The altar of Zao Shen placed at the kitchen of Ching San (Green Mountain) Temple in Muara Tebas, a coastal village near Kuching.
KUCHING (Jan 16): Yesterday was the 24th day of the 12th month on the Chinese lunar calendar, which also marked a traditional ceremony of sending off ‘Zao Shen’ to heaven to meet the Jade Emperor.
Photo shows the grand send-off for the gods to heaven to meet the ‘Jade Emperor’, conducted by the devotees at the Hong San Si Temple, at Wayang Street in Kuching.
In the Chinese deific belief, Zao Shen is the ‘Kitchen God’ tasked with recording and reporting to the Jade Emperor the behaviour of the family members throughout the year.
This is done from his ‘altar’, usually placed at the kitchen of a household.
Every year, Zao Shen ascends to heaven and stays there for seven days as he presents his ‘annual report’ to Jade Emperor.
The ‘nienkao’ is a must-have item among the offeringsmeant for the Kitchen God.
The offerings for the Kitchen God consist of food, water and sometimes betel nuts, but the main item is the ‘nienkao’, the sticky steamed cake prepared from glutinous rice flour, sugar and water.
The Chinese believe the Kitchen God has a sweet tooth, especially for ‘nienkao’; thus, making sure that there is that sweet sticky treat among the offerings, is meant to persuade him to make a favourable report to the Jade Emperor, and also to prevent him from saying too much in his report as his mouth would be full of the sticky ‘nienkao’.
Zao Shen returns on the eve of the Lunar New Year when he would be welcomed back to earth.
The ‘nienkao’ is among the auspicious food items associated with the Chinese New Year, and there are other reasons to have it during the celebration.
In Hokkien, it is called ‘tikoay’, which means ‘sweet cake’ – the symbolism is that by having it in the house, it would bring ‘sweetness’for the family in the New Year.
Then, there is also the Chinese play with words as ‘kao’ (which also means ‘high’), so having ‘nienkao’ signifies ‘a high year’ for the family too.
The Malay community also has a similar cake called ‘kueh bakul’, purely as a traditional delicacy and has nothing to do with the Kitchen God or any worship.
The Chinese began worshipping Zao Shen around the 2nd BC – legend has it that he was originally a mortal man named Zhang Lang.
The story of how Zhang Lang became a god is unique because he did not attain deific status through the usual path of virtue or heroism, but through heaven’s pity on his misdeeds, misfortunes and remorse.
There are several stories about Zhang Lang, one of them tells of how he married a virtuous and faithful woman, but abandoned her for a younger woman.
His actions so angered heaven that he was punished with bad luck and blindness, causing his second wife to abandon him.
Blind and without a job, he became a beggar and one day, his rounds of begging took to him to his first wife’s house.
She recognised him but being blind, he did not know that it was her.
Taking pity on her former husband, she cooked him a good meal.
While enjoying the delicious food that she had cooked for him, Zhang Lang was filled with self-pity and remorse.
He poured out his regrets and sorrow to his host, telling her of his mistake of him leaving his wife for a younger woman, and praising the virtues of his first wife.
Moved by his plight and misery, Zhang Lang’s wife told him to open his eyes and miraculously, his sight was restored.
However, upon seeing that it was his wife he was talking to, Zhang Lang was so filled with shame that he jumped into the fire of the kitchen hearth nearby, and was burned to death.
His wife, in trying to pull him out of the flames, only managed to save one of his legs while the rest of the body was consumed by the fire.
For that reason, the Chinese sometimes refer to the fire poker as ‘Zhang Lang’s leg’!
Heaven, seeing how much Zhang Lang had suffered for his sins and his genuine regrets over them, decided to make him a god in charge of monitoring the conduct of members of every household and to present his annual report to the Jade Emperor.
It is also believed that Zhang Lang’s wife later became a deity.
She would help him by writing down the report of what have been going on in a household for him to bring to the Jade Emperor.
Now known as Zao Shen, the Kitchen God is sometimes worshipped with his wife by his side.
The husband and wife took different routes to immortality – Zhang Lang through heaven’s pity, while his wife through virtue and faithfulness.
As his deific title implies, the altar of Zao Shen is usually placed in the kitchen where he keeps an eye on what has transpired in the kitchen and the rest of the house.
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