Latest / Tales from Incredible Tales / The Terrifying and Tragic Origins of Hungry Ghost Month

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The Terrifying and Tragic Origins of Hungry Ghost Month · Tales from Incredible Tales

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: During 7 months, my brother got before, yeah, but his
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: one is not his leg swollen, he's so go missing,
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: yeah.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: My name is
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Art. My name is Tong.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: My name is. My name is Wayne. My name is Kyle,
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: and this is Tales from Incredible Tales, inspired by the
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: classic Mediacorp series where we explore different aspects of Southeast
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Asia's supernatural culture. We are back for season 3.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: We're back. On behalf of the team, I want to
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: thank all the fans for making this happen. The comments
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: are you all keep bugging us by demand. That's why
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: we're back. So excited. We are back, but we are
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: doing something a little differently this time around. Rihan, our
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: partner for seasons 1 and 2, has returned to his studies.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: So we want to say thank you so much, Rihan,
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: for your warmth, for your talent, and of course, all
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: your stories.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: In the coho seat now, however, is far Anwar far.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the show, man. Well, what do you mean?
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: I'm Rahan.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: I just, I just got I just got fatter.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: But thank you guys. Thank you guys so much for
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: having me. I'm not here to replace Raihan, and I'm
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: here to continue his legacy, so I hope you guys
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: can accept me and let's learn along the way. Yeah,
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: you are right. You are a horror guy. We are
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: all horror people, so we are all ghosts. Wow, dude.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Um, some things are still the same though. For instance,
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: for this season's premiere, we once again have two guests
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: with us. First, of course, there's the host of Incredible
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Tales throughout its 13 years. Welcome back to the show.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: Thank you. Thank you for having me back, and it
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: always feels like home when I'm back here with you
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: guys and welcome to this home. Thank you, thank you.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: I love, I love how we, we ran the risk
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: of being a little bit too sentimental there and then
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Kyle put us right back like this home, this home.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: We also have another.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: We also have another returning guest, the popular Gen Z
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  Speaker 2: Taoist priest from TikTok, Lee Tong. Good to see
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: you again.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Thanks for inviting me.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the guest lineup, there's a design to it later
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: you see planned this all out. We didn't just randomly
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: throw two people together just like how the team started, uh,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: with the second season with an on location shoot.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: We are coming to you from a creepy location once more.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: This time around, we are in Changi, but unfortunately, we
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: are not filming at this very certainly creepy location that
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: people like to associate Changi with.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: However, we managed to find a place in Changi that
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: has a suitable vibes here. If you know, you know lah.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: This episode's topic, Hungry Ghost is actually inspired by the
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: original Incredible Tales episode 7 months.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: To give you a little bit of a history lesson here. So,
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: this chalet was built in the 1920s and was originally
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: used as British military quarters. There have been no famous
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: ghost stories about it as far as we know. Why,
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: why do you all keep looking?
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: Not even finished with one episode and they're creeping me
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: out already, but at over 100 years old, you never
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: know about this place at Chi Tong, how does it
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: feel to be here?
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: I thought it was OK and now I'm feeling.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: Hm, I'll leave it at that. How do you feel?
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Actually just now when I came, I felt that this
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: place was quite normal, but you know, once we start
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: the show, do you see the lights flickering?
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, the lights flicker. That's that's
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: flickering.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah,
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: yeah. I am not gonna face backwards you have a
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: tower in the, so that's true, that's true.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: So I would say like um I felt normal as
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: well until like we started the show. Yeah. So as
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: you're watching this, it's the Hungry Ghost Month, the festival
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  Speaker 2: is actually celebrated by both Buddhists and Taoists, which is
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  Speaker 2: why we have both art and Qi Tong here today. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: it's by designer. So there are actually differences on how
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: the two religions approach it here though.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: An article on National Library Board's website breaks it down
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  Speaker 2: quite clearly. The focus of this month for the Taoist
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: is actually appeasing the wandering souls. For Buddhists, however, the
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: focus is on Philao paii instead. Last season, we focused
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: more on what you can see with your third eye
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: during this period, but can you tell us a bit
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: more about Fio Paii as part of Hungry Ghost Month
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  Speaker 2: as a Thai Buddhist? Um, I think we should like
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  Speaker 2: break down the term filio.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: It's really hard to pronounce it's really hard to pronounce,
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  Speaker 2: but um I think we should break down the term
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: first before we go into like, you know, um, how
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: it's like how it relates to being Buddhist and um
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: how it relates to the month. Um, this term means
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: how family is very deep rooted and important in Asian
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: culture and how things.
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  Speaker 2: Relate back in so many ways to give respect and
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: give honor to uh.
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  Speaker 2: Your family, your ancestry, and that lies within like um
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  Speaker 2: the ceremonies that you, um, that you pay homage to.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: So it's like if we um if we break it
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: down to.
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  Speaker 2: Why do Asian culture or Eastern culture have this underlying
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: taking care of your parents or everything going back to
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  Speaker 2: your parents? It it lies with this term because we
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: were embedded since we're young, where we're sort of indebted
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  Speaker 2: to our parents for for being born into this world.
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  Speaker 2: Hence they are indebted to their parents and then it
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  Speaker 2: lies with giving the importance of why we're here.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: Um, to the people before, and that lies in the
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: importance of family. The Western culture might be quite confused
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: as to, well, like once you hit a certain age,
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: why do you need to like still be with your parents?
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: Why do you need to take care of them? And
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: it's because we have like, can you say it one
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: more time? filial piety.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: So it's like, and it's a special term because like I,
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  Speaker 2: I think this is, this term like describes it like
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  Speaker 2: so perfectly, um, and it doesn't exist, um, this like
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: this term doesn't like, it's not like a standard term
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: that like we, we speak with each other. Yeah, exactly,
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  Speaker 2: because that's the thing, when I, when I was growing up,
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  Speaker 2: the ancestors part of it wasn't so much there. But
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  Speaker 2: when I was growing up, this idea of filial piety
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  Speaker 2: was exactly what you said. It's, it's broadly speaking just
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  Speaker 2: a respect and a care for your family.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: And you're right, I always thought it was a universal thing.
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  Speaker 2: And then as I grew older, I realized, oh, that
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  Speaker 2: maybe some people outside of Southeast Asia and Asia know
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  Speaker 2: the term, but it's not as embedded in their culture
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  Speaker 2: as it is for ours. Yeah, it's embedded in such
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  Speaker 2: a way that there's this guilt when you're, you don't
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: do certain things like you, um, if you leave your
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: parents um in like you can't move on.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: To not take care of your parents because you've been
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: embedded that if you do so, it's as if like
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: you will you you might not have a good life.
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  Speaker 2: It might be bad luck to you. So this is
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: like in present realistic terms that um that I understand. um,
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: and then when you bring it into a very spiritual level,
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: basically the foundation before, like your grandparents, your great grandparents
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  Speaker 2: and whatnot.
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  Speaker 2: Um, it's the respect that you still keep them alive
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  Speaker 2: in the sense of like in the prayers and in
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  Speaker 2: the special ceremonies and special days, special months, special holidays.
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  Speaker 2: But that's basically the foundation of filial piety.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: Usually a lot of people will confuse Taoism and Buddhism
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  Speaker 1: together because especially Chinese form of Buddhism and Taoism has
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  Speaker 1: been they have been coexisting so long in China until
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  Speaker 1: like a lot of the practices seems to be inseparable,
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  Speaker 1: but at its core philosophy, uh, based on my understanding,
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  Speaker 1: it's totally different. It's totally two different religion that has
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  Speaker 1: no relations at all. So, uh, maybe if I share
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: from the Taoist term, it will be that we do
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  Speaker 1: believe in, uh, our goal basically is
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  Speaker 1: To become an immortal. Yeah, in an immortal, not in
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  Speaker 1: a way where like you become God or somewhere, but
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: in an immortal in a way where we be one
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  Speaker 1: with the doubt because uh according to this philosopher called
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  Speaker 1: Lao Tu, which is one of our founders, he actually
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  Speaker 1: observed in this universe that there is this underlying pattern,
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  Speaker 1: underlying force in this universe that governs kind of everything,
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  Speaker 1: you know. It cannot be spoken of, it cannot be imagined.
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  Speaker 1: It's something just there, you know, we can use our
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  Speaker 1: You know, some people will say hard to feel it.
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  Speaker 1: We know that there is, but we cannot put a
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  Speaker 1: word to it because it is everything but nothing at
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  Speaker 1: the same time. So because he don't know how to
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: describe this thing, he called Tao Tao in Chinese, if
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: you translate to English, it means the way. It's called
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  Speaker 1: the way because every way leads to it and every
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  Speaker 1: everything stems from there as well.
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  Speaker 1: So, uh, as Taoist, our goal actually is to be
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  Speaker 1: what be one with the Doo because we we know
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  Speaker 1: that the world or the universe at its core without
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: human interference is perfect.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: You know, everything runs perfectly. So what we are doing
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: now is actually to minimize what uh our, our, our, how,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: how to say our human desires, our human intervention into
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: this universe and on to ourselves as well, so that
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: we can flow, you know, you know, they always say like,
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: oh flow with nature, flow with the doubt. So that's
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  Speaker 1: actually our goal. I think a lot of the similarities
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  Speaker 1: that we have will be, we do believe in the
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: realms of, you know, reincarnation and all.
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  Speaker 1: So like Buddhists, they will say that, oh, their goal
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: is to jump out from that sixth realm of reincarnation
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  Speaker 1: to attain nirvana. Taoism has a similar concept as well.
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  Speaker 1: So our goal is to be immortal, but not in
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  Speaker 1: a way where we die. But for Taoism, we focus
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  Speaker 1: more on the life. In that perspective, we jump out
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  Speaker 1: from the realms of reincarnation because reincarnation is about living
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: and dying, living and dying, living and dying. But for
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: Buddhism is the opposite.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: It's about with Buddhism, um, it's like from what I
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: consider from my perspective, because Buddhism has been like branched
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: out in so many different leagues as well. But with
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: Thai Buddhism, um, and it probably lies with Buddhism as
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: a whole, it's the karma, that's the word, the karma
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: that you carry with you from your past life, present
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: life and future. So like you have karma ties to
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: people and you have these karma ties where things that
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: you experience.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: In your current life, you're going to be put through
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: the same lessons and the same people, the same traumas,
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: the same sufferings if you don't learn to let go. So, um,
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: I mean, this is interesting because I can make light
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: of it now because I've always had this strange, um,
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: not understanding my my mom, you know, because my mom,
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: she spends so much time.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: Um, putting effort in the dying in the in the deceased.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: And now everything kind of makes sense to me because
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: of filial piety. It's the fact that because that's how
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: she's been embedded and that's what was passed on through
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  Speaker 2: generations and generations before. Um, and she spends each year,
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: each time when there comes the special day where we
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: need to give offerings.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: It's like she goes all out. I feel like we
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: spend more she spends more time with these special days
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  Speaker 2: to give offerings to our ancestors more than spending time
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: in in in the present. So the reason why we're
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: diving deep into this is because of like the 7th
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  Speaker 2: month and the hungry ghost month and how um how
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: the differences in the Taoist and and the Buddhism. And,
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: and for me, um, I guess from my own experience,
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: it's like, um, we don't.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: Practice like um giving the offerings to the ghost in
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: terms of like, you know, to appease them or like to, um,
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: for the fact that they're hungry. I think for on
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: on my side from my personal experience with my mom's
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  Speaker 2: like she's she's giving these offerings to our ancestors to
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: the spirits of the past that are tied to our
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: to our family.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and, and, and that's the interesting part because I, I,
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: I've got um I've been told that.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: From young, right, oh, you need to go for Qingming festival.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: You need to, you know, pray to your ancestors during
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: Hungry Ghost month. You need to pray to them, uh, uh,
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: during their death anniversaries, right? All this is part of
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: the idea of, uh, Fido pai, but somewhat there's some
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: roots to
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: Taoism in there
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: actually I disagree that the roots is fila piety. I, I, I,
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  Speaker 1: I feel like if you, if you understand the tradition.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: It stems from selfishness. Yes, because in Chinese culture or
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: in Taoism, actually we believe that as long as there's
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: someone praying or paying respect to this ancestor or this soul,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: the soul lives. Yeah, so, uh, in Taoism actually we
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: believe that we have 3 souls. So one of them
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: goes to the heaven, one goes to the place that
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: it was worshiped or buried, another goes, they call it
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: the comic soul, it goes to the underworld to receive
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: whatever judgment they have and go to whatever place they have.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: So actually when we are praying to their ancestors, they actually,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: they are the middle soul which carries the memories of
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: that person. So in a way, we believe that if
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: there's someone constantly giving respect or giving offerings to this soul,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: they will live forever. Yeah, but if nobody prays to it,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: about 300 years, they disappear. Yeah, so a lot of
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: the Chinese families, they will want to have sons, they want,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: because the sons are the only one that can
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Carry out this, uh, I would say, um, ritual, you know,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: to pray to the ancestors and all those, and their
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: goal for doing so is so that
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: They can be around, yeah, you know, they want that
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: offering to continue. So that's why they say, oh, when
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: they say, oh, my offsprings, I continue my lineage in
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: Chinese culture, in Chinese it is actually uh said as
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Qi Xiangho. I continue my offerings, yeah,
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: because incense is
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: the incense, yeah, because as long as the incense burning, yeah,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: because as long as it's present, the ancestors will live.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the roots in a way don't, don't die. So
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: you know, we say like feel of piety, feel piety,
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: I feel like it's feel of piety must, you mean
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: like selfishness must.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah,
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: I think it gets adapted. That's why it's like the
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: reason why I had um.
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: Explain it from um like in present day rather in
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: a spirit um scenario is to understand like how it's
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: layered within us without the religion. But this is really
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: interesting because I guess I have some taist in me
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: then after what you just shared because I'm I'm actually quite, um,
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: I have great debates with my my mom about it
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: because I feel like it's.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: You're keeping the spirits um alive. They can't move on
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: by continuing to do this ceremony and process and you're
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: not you're not yourself in the present. I don't feel
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: like things should be so structured and constrained at the
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: end of the day, like.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: We, we, we lend each other's like kind of experience
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: to kind of come up with things on their own
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: that works for us. But I, I agree, actually, I
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: agree with Gitong's statement it is uh a bit of
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: selfishness because, uh, I've been told by my elders like, hey,
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: you know, you need to get a son.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: Then somebody can worship you after you pass on. So
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: you have, you will not, you will not end up
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: as a hungry ghost literally hungry ghost. It's the fear.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: There's a, you know, it's very a lot of Chinese people,
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: we are very layered. There's a lot of emotions like
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: there's the fear, there's the selfishness, and of course there's
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: the reverence, but the reverence is Esther Reed, so there's
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: a lot of practical bunch. Yeah, we are a very
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: practical bunch. So yeah, I, I agree because like in
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: my mind when I was young, I've been like, you know, psychologically.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: Um, like wired to do this, so I still do
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: it as an adult, uh, and I, I don't know,
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: it could be placebo. I feel, feel that, you know, uh,
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: the ancestors are around, ancestral spirits are around to help
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: me when times of need. And of course sometimes when
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: I meet people who are very spiritual, yeah, yeah, your
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: ancestral energy very strongly, all those years of praying and
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: all then I get deeper into the system. So I
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: have a question, um.
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: So what happens if you stop praying for your ancestors?
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: So they will, they will be the hungry ghosts, is it?
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: In a way, yes, hungry ghosts are hungry because there's
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: nobody worshiping them in the Taoist perspective. So yeah, actually
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: they don't really call it wandering ghosts. They call it
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: they call it, uh, don't, they don't call it hungry ghosts,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: they call it wandering, yeah. So actually during the seven months,
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: you know, a lot of people are doing their offerings,
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: you know, just now you say that, oh, Taoism is about.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: appeasing their spirits. Actually in Taoism, this month is a
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: month of repentance and compassion. It's not really appeasing the spirits. Yeah.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: Appeasing the spirits comes about because like people are scared
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: of the ghost, so they do that. Yeah, but why
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: we pray to these spirits is actually to inculcate a
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: sense of compassion towards these wandering spirits. Yeah, so, you know, uh,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: in Taoism.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: Every practice that we do has a deeper meaning that
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: brings about a change in our heart, in our mindset.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: So when we pray, actually we are conditioning these people
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: to give, to give offerings, yeah, to be compassionate.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because no one else, uh, helped them, so you
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: guys decided to,
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: oh, OK, so,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: so during this 7 months, you will see that underneath
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: the void that when the rituals are going on, those
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: they will put those like buckets of like Milo powder la, rice,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: all this kind of thing. After this, this, uh, goods
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: will go to the needy people as well. So, so
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: we help not just the living but also
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: the killing two birds with one stone, yeah, like I said,
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: we are very resourceful.
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: I do find that um in Thailand during the Hungry Ghost,
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: it's a, it's a form of compassion as like Qi
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: Tong said, and I think um.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: With, with Asian culture, there, there's like, there are overlaps
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: of beliefs. It's not pure Buddhism, pure Taoist, there's like
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: there's an overlaps of why things are done, um, at
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: certain times for certain ceremonies and, um, in, in Thai, um,
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: the compassion is called meta. So it's like meta the
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: spirits that aren't able to cross over and they might
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: need that assistance, hence like, um, the hungry.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: Uh, the, the ghost month is like kind of a
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: means to help people, um, get blessings from that, those
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: merits as well. I've been living for quite some time
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: in Singapore and
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: If not because of this conversation, I wouldn't know all this,
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: you know. I'm gonna be honest with you, that's why
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: we have to learn from each other. I mean, we,
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: Carl and I have spoken to Tong on air like,
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: you know, for last season we've spoken on our own
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: show and everything and like it's quite nice to to
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: hear the three of you all speak about it because
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: as the three of you all are speaking about it,
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: like a phrase keeps coming to mind and I don't
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: think it's tied into any particular religion. Everybody dies twice.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: The first time you die is the day that your
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: body gives in and you're gone, and the second time
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: you die is that is the day when the last
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: person who remembers you stops remembering you. The Tai's origin
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: of the Hungry Ghost month revolves around Twantati, the deity
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: that rules over earth and pardons sins. On the 15th
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: day of the 7th lunar month.
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: It's during this month that the gates of hell are
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: open and hungry ghosts are free to wander among the
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: living to look for food.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: Also during this month, Taoist's priest makes food offerings and
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: perform rites too.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: Qi Tong, what kind of rides have you or other
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: Taoist priests, you know, performed during this month
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: from the information first because I just now there was
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: the part that that you talk about how the gates
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: of hell or the underworld is open during the 15th
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: day of the 7 months. Why, why we believe that
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: it's open is because of the rites that you were
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: talking about, because during the rites, during the rituals is
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: where the priests will perform something significant called hellbreaking poor
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: in a way. So, uh.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: Uh, different sects, they do it different ways. So some
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: might use a knife, some might use a a staff,
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: you know, some might jump over the fire different ways,
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: but it's um rituals are actually a way of, it's
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: like symbolism, you know. So, uh, during this period of time, um,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: we are actually extending this form of compassion to the date.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: So what rituals that we usually perform is there will
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: definitely be the hellbreaking, the soul summoning.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: So summoning the wandering soul, showering the souls, uh, and
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: the most important thing is actually for them to listen
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: to scriptures. Yeah, so because we believe that souls are
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: in hell or in the underworld because of attachment.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know how we believe in Ying and the young, right?
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: So we believe that whatever that is dense falls underneath. Yeah,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: whatever that is dense refers to our state of mind,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: so our feelings, our those grief or, you know, those
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: unhappy emotions, those things pull us down to the underworld.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: So that's why this soul sink. Yeah, so that is
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: actually one of the high keys that's inside of uh
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: a Taoist ritual.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: And after that there will be the food giving la,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: you know, you will see them through the through the
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: power la whatever all these kind of things, yeah, but the,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: the food is only, uh, how, how would I say,
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: a trap for them, you know, because, you know, it's
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: like humans are that if we hear a buffet, then
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: we go for the for the event, right? Yeah, so
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: actually the 7 month ritual you can see as a
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: major event planning, yeah, so what is the point? The
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: point is actually for them to listen to these scriptures,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: to understand the meaning and also for them to rise to.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: Heaven or paradise la
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: then what happens if the rights are not performed
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: if
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: they are not actually nothing will happen. That's the thing like,
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: OK, we, we
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: paint a scenario for, for the viewer's sake, la. OK,
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: let's say, uh, I don't know, you run out of
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: certain material, then all the Taoist priests cannot is not
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: able to do the the rights for a certain month
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: for the whole year. What will happen?
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: Nothing will happen. Yeah, really nothing will happen. It's not like.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: You know, every day also where people die, yeah, so
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: even if there's no nobody that do the rituals, they
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: will still, they will just go through their normal course
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: law meaning, because in Taoism we believe that why the
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: underworld or why hell is filled with burning it's because
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: this fire is used to remove their impurities. Yeah, so
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: that's why they have to, so depends on how much
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: impurities they have. They will stay in hell for how
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: long for the amount of time.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: So if there's no priest doing that inner alchemy for them,
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: they will just go through the normal process of burning
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: inside until finally they are pure.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: So the
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: priest is more like trying to fasten it or like
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: lessen the
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: suffering of
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: the disease. Uh, I mean, while, while these topics are
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: very interesting, I, I, I'm out of my own curiosity. Qitong,
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: it's been a while since we met you, so got any.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: Horror stories along the lines of Hungry Ghostman or what
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: we just talked about, that happened.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: Actually, I don't really have a horror one because you know,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: naturally I, I think as I get longer in this field, right,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: there's less things that you get scared about because everything
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: is just like a bit already, you know, you see
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: the ghost last time you're like, oh, this ghost is
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: special then like a bit scared. Now it's like, oh, hi,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: you know, you know, yeah, but I think there are
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: sweet things that come about. So like for example, uh,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: that time, so I was doing like this uh mass
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: prayer for a a pet crematorium, then, uh.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: I wasn't sure it will work or not because usually
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: our rituals are catered towards more of the human, human,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: so I wasn't sure like, hey, you know, pets got
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: souls or not. I mean like we definitely know that
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: uh pets or animals are part of the six realms,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: but I don't know whether it will work. So I tried.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: But during the ritual, I think what was amazing was
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: the feedback that was given after that because some of
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: the pet owners apparently saw and hurt their deceased pets.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: And uh while I was doing the prayer, actually there
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: was a woman that was crying very heavily. Then afterwards,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: like when we went to ask her what what happened,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: she said that she saw her cat.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, over there and she
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: She, she thought that she's crazy, lah, but like, you know, uh,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: we console her, you know, what's past has to pass,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: and I think something sweet happened to me after that
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: because like, uh, after the ritual, actually I have to
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: rush off somewhere. So, uh, my grab came already, but
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: I need to go to the toilet. Then over there,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: there's so many different rooms, you know, but they don't
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: have the label for the toilet on it. So I
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: was trying to search for the toilet one by one,
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: opening the door. Then when I was like on my
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: second door, then suddenly at the far side, the door
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: opened by itself.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so the, the, the strength of it feels as
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: if it's a very light push, you know, yeah, then
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: I was like, what is that? OK, but I went,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: I was, oh, it's the toilet, so I went to
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: the toilet. Then when I was inside, I suddenly felt
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: a presence.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: Um, below me, then I heard a meow
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: meow, yeah,
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: so I was like,
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: oh.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, having goosebumps.
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah,
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: yeah, yeah, it's like
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: thank you,
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: yeah, something like that. So after that, I really believe that, oh,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: animals do have spirits as well.
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: All right, so we've read that the Buddhist origins for
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: the hungry Ghost month begin with Mount Galayana, a disciple
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: of Buddha. Mount Galayana saw that his late mother had
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: been reborn as a hungry ghost.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: That was unable to consume food. When he went to
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: Buddha for advice, Buddha said that for a feet as
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: great as rescuing the suffering deceased, uh, the, the whole Shangha,
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: which is the Buddhist community of monastics and laity, would
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: need to come together. This was when Buddha established a
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: holiday to be observed on the 15th day of the
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: 7th month, during which devotees would offer food, incense, and
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: more in order to free the dead from suffering.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: Uh, there's a beautiful message here about filial piety, but
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: also this sense of community, um, for, for Buddhists. You
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: touched upon parades during the Hungry Ghost month in last
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: season's premiere. Could you tell us a bit more about those? Basically,
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: It's, it's very festive and it's very interesting because I
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: think I would, I used to see it as being
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: something more dark, but seeing it more festive, it's like
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: a celebration and now I have like a deeper understanding
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: with Qi Tong here how um.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: It's giving compassion and I, I feel like the parade
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: is an extension of that, um, the, the parade that
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: I had, um, was able to, to uh be a
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: part of and witness was like in the Chinatown part
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: of like Thailand, and it was so colorful, it was
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: so colorful and I, it was like in the small
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: little side streets in uh Yawala um off of Yawala.
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: And they were just going, they were doing the parade
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: in and out and people were just dressed in so
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: many different, different gods and I, I, I don't even know,
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: I can't even name what they were dressed in, but
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: it was just very beautiful.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: So I think that's a that's a community factor to it.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: But what about the Thai communities,
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: like the Thai communities, um, they don't celebrate the the
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: Hungry Ghost Month. I think it's like if you have Chinese,
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: if you're Thai Chinese, but if like you're pure Thai, um,
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: I don't see people celebrating.
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: Or putting um emphasis on the Hungry Ghost Month. Uh, I, I,
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: I want to ask a question for both of you actually. Uh, there's, I,
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: I think I see on both sides of the temples
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: for both Taoists and Buddhist temples, uh, Goddess of Mercy,
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: Kuan Yin, like both are prayed to at those temples.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: Like, I know, like Kuan Yin is, yeah, uh, is
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: definitely a Buddhist, uh, goddess lah, but what about
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: Taoist
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: actually in Taoism, uh, Kuan Yin is also worship as well,
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: so we actually
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: You know, like the phrase goddess of mercy is more
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: used for Taoism in a sense because, you know, goddess, OK,
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: so like for Buddhists usually they will call him or
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: her bodhisato, you know, yeah, so, uh, or pusa, you know,
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: usually we know know of it as pusa.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, uh, but if you talk about Kuan Ying, actually
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: you have to talk about the history of it. So
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: Kuan Ying is actually more of like, uh, was a
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: male figure that spread from India to China. So when
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: in the during the Tang Dynasty, uh, because the idea
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: of compassion was not associated with the female gender, so
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: slowly it swapped.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: You know, to become a female image, yeah, so, uh,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: in Taoism wise, uh, you will see that there's a,
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: there's a legend that says that, oh, you know, uh,
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: this kuaning is actually this specific deity called Hang Zen Ren, uh,
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: who is a male as well, you know, I don't
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: know how, so, so in a way the concepts kind
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: of mixed together, yeah, the, the idea of these like
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: two different deities in Taoism, this Zhang Zhenan and Guanyin.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: Mixed to that get combined together to become the female
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: Kuan Ying that we know today. Yeah, so you will
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: see that both sides also wor worship her, but I
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: think in in a in a sense it's more of
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: like because in the Chinese community back then, they don't
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: really have a figure that represents compassion and so they
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: kind of just whatever that comes to pray, yeah.
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: I, I think uh Qi Tong basically answered the question. Yeah, um,
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: because I, I don't have much uh insight on Zhang
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: Megunin other than that, there are types who worship Zhang
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: Mawanin and they tend to be from Chinese ancestry.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: So then that would make sense everything that Qihong just
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: like shared with us, but it is, I mean in
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: Singapore at least like uh it's a common staple that
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: you find in Singapore apartments actually, uh, Kuan Yin is
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: the
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: I, I would say like the standard, uh, goddess that
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: you would you put in your home, yeah,
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: because
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: it's
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: quite
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: neutral
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: in
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: that sense, yeah, there's a standard combouanyuankong and Topekong,
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: I think, um, like similar to what you shared about
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: like Singapore kind of, um, it's just like a mecca
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: of what works for you, um, and in Thailand it's
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: a mecca of just.
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: Allowing people to respect whom they respect and the gods
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: they respect. That's why it's like a lot of temples.
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: It doesn't mean that you go to the temple and
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: you believe in all the gods that are provided and
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: the whole entire nation believes the same way. It's like
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: they give a bit of everything for who believes in
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: what and then you have like the core Buddhism there.
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: So that's why, um, like some temples you'll see that
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: John Mack in.
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: And you'll see the Ganesha or you see all these
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: different gods, but then you see people gravitating towards um
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: this uh towards uh the gods they worship. Uh, so
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: Qi Tong, what, what happens if someone encounters a ghost
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: during Hungry Ghost Month?
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: Hungry Ghost month, usually like, OK, so, um, in, in
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: our philosophy, it's more of like it's not a problem
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: until it's a problem. Yeah, so if you.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: So if you encounter a ghost but nothing happens, then
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: just leave it be, you know, you're just passing by,
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: maybe just passing by, just encounter it. But if something
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: happens like for example, you get sick after that, uh,
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: or you become very unlucky after that or some weird
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: things happen.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: Uh, there are different ways to cleanse. So usually, uh,
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: depends on your dialect group. Some, some, for example, the Hokkien,
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: they will use something called a pomegranate leaves. Yeah, they
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: put inside the water. They will just sprinkle themselves, shower
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: themselves that, or, you know, a very common way they
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: say is flower bath,
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: in Malay, yeah, it's common as
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: well, yeah, flower bath or a salt rub, you know,
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: that kind of thing, or the Cantonese, they use pomelo leaves, yeah, uh.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: Those people, they are more skilled in a way, they
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: will use joss paper. So how they will use joss
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: paper is they will just take a paper, use fire,
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: you know, the element of fire to cleanse themselves. They
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: will just circle it around their body to cleanse themselves or, uh,
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: like you said just now, you know, appeasing the spirits,
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: or you can just, you know, make a simple prayer
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: yourself to say, you know, I've maybe I've offended you this, yeah,
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: that that way. So different, different dialect groups, different, um,
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: from depends on which part.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: You are from, they use different methods.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: I, I have a question, you know, I'm pretty sure
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: if you know there are Malay people watching, right, you
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: guys can relate to what I'm what I'm saying. So
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: growing up, right, usually our parents would uh advise us, right,
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: you know, whenever it's Hungry Ghost month, try to avoid,
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: try your best, you know, not to kick the offerings,
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: you know, try not to step on it because we
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: we are young, right? Sometimes when we play football or
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: what and we essentially step onward, right.
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: So I've heard of stories that, you know, when people,
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: especially from my uh community right they accidentally stepped on
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: it or accidentally like, you know, kicked it and whatnot,
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: you know, their leg goes swollen and stuff like that so.
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: Let's say, la, you know, if 1 to 1 were
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: to accidentally, you know, do something like that, right? So what,
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: what is your advice? what do we do? Do we
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: say
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: sorry? Yeah, I think usually you just say sorry is enough, uh,
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: because it
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: The the concept is more of like, you know, you
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: even as humans we are eating halfway somebody you come
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: and kick your food, you're so angry, yeah, so, uh,
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: the way to do it is you really have to
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: sincerely say sorry and, um, because you're from the other faith,
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: usually we're encouraged to use your, your faith practice to
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: to to cleanse first lah, yeah, or it really doesn't work.
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: Usually go back
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: Go back, go back to that place, say sorry and pray,
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: really just pray, yeah, I think during 7 months my
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: brother got before, yeah, but his one is not his
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: leg swollen. He so go missing, yeah, so one of
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: his soul went missing.
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: One of his soul went missing. So during the 7
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: months he was playing in the playground all those then
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: like after that, uh, kick one of the offerings. Then
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: after that we were just like calling him back like
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: last time we used to call his name, so like
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: uh call his name. Then he came. Then when we
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: went back home, he suddenly had a very high fever
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: and he became a bit like gibberish I cannot really
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: talk properly, so he became.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: Just very weird.
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so his,
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: his body is there, but
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: yeah, so yeah. So after that, uh, that time we
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: were very young. So, uh, my parents went to find
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: a medium for consultation that the medium said that, uh,
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: one of my brother's soul went missing because when he
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: accidentally kicked the offerings and when we call his name.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: Uh, he so was like carried away by two young spirits,
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: so these young spirits wanted to play with him, like,
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: like children, yeah. So the way to, to cleanse this
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: to to solve this was that, uh, this medium asked
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: us to take his shirt, the shirt that he always wear,
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: to go outside using a bamboo stick, call his name.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: So call his name, his name, his name 7 times,
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: and bring back, bring back home, put the shirt on
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: his body while he's sleeping, and just let it stay
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: there for the night.
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: So when we did that, the next day he was OK.
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: Did he tell you
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: where he went? No, he didn't. He was just because
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: he was very young, I think he was around like
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: 3 or 4 years old, so he's just like the
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: next day,
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: so just now you said one of his souls was taken, right?
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: So I mean, in your belief, like how many souls
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: do we
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: have?
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: we believe that we have 3 souls, 3, yeah, so
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: we believe that we have 3 spiritual souls and 7 bodily, uh, souls, soul, yeah,
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: so these 10 souls in total become you.
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: Your function. So the 77 physical souls, uh, is more
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: responsible for your function and all. So like your immune system, uh,
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: your digestive system, we believe that all these have a
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: soul as well, and this is 7. They correspond to
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: your emotions as well. Then the 3 spiritual souls, you know,
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: some people, you know, nowadays they will explain it more
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: as like the mind, body and spirit.
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah,
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: but these are your essence in a way.
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: Wow,
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: yeah, creepy,
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: creepy,
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: creepy, but also kind of cute, the fact that he
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: came back he was like, ah, I think you don't know, yeah, yeah,
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: yeah, but it's quite normal during these kind of things happen.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: is there an uptake in cases? Yes, there's an uptake
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: in cases last time I don't last time when I
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: was very new to this, I don't believe, I don't
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: believe that 7 months there's really an uptake in this
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: kind of this kind of cases, but as I.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: Got my experience really, there's a, there's a spike, even
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: for funeral cases, there's usually a spike during this period
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: of time.
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: Just like with seasons 1 and 2, in every episode,
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: we will have a question for everyone here and watching
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: at home. For this episode, I would like to know
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: if you could meet the spirit of a famous person
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: who has passed, who would you want to meet?
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: Um, while everybody's thinking, I will go first, um, purely
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: from the point of view of a writer and purely
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: from the point of view of somebody who greatly respected
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: this person, David Bowie, I would love to meet David Bowie.
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: Actually I would like to meet one of my past masters. Yeah,
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: so there's this one of our past masters from our
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: lineage is this person called Liu Tong Ping, I think
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: for the Chinese audience, they will be quite familiar with it.
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: It's one of the 8 immortals, so he's supposedly the
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: founding person of my sect. Yeah, so I want to
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: ask him.
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: Whatever you say Raw.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think there's a lot of things I
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: would like want to.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: Ask him and clarify, yeah, yeah.
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: Mine is similar to his, uh, I mean along the
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: lines of the theme of this episode, I would actually
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: love to meet Confucius. Yeah, I do have some philosophical
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: questions that I would like to ask him. Any specific
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: questions like
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: If you were alive in this world right now.
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: Do you think it's worse than the world that you
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: came from?
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: Like, like is is is this world considered suffering or
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: is it just another form of a world that you
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: probably have foreseen or see?
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: Uh, because, yeah, your suffering is perspective, right? So for
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: some reason when I, when I, when I asked the question, right,
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: I thought of Michael Jackson for some reason. I do
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: not know why he was on my mind. That's the thing.
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: I do not know why. Why would I want to
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: meet his spirit? How are you doing the moon.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: Are you still haunting the house.
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: It's either uh Michael Jackson or or uh Allaham Tansi
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: if you know, by the way, sorry, who is he's
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: he's a very, he's a director. He's everything like back
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: in the 1960s, like 1960s era, uh, so he's an actor, musician, director, filmmaker,
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: a really famous guy, Renaissance man. What what would you
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: what would be like the top question you would ask him?
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: Or how to be like him
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because he's like all around, he can he literally
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: can do everything and, and even till now, right, I
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: think like what years down the road, right, even people
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: are still watching his movies. It's like evergreen, you know.
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: I already knew from the beginning, but it's like usually
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: I'm the first one that answers, so like I wanted
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: to be the last one. I, I want to uh
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: see the spirit of Albert Einstein.
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: That's a good answer. That's a really good answer. And
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: I would probably ask him to break down quantum physics
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: in layman terms for me. All right, so it's great
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: to be back and what a first episode to to
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: start the season on. I, we were talking earlier on
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: about how like this could be a whole separate podcast
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: all itself, but
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: Unfortunately, we do have to wrap this episode up. As always,
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: it's with Kyle and his morbid fact of the day.
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: So according to the Japanese interpretation of the festival of
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: Mao Kayayana is known as Mokuren. When his mother was
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: released from her suffering, Mokuren had quite the reaction. He
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: broke into a joyful dance.
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: It's why the Japanese version of the festival features a
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: bon Odori, a type of dance meant to honor one's ancestors.
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: Is it, is it tied to Obo? It is right. I,
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: I guess it probably is. Yeah, yeah. Obo is big
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: in Japan. Yeah, people actually travel back to their original
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: prefectures from all the big cities like Tokyo, Osaka to
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: go back and visit and it's like a national holiday,
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: and of course they pray for the disease. It's like
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: Hungry Ghost month.
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: But yeah, yeah, apparently the spirits do come out also
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: during that time. Obo is the Japanese version, yeah. All right,
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: thank you again, Art and also Tong. Thank you so
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: much for joining us and thank you to all of
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: you for tuning into Tales from Incredible Tales and new
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: episodes go online every week on Me Watch, Me Listen, YouTube,
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: Spotify and Apple podcast. My name is Art.
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: My name is. My
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: name is
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: Wayne. My name is Kyle. My name is.
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: And we'll see you next time. Tales from Incredible Tales
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: was hosted by Far Anwar, Wayne Ray, and Kyle Ong,
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: with special guests, Art and Lee Qi Tong, directed and
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: produced by Kyle Ong, written by Wayne Ray, Assistant director
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: Chin Chin Wei, director of photography, Shervin Chua, Gaffer, Jonathan Chan,
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: camera operators, Joey Chia.
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: Sheldon Loong, art director, Jolene Lim, sound recordist Audrey Lee.
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: Behind the scenes footage shot by Brian Koh, hair and
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: makeup by Binno Lim, Pro production manager, Sherry Yap Ang
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: Chee Rui, production assistants, Jamie Teo, Teu Yi Xuan, post-production
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: by Fudge, Motion graphics by Jolene Lim.
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: Camera support by Nikon, lighting support by Aperture, and Amaron.
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: Smoke support by PMI Gear and DC Pro Private Limited.
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: Special thanks to Danny Cordy from Mediacorp. Tales from Incredible
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: Tales is a production of Hantu and Media Corp. Follow
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: the podcast on Millison app, Spotify, Apple Podcast, Google Podcast,
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: and YouTube. Thank you for listening.