subham–
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