Offering to White Tiger / 拜白虎.
The time for people to worship the White Tiger / 白虎 deity to seek safety and to ward off troublemakers or people who has ill intention against you for the year will soon arrive.
Every year prayers for white tiger will begin as usual on the third season of the solar term / 節氣. According to the chinese almanac / Tung shu / Tung shing / 通勝, it is believed that insects are awaken from hibernation on this day and this day is known as Jing Zhe / 驚蟄. A direct translation of Jing Zhi / 驚蟄 would be “awakening of hibernated insects”.
The elders would probably know this same day as The day the White tiger opens it’s mouth / Bai Hu Kai Kou Ri / 白虎开口日.
There is a few version of how this worships came along and one of it said that the insects were awaken from their hibernation when a loud thunder strikes earth on this day and soon the insects fly out to eat the crops and at the same time the bang has also awaken the white tigers thus people started praying for safety and good harvest by offering to the white tiger God.
In another story which i heard many years ago, during this day every year, a mysterious magical beast known as the white tiger from the mountains will wake from hibernation and travel down the hill in search for food. And along the way, it will wake a lot of insects with it’s loud roar, thus causing the insects to fly out from hibernation and cause harm to the surrounding crops. So farmer from the nearby village will travel to the caves in the mountains during this time with pork and eggs to keep the white tiger at bay.
In all version, prayers to the white tiger will bring protection from spirits and demons, eliminate disasters and bring wealth to the worshiper.
There are certain people with different astrological signs yearly that would offend the White Tiger God, And these people would usually visit their local temples for prayers on selected dates.
Prayers usually starts with prayers for Sending Scheming Character / Bai Xiao Ren /拜小人. It is also known as betting people with scheming character / Da Xiao Ren / 打小人. In this prayers, devotee would have to purchase the necessary incense paper before hand. Along with the incense paper for this prayer there will be a paper cut out of a human and that would symbolize as the person with scheming character. There is a paper chain used to tie the scheming character and paper hands or shoe paper for the sweeping or hitting the tied scheming characters.
Then prayers to the white tiger begins.
Things that are commonly used for white tiger prayers are white tiger praying incense papers, fresh fat pork, greens beans, sesame seeds and fresh duck eggs.
The piece of fat pork is rubbed and placed on the tiger’s mouth to symbolize feeding the tiger while sprinkling of the green beans and sesame seeds on the white tiger statue symbolize chasing aways problems and troubles. The eggs are place on the side if the statue as offerings.
After this ritual, the next would be to ritual where the individual invites the auspicious Noble man / Bai Gui Ren / 拜贵人 for the year.
Some temple do provide all the needed material for the offering for a small fee. So you should have no worries but do be early.
During this time, it is also very common for devotees to do offerings to the yearly Tai Sui / 太歲.
Do view my other post on “Auspicious Dates for Chinese New Year” which is posted yearly to get the date and time of the annual Jing Zhe / 驚蟄.
My Time – my.72dragon.com – A web blog where i catalog chinese temples in malaysia.
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