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ARCHIV ORIENTÁLNÍ 85, 2017 • 439
ArOr – Issue 85.3 ISSN 0044-8699 © 2017 Oriental Institute (CAS), Prague
Who is Tua Pek Kong?
The Cult of Grand Uncle in Malaysia and Singapore ∗
Jack Meng-Tat Chia
INTRODUCTION
A few years ago, I published an article on the Tua Pek Kong (Dabogong 大伯公)
temple on Pulau Kusu, a small pilgrimage island in the south of Singapore. During
the annual pilgrimage season in the ninth lunar month, as many as 200,000 pilgrims
– mostly ethnic Chinese from Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia – ock to the
island to make offerings and give thanks to Tua Pek Kong, a popular deity, whose
name literally means “Grand Uncle.” In that paper, I argued that the Singapore
government’s interest in harnessing the economic potential of the Tua Pek Kong
temple since the 1980s had led to the commercialization and touristization of
Pulau Kusu.1 My colleagues were amazed by the active and dominating role of
the Singapore government in managing society and developing the economy,
such that even a small 8.5-hectare island was barely able to escape the attention of
the state. Therefore, on a Sunday morning, I took them to the island to have a look
at how the larger forces of social change and state management had impacted
on Pulau Kusu in general and the Tua Pek Kong temple in particular. However,
during our trip, what struck me the most was a simple question from a colleague
from Mainland China: “Who is Tua Pek Kong?” To my surprise, my Chinese
friend had neither heard of Tua Pek Kong in China nor was he aware of the
god’s popularity among the Chinese communities in Southeast Asia. His question
inspired me to write this article.
Who is Tua Pek Kong? Apparently, there is no agreement among scholars on
the origins and identities of the deity. As early as the 1940s and 1950s, scholars
who had researched on the cult of Tua Pek Kong published their ndings in the
Nanyang xuebao 南洋學報 (Journal of South Seas Society), an academic journal
founded by the Overseas Chinese community in Singapore. In a 1940 article, Han
Huaizhun 韓槐準 suggests that Tua Pek Kong was a deity unique to Southeast
∗ An earlier version of this article was presented at the New York Conference on Asian Studies
in September 2012. I would like to thank Barbara and Leonard Andaya, Koh Keng We, Lee
Ming-yen, Steven Sangren, Eric Tagliacozzo, Tan Ai Boay, Tan Chee Seng, Steven Patten, and
two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions and comments. This work was supported by the
Milton L. Barnett Scholarship from the Cornell University Southeast Asia Program.
1 Jack Meng-Tat Chia, “Managing the Tortoise Island,” 72–95.
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Asia. He surveys the diverse sources of Tua Pek Kong’s cult, and concludes that
although the god was rst mentioned in Chinese records as early as the Song
dynasty, he was a Sino-Malay deity whose name came from the Malay word
“Tokong,” meaning temple.2 The Pacic War briey interrupted subsequent
research efforts. A decade later, in his study on the Chinese in Southeast Asia,
Victor Purcell claimed that Tua Pek Kong was the personication of the spirits
of Chinese pioneers and was not the deication of a specic person.3 Around
the same time, Han Huaizhun’s article sparked off a series of discussions on
the origins of Tua Pek Kong in the Journal of South Seas Society. Xu Yunqiao
許雲樵 contends that Tua Pek Kong was a spirit of the early Chinese pioneers
and highlights the fact that the Overseas Chinese worshipped him as a Sinicized
tutelary deity (Tudigong 土地公, meaning “Earth God”).4 Rao Zongyi 饒宗頤
considers Tua Pek Kong to be a tutelary deity that was popular among the Hakka
(Kejia 客家) and the Teochew (Chaozhou 潮州) community in Southeast Asia.5
In sum, early scholarship concluded that Tua Pek Kong was either a localized
Sino-Malay deity unique to Overseas Chinese or a Sinicized tutelary deity akin
to the Chinese Earth God.
Almost ve decades later, scholars remain fascinated by the Tua Pek Kong’s
cult. Li Tianxi 李天錫 suggests that Tua Pek Kong was a tutelary Sino-Malay
god invented by the Overseas Chinese in either Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia
or Thailand. He refutes the claim that Tua Pek Kong was a Chinese Earth God.6
Jean DeBernardi, however, argues that Tua Pek Kong was a symbolic creation
that fused elements of Malay animistic worship with Chinese religious practices.
She points out that the Malaysian Chinese worship of Tua Pek Kong resembles
the Malay animistic worship of Datuk Keramat.7 Zheng Zhiming’s 鄭志明 article
marks a departure from previous studies. Instead of asking an either/or question
concerning the origins of the deity, Zheng contends that the cult of Tua Pek
Kong among the Overseas Chinese in general, and among the Hakka community
in particular, should be understood in a broader traditional belief system of
“heavenly god, earthly god, and ghost.”8 Therefore, Tua Pek Kong should not
be viewed as a monolithic standardized belief system. Instead, the cult might be
seen as a multifaceted religious belief combining diverse elements of Chinese
2 Han Huaizhun, “Dabogong Kao,” 18–26.
3 Victor Purcell, The Chinese in Southeast Asia, 39.
4 Xu Yunqiao, “Dabogong erbogong yu bentougong,” 7–8; idem, “Zaitan dabogong yanjiu,” 19–20.
5 Rao Zongyi, “Tan Dabogong,” 27.
6 Li Tianxi, Huaqiao huaren minjian xinyang yanjiu, 219–22.
7 Jean DeBernardi, Penang: Rites of Belonging in a Malaysian Chinese Community, 152.
8 Zheng Zhiming, “Kejia shehui dabogong xinyang zai dongnanya de fazhan,” 64–74.
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religious culture and local practices. Building on Zheng Zhiming’s argument,
this study seeks to reconsider the various beliefs and representations of Tua Pek
Kong’s cult in Malaysia and Singapore.
In earlier studies of Chinese religion, scholars had raised questions over
the mode of religious authority in Chinese society. Some early anthropologists
suggested that the Chinese project their religious beliefs in the context of the
relationships and roles within their own society. Thus, they present their gods
as sacred ofcials within a bureaucratic hierarchy. Stephen Feuchtwang, in an
earlier article whose argument he has since moved away from, argues that “gods
are a metaphor for the system of authority, the state.”9 Arthur Wolf, on the other
hand, places the gods in a three-tier relationship – emperor and empire, family and
lineage, and stranger and outsider – which mirrors the Chinese social hierarchy.10
In his later book, Stephen Feuchtwang points out that previous scholars had
misunderstood his presentation of the “imperial metaphor.” He argues that the
metaphor was not rigid and static, but had the ability to “change with changes in
the structure of government.”11
Subsequently, Robert Hymes’s ground-breaking book offers a fresh
interpretation of the Chinese model of divinity. He contends that the Chinese
model of divinity can be understood as a “bureaucratic model” on the one hand,
and a “personal model” of divinity and of divine-human relations on the other.
In contrast to the hierarchical “bureaucratic model,” Hymes stresses that the
“personal model” represents the following:
(1) gods as extraordinary persons – a deliberately vague formulation, though the
frequent Chinese use, when gods or godlike gures are encountered by humans
on earth, of the term i-jen, literally, “different person” or “extraordinary person,”
persuades me it is apt; (2) hierarchy between gods and humans or between gods
themselves as usually dyadic (one-to-one) instead of multileveled, and as based in
a variety of connecting principles, including descent, teacher-student or master-
disciple ties, or in such media of chosen connection as exchange or promise; (3)
gods’ authority or special power as inherent in the person of the god, rather than
delegated – this is an aspect of the god’s character as “extraordinary person”; (4)
human interactions with divine authority as unmediated, direct (or at least relatively
so); (5) gods’ relations to places and their inhabitants as either inherent or founded
in the god’s own choice, and as permanent.12
9 Stephan Feuchtwang, “Domestic and Communal Worship in Taiwan,” 127.
10 Arthur P. Wolf, “Gods, Ghosts, and Ancestors,” in Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society, 175.
11 Stephan Feuchtwang, Popular Religion in China: The Imperial Metaphor, vi.
12 Robert Hymes, Way and Byway, 4–5. Emphasis in the original.
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Robert Hymes’s “personal model” offers a useful framework to reconsider
Chinese religious practices in the Chinese diaspora. Therefore, this article builds
on Hymes’s concept of “personal model of divinity” to examine the multifaceted
nature of the Tua Pek Kong cult in Malaysia and Singapore. It argues that in
the absence of an imperial bureaucracy in Southeast Asia, the personal model
aptly explains the proliferation of Tua Pek Kong’s cult among the Overseas
Chinese communities. Tua Pek Kong was far from being a standardized god
in a bureaucratic pantheon of Chinese deities; the deity was considered to be
a “personal being” offering protection to those who relied on him. This study
presents the multifaceted cult of Tua Pek Kong in three forms: a symbol of sworn
brotherhood, a syncretic Sino-Malay deity, and a Sinicized god.
This article draws on a variety of sources: Chinese epigraphic materials,
colonial records, annals of Overseas Chinese, as well as several years of
eldwork conducted in Malaysia and Singapore from 2007 to 2015. First, I will
begin with a brief historical overview of Chinese migration and the spread of
Chinese religion to Southeast Asia in the nineteenth century. Then, I will discuss
the multifaceted cult of Tua Pek Kong in three ways, namely, as a brotherhood
symbol, a Sino-Malay god, and a Sinicized deity. Finally, I will provide some
concluding remarks on how the study of Tua Pek Kong’s cult can contribute to
the debates surrounding models of Chinese divinity and add a new dimension to
our understanding of the Chinese in Southeast Asia.
MIGRATION AND RELIGION IN MALAYSIA AND SINGAPORE
Historically, Southeast Asia has been an important meeting ground for
commerce, cultures, and religions. International commerce was one of the
primary factors behind Southeast Asian cosmopolitanism. For several centuries,
rulers of Southeast Asian kingdoms proted from the revenues of transregional
Sino-Southeast Asian trade.13 As Anthony Reid points out, this transregional
trade illustrates a “natural complementarity” between a densely populated and
technically advanced China and the sparsely settled tropical kingdoms in the
South. China exported manufactures such as ceramics, silks, paper, and a variety
of metal tools and utensils, and in exchange, imported from Southeast Asia a
wide range of exotic spices, medicines, and aromatics, as well as some bulkier
goods such as Malayan tin, Indonesian pepper, cotton, and, at times, even rice.14
13 Philip A. Kuhn, Chinese Among Others: Emigration in Modern Times, 10.
14 Anthony Reid, “The Unthreatening Alternative: Chinese Shipping in Southeast Asia, 1567–
1842,” 13.
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The attraction of commercial and trading opportunities motivated the Europeans
to establish colonies in Southeast Asia. In 1511, the Portuguese seized the Islamic
kingdom of Malacca in order to gain control of the Southeast Asian spice trade, as
well as the trade with China. Subsequently, the Chinese population grew rapidly
in the Portuguese colony. By the late sixteenth century, the Portuguese had to
work with the Chinese community through a local Chinese kapitan (jiabidan 甲
必丹), a wealthy and inuential merchant in the migrant community.15 About a
century later, in 1619, the Dutch East India Company established Batavia as a
colony. Chinese merchants who were working at the neighboring port kingdom
of Banten had long dealt in the spice trade with China and were induced to move
to Batavia. They served the Dutch as contractors and tax farmers, recruited
laborers and craftsmen from China, and supplied bricks and timber for buildings
and the city walls in the Dutch colonial port settlement.16 Britain, which had a
foothold in India, emerged as a major power in Southeast Asian colonialism
much later than the Portuguese and Dutch. In 1789, Francis Light took control
of Penang to serve as an English trading emporium in the Straits of Malacca,
an area strategically located on the trade route between India and China. After
three decades of competition and rivalry with the Dutch for control over the
strategic Straits of Malacca, Britain colonized the island of Singapore in 1819
and acquired Malacca (in exchange for Bencoolen) from the Dutch in 1824. The
British colonizers sought to attract Chinese traders in the region to the newly
established colonies.17 Beside attracting long established Chinese merchants
from Malacca, the economic potential of Penang and Singapore attracted a ow
of Chinese immigrants from the Fujian 福建 and Guangdong 廣東 provinces
of Southeast China. This created an international nexus centered on Singapore,
with branches in Malacca and Penang, and which historian Philip Kuhn calls,
“a trading network based on British naval power and Sino-British commercial
energies.”18
Large scale Chinese emigration began in the mid-nineteenth century and
lasted through the 1930s. This massive Chinese inux can be attributed to both
the push factors within China, as well as the pull factors in Southeast Asia.
To begin with, China’s defeat in the Opium Wars and the subsequent signing
of treaties with various colonial powers had two signicant consequences for
migration. First, the Western domination of China’s treaty ports and the military
supremacy of the imperial powers provided the “legal framework” for the
15 Kuhn, Chinese Among Others, 58–59.
16 Ibid., 60–61.
17 DeBernardi, Penang, 17.
18 Kuhn, Chinese Among Others, 100–101.
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recruitment and transportation of Chinese laborers. Second, the war and opium
trade signicantly disrupted Chinese society in the southern coastal provinces. A
large number of Chinese had their livelihoods taken away and suffered massive
levels of impoverishment. Consequently, the “opening of China” by the Western
powers produced the mechanisms for recruiting labor, as well as socially and
economically uprooting Chinese labor from China.19 On the other hand, numerous
problems within China, including famines, natural disasters, population pressure,
and rebellions, also motivated the Chinese to leave their homeland and seek better
opportunities in Southeast Asia.20
The arrival and settlement of Chinese migrants contributed to the spread
of Chinese religious beliefs and practices into Southeast Asia. As early as
the seventeenth century, the Hokkien (Fujian 福建) merchants in Malacca
established the Blue Clouds Pavilion (Qingyun ting 青雲亭) in 1673 to worship
the Guanyin Bodhisattva (Guanyin Pusa 觀音菩薩). The temple served many of
the social needs of the Chinese migrant community. It was a place of worship, a
ritual center, and a shared space for ancestral sacrice, preserving the ancestral
tablets of deceased migrants.21 For most Chinese immigrants, voyages to foreign
lands lled them with a deep sense of anxiety and uncertainty. Thus, many of
them brought along ashes from their local temples in China or a statue of their
patron deity for blessing and protection. For this reason, religious practices and
beliefs not only fullled the spiritual needs of the migrants, but also signicantly
enhanced their condence and gave them a greater sense of security in their new
Southeast Asia environment.22
Chinese migrants were important actors in the transplantation of their local cults
and religious practices from China to Southeast Asia. For instance, the “Empress
of Heaven” (Tianhou 天后, also known as Mazu 媽祖), was probably the most
popular deity in South China and among the Overseas Chinese. Commonly
regarded as the protector of seafarers, Tianhou temples could be found all along
the Southeast China coast from Zhejiang to Guangdong and also on the island
of Taiwan.23 After surviving the long and risky voyage to Southeast Asia, many
Chinese migrants showed their gratitude to Tianhou for her protection, praying
for safety and economic success in their new host country. The sea goddess
19 Ibid., 111.
20 Yen Ching-hwang, A Social History of the Chinese in Singapore and Malaya, 1800-1911, 1–3.
21 Kuhn, Chinese Among Others, 67–69.
22 Cheng Lim Keak, “Chinese Deities, Emigration and Social Structure in Singapore,” 39.
23 The cult of Tianhou has received a considerable amount of scholarly attention. See, for instance,
James L. Watson, “Standardizing the Gods,” 292–324; P. Steven Sangren, Chinese Sociologics;
Li Tianxi, Huaoqiao huaren minjian xinyang yanjiu, 11–39.
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was worshipped across various dialect groups, including Cantonese, Hainanese
(Hainan 海南), Hokkien, and Teochew. Concomitantly, local native-place deities
(xiangtu shen 鄉土神) that were peculiar and signicant to specic dialects
groups and locales also followed the Chinese migrants to Southeast Asia. Among
these gods were Guandi 關帝, the Chinese god of war, a favorite deity among
the Cantonese and Hakka community; Kaizhang Shengwang 開漳聖王, the
protector of the Zhangzhou 漳州 people; Qingshui Zushi 清水祖師, a popular
Buddho-Daoist deity among the Anxi 安溪 community; Shenghou Enzhu 聖候恩
主, the patron god of Jinmen 金門 migrants; and Xuantian Shangdi 玄天上帝, a
deied Polaris and god of navigation, popular among the Teochew community.24
Since the Song dynasty, the imperial state had granted feudal lord of antiquity
titles – marquis (hou 候), duke (gong 公), and king (wang 王) – to local gods
and immortals to create a hierarchy of honor and recognition.25 Many of the
deities that came with the Chinese migrants were the so-called “enfeoffed” gods.
However, the arrival of Chinese beliefs and practices was far more complex
than being just a single-direction dissemination process. Chinese migrants not
only transferred popular deities and native-place gods from China to Southeast
Asia, but also invented their own gods in the migrant society. In the following
sections, I discuss how Tua Pek Kong was invented and worshipped in Malaysia
and Singapore.
THE SPIRIT OF ZHANG LI: TUA PEK KONG
AS SWORN BROTHERHOOD
Overseas Chinese associations were formal expressions of afnity groups in
the diaspora. In the absence of Chinese imperial bureaucracy in Southeast Asia,
these afnity groups were vital societies in the organization of Chinese migrants.
These groups can be broadly divided into four types: compatriotism (common
regional origins in particular provinces, counties, towns, and villages, usually
distinguished by dialect), kinship (real or invented), co-rituality (shared devotion
to particular deity cults), and brotherhood (kongsi, M. gongsi 公司, commonly
called “secret societies” in early Western writings).26 During the rst half of
nineteenth century, the British did not enforce direct control over the Chinese
population in the Malay Peninsula and Singapore. Rather, they depended on
24 Cheng, “Chinese Deities, Emigration and Social Structure,” 39, 42–43; Yen, Chinese in
Singapore and Malaya, 14–15.
25 Hymes, Way and Byway, 181.
26 Kuhn, Chinese Among Others, 161–62.
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brotherhood associations as a tool of “indirect governance” and relied on them
to run opium tax farms and serve as agents of labor importers.27 Mary Somers
Heidhues provides four possible denitions of kongsi: (1) a group of a few to as
many as several dozen members, who agree to contribute capital or labor, each
member having a share, and to divide prots among themselves; (2) associations
or federations that incorporated hundreds or even thousands of people at several
mines, maintained an assembly, and who were responsible for daily government;
(3) the head of the kongsi and his residence; and (4) brotherhoods or “secret
societies.”28 Interestingly, Tua Pek Kong became both the name and the symbol
of an inuential sworn brotherhood in the Chinese diaspora.
The Chinese in Penang widely considered Tua Pek Kong to be the spirit of
Zhang Li (張理 or 張禮). Zhang Li was believed to be a political refugee from a
Hakka district in South China and was the rst known Chinese settler in Penang
before the arrival of the British colonist Francis Light. After his death, he was
buried behind the Sea Pearl Island Tua Pek Kong Temple (Hai Choo Soo Tua Pek
Kong Bio, M. Haizhuyu dabogong miao 海珠嶼大伯公廟) in Tanjung Tokong,
a Chinese shing village that was probably the earliest Chinese settlement on the
island.29 In 1792, Li Ci 李賜, a Chinese man from Malacca, offered a stone censer
to Tua Pek Kong. The censer was discovered under a large tree near the temple,
which had been an earlier place of worship.30 Afterward, a temple dedicated to
Tua Pek Kong was constructed in 1799.31 The story of Penang’s Tua Pek Kong
demonstrates the tradition of sworn brotherhood in the Chinese diaspora:
[Zhang Li] lived in the small community of sher folks (sic) as a teacher. He
was known for his kindness and friendliness – the villagers never failed to seek
his guidance and help when they had any problems. Two men became his sworn
brothers – Chiu Hsiao Ching, a charcoal maker, and Ma Fu Choon, a blacksmith.
As he was the eldest, he was addressed by the young in the village as Tuah Pek
Kong (sic). The trio seemed very much attached to one another. When the day’s
work was done, they would meet each other without fail in their favorite place in
the village. One day, as the records continue, Chiu and Ma, as usual, went to meet
27 Ibid., 159.
28 Mary Somers Heidhues, Golddiggers, Farmers, and Traders in the “Chinese Districts” of West
Kalimantan, Indonesia, 54–55. Scholars have challenged the use of the term “secret societies”
on kongsi. See, for example, David Ownby and Mary Somers Heidhues, eds., “Secret Societies”
Reconsidered: Perspective on the Social History of Modern China and Southeast Asia.
29 DeBernardi, Penang, 150;
30 “H. 1.1.1 Shi Xianglu Kewen,” in Chinese Epigraphic Materials in Malaysia, ed. by Wolfgang
Franke and Chen Tieh Fan, vol. 2, 517.
31 DeBernardi, Penang, 150.
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• 447
their respected elder but were shocked to nd him sitting motionless beside a huge
boulder! They tried to awaken him but soon realized that their revered elder was no
more alive (sic). A sense of gloom seemed to overwhelm the residents of the village
who helped to bury him beside the boulder. Chiu and Ma eventually died and they,
too, were buried there beside their sworn eldest brother. Today, the “graves” of the
trio can be found just behind the [Sea Pearl Island Tua Pek Kong] temple.32
This passage suggests that Zhang Li was not only the founder of the Tua Pek
Kong sworn brotherhood; he actually was Tua Pek Kong. As Jean DeBernardi
writes, just as the Heaven and Earth Society worshipped their founders, the Tua
Pek Kong sworn brotherhood likewise venerated Zhang Li and his sworn brothers
as “founders and patron deities.”33 Thereafter, Tua Pek Kong became an important
symbol of sworn brotherhood among the Overseas Chinese community.
The Tua Pek Kong Society (also known as Kian Tek Tng, M. Jiande tang
建德堂) in Penang worshipped Tua Pek Kong as the organization’s patron
deity. This sworn brotherhood society provided mutual assistance to its
members and took charge of governance, and law and order in the diasporic
32 Poh Teh Teik, Gods and Deities in Popular Chinese Worship, 42–43.
33 DeBernardi, Penang, 151.
Figure 1. The graves of Zhang Li and his sworn brothers behind the Sea Pearl Island Tua
Pek Kong Temple at Tanjung Tokong. Photograph by author
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448 • JACK MENG-TAT CHIA
community.34 For instance, the Tua Pek Kong Society established a set of
rules for its members aimed at maintaining harmony and mutual trust in their
host country:
The members declared themselves brothers of the same father and mother, sharing
in the troubles and in the comforts of one another, the strong to protect the weak,
to help the needy, to raise those who fall, to admonish one another. In order not
to commit ourselves by doing that which is not right, one must not boast himself
strong and attack the weak. Justice must be done in all cases with impartiality, and
without distinction of tribes… The Kian Tek [Tua Pek Kong] Society hereby begin
and publish their rules as follows. The ancient Emperors, when they enacted their
laws, made everything clear and manifest. Their subjects were able to enter into
oral contracts with each other. The nobility and the people knew their position.
At the present time there are many Chinese residing in this Island of Penang;
misconduct is daily increasing and people’s hearts are daily changing, and there is
no justice. The rich wish to swallow up the poor, the strong take advantage of the
weak; the widows children, orphans male and female, have no doors by which to
enter to represent their grievances. Though each has a heart, they never think alike.
That is the reason why discord and dissension always exist and why the means of
getting a living are interrupted. (sic)35
Nevertheless, the various sworn brotherhood societies did not coexist
harmoniously in colonial Penang. The Tua Pek Kong Society and Ghee Hin
kongsi (Yixing gongsi 義興公司) were rivals and each sought Malay allies in
order to strengthen themselves. Thus, Tua Pek Kong allied itself with the Red
Flag Society while Ghee Hin joined the White Flag.36 In 1867, the outbreak
of the Penang riots came as a shock to the colonial authorities. The British
colonial government was unable to put down the riots due to the lack of military
and police resources. The wealthy and powerful coalition of Tua Pek Kong
and Red Flag, with 7,500 men, fought the 28,000 man strong coalition of the
Ghee Hin and White Flag.37 Consequently, A. E. H. Anson, the newly arrived
Lieutenant Governor, who assumed ofce a few months before the riots, had to
seek reinforcements from Province Wellesley and set up a small defense unit to
guard the town areas from the rioters. The 1867 riots, which lasted for ten days,
resulted in death and destruction. In the end, the leaders agreed to observe the
34 Ibid., 82.
35 See Commission of Enquiry into the Origin and Causes of the Recent Riots 1867. Appendix 2
of the report reprinted in Leon Comber, Chinese Secret Societies in Malaya, 279–86.
36 Mahani Musa, Malay Secret Societies in the Northern Malay States, 1821–1940s, 65.
37 Ibid., 68.
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government’s call to stop the riots and pay up the $5,000 ne imposed on each
of the societies involved.38
However, after several more destructive riots in Malaya and Singapore over
the next few decades, the British colonial authorities decided to put a stop to
“secret societies” and promulgated the Suppression of Dangerous Societies Act
in 1890. The colonial legislation dissolved the various brotherhood societies,
including the Tua Pek Kong Society, and criminalized their activities. Yet, the
government allowed these societies to maintain temples, while forcing them to
sell their property.39 The enactment of the Suppression of Dangerous Societies
Act ended Tua Pek Kong as a sworn brotherhood society. The Tua Pek Kong
Society renamed its headquarters the Temple of the God of Prosperity, Virtue and
Morality (Hock Teck Cheng Sin Bio, M. Fude zhengshen miao 福德正神廟),
also called the Ancestral Temple of Prosperity (Hok Tek Si, M. Fude ci 福德祠).
Later, the society divided itself into several smaller registered organizations and
shared their two-story building.40
The “personal model” is useful for understanding the popularity and inuence
of the Tua Pek Kong cult and brotherhood society in colonial Penang. First,
Zhang Li, the founder and rst Tua Pek Kong was believed to be a kind and
wise Chinese pioneer. Overseas Chinese sought Zhang Li’s help when he was
alive and continued to seek his divine blessing in an unmediated, direct manner
following his death. Furthermore, the Tua Pek Kong sworn brotherhood created a
dyadic relationship connecting its members. Personal relations in familial terms –
between the divine uncle and the newly arrived migrants – offered a much-needed
sense of security and protection. Despite the prohibition of Tua Pek Kong as a
sworn brotherhood society toward the end of the nineteenth century, two other
forms of Tua Pek Kong’s cult remained prevalent in Malaysia and Singapore, and
have continued to the present day.
“TUA PEK KONG TOLONG”: TUA PEK KONG
AS SINO-MALAY DEITY
Tua Pek Kong was also venerated as a Sino-Malay deity in many parts of Southeast
Asia. Some scholars have traced the earliest presence of Tua Pek Kong to a 1763
inscription found in the Pekan region of Pahang. Zhou Yizhen 周翼振, a Chinese
migrant from Shuangfeng 雙鳳, dedicated a stele to the deity Bentougong of the
38 Ibid., 70.
39 CO 273/159, No. 10582, Societies Ordinance, 571.
40 DeBernardi, Penang, 76.
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450 • JACK MENG-TAT CHIA
Great Tang (Datang bentougong shen 大唐本頭公神).41 According to Wolfgang
Franke and Chen Tieh Fan, this inscription is one of the earliest epigraphic
materials discovered in Malaysia, and antedates even the tombstones and other
inscriptions found in Songkhla, Southern Thailand. Franke and Chen suggest that
since the inscription was uncovered in Pek Kong Bio (Bogong miao 伯公廟), the
oldest temple in Pekan, it was likely that Bentougong was another name for Tua
Pek Kong. They also note that the designation of the deity inscribed is unique to
Malaysia.42 Nevertheless, little information is available on Bentougong, a Sino-
Malay form of Tua Pek Kong. Although the origins of Bentougong remain a
mystery, Tua Pek Kong was indeed popular in the form of a Sino-Malay deity
among the Overseas Chinese community.
41 There are four Shuangfeng towns in China, located in Jiangsu, Guangxi, Chongqing, and
Sichuan. However, I am not able to nd any further information on Zhou Yizhen and I am,
therefore, uncertain if he indeed came from one of the four Shuangfeng towns in China.
42 “G 5.1.1 Bentougong Shenwei,” in Franke and Chen, Chinese Epigraphic Materials in Malaysia,
vol. 2, 497.
Figure 2.
A 1763 stele that reads “The Deity
Bentougong of the Great Tang.”
Source: Franke and Chen, Chinese
Epigraphic Materials, vol. 2, 497
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Who is Tua Pek Ko ng? The Cult of Grand Uncle in Malaysia and Singapore
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In his 1940 article, Han Huaizhun argues that Tua Pek Kong was a deity
invented in Southeast Asia. He considers the god to be a Sino-Malay deity,
whose name came from the Malay word “Tokong,” meaning “temple.” For this
reason, Tua Pek Kong was known as Dugong 都公 among the Overseas Chinese
community.43 Furthermore, he also highlights that Tua Pek Kong shrines in
Penang were often called “Rumah Tokong” (Luma Dugong 蘆嗎都公), which
can literally refer to “house temple” or “Dugong’s home.”44 Because of its Sino-
Malay origins, as Han suggests, the Malay phrase “Tua Pek Kong tolong,” which
can be literally translated as “Tua Pek Kong, please help,” was a popular phrase
among the Chinese in Malaysia and Singapore.45 On the contrary, Jean DeBernardi
observes that the Malaysian Chinese worship of Tua Pek Kong resembles the
Malay worship of Datuk Keramat, which are animistic cults at sacred sites (such
as rocks, trees, hilltops or whirlpools) as well as worship events at the graves
of Islamic saints. Like the Datuk Keramat, who often die by a sacred stone or
transform into a rock on death, Zhang Li’s death next to a boulder symbolizes
the “syncretic convergence” between the two. Therefore, DeBernardi concludes
that Tua Pek Kong’s cult symbolically fuses elements of Malay animistic worship
with a Chinese tradition of economic enterprise through the cooperation of a
sworn brotherhood, as discussed earlier.46
The presence of Tua Pek Kong as a Sino-Malay deity is most apparent on the
island of Pulau Kusu. Pulau Kusu, which means “Tortoise Island” (Guiyu dao 龜
嶼島), is located approximately 5.6 kilometers off the south coast of mainland
Singapore. The island was a former burial site for immigrants who died during
quarantine on the southern islands of Saint John’s and Lazarus. In 1975, Pulau
Kusu was enlarged through land reclamation from two tiny 1.2-hectare outcrops
on a reef to an expanded 8.5-hectare island. There are two important places of
worship on the island, namely, the Guiyu Fushan Gong Tua Pek Kong Temple
(Guiyu fushan gong dabogong miao 龜嶼福山宮大伯公廟) and the Keramat
Kusu.47 Due to the lack of written sources, little is known about the exact origins
of the Tua Pek Kong Temple and Keramat Kusu on the island. According to Song
Ong Siang’s account, Tua Pek Kong and Datuk Keramat were already popular
among the Overseas Chinese by the mid-nineteenth century.48 The oldest temple
stele in the Tua Pek Kong temple, however, dates back to 1909.49 This inscrip-
43 Han, “Dabogong kao,” 23.
44 Ibid., 25.
45 Ibid., 19.
46 DeBernardi, Penang, 152.
47 Chia, “Managing the Tortoise Island,” 77.
48 Song Ong Siang, One Hundred Years’ History of the Chinese in Singapore, 179.
49 “Chongxiu Fushangong,” 1909, Pulau Kusu, Singapore.
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452 • JACK MENG-TAT CHIA
tion was erected to commemorate a major renovation and not the founding of
the temple. Therefore, the establishment of the temple predated any of the steles
that can be found in the temple. There are many legends surrounding the sacred
origins of Pulau Kusu. The ve accounts below, as recorded on the signboard on
the island, are believed to be the most popular:
1. 150 years ago, two holy men, Dato Syed Rahman, an Arab, and Yam, a Chinese,
made a meditation and fasting trip to Kusu. In the course of their religious retreat,
Yam fell ill and Syed prayed fervently for his recovery. Through the intervention of
divine forces, a boat miraculously appeared with food and water, which saved their
lives. Syed and Yam later became sworn brothers.
2. Sailors shipwrecked in the waters near Singapore during one lunar ninth month
centuries ago were rescued by a giant turtle, which turned itself into an island.
3. Two shermen had wrecked their boat while plying the waters near Kusu. On
sighting this adverse situation, a giant tortoise transformed itself into an island to
provide refuge for the shipwrecked shermen.
4. More than a hundred years ago, an Arab named Syed Abdul Rahman left Singa-
pore in search of peace with his wife and daughter on a journey. While they were in
a sampan, they were caught in a violent storm, which capsized their boat. A giant
tortoise spotted them and brought them safely to an island. Legend also has it that
their lost sampan not only returned but was loaded with food.
5. Centuries ago, passengers on board a ship were stricken by an epidemic but all
recovered as soon as it anchored near the island of Kusu.50
Despite differences in these myths of origin, they all point to the sacred beginnings of
the island and the miracles associated with it. The rst legend is the most crucial in
highlighting the Sino-Malay origins of Tua Pek Kong’s cult. It illustrates an interesting
interracial and interreligious encounter between two pious men, Dato Syed Rahman
and Yam, on Pulau Kusu. According to popular belief, and veried by the late temple
caretaker, Dato Syed Rahman later became Datuk Kong51 of the Keramat Kusu, and Yam
50 Quoted in Chia, “Managing the Tortoise Island,” 78.
51 For studies on the cult of Datuk Kong, see, for instance, Cheu Hock Tong, “The Datuk Kong
Spirit Cult Movement in Penang,” 381–404; Chiew Jing Wen, “Relocated and Redened: The
History of Evicted Datuk Gongs in Singapore,” 1–35.
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Who is Tua Pek Ko ng? The Cult of Grand Uncle in Malaysia and Singapore
• 453
was none other than Tua Pek Kong.52 Hence, if Dato Syed Rahman and Yam were sworn
brothers, this also means that Datuk Kong and Tua Pek Kong are “divine siblings” on the
island.
The cult of Tua Pek Kong as a Sino-Malay deity on Pulau Kusu can be
viewed in two ways. First, devotees are told not to consume pork before they
make their pilgrimage to the island. Furthermore, unlike most Chinese religious
rituals where roast suckling pigs and wines are being offered to the deity, the
devotees are not allowed to bring such “haram” offerings onto the sacred island.53
Such prohibitions are imposed to prevent the pilgrims from offending Tua Pek
Kong’s Muslim sworn brother, Datuk Gong, who is enshrined in the neighboring
Keramat Kusu. Second, pilgrims who go to Pulau Kusu not only worship at the
Tua Pek Kong temple on the island, but also pay their respects to Datuk Gong
at the Keramat. It is only by doing so that their pilgrimage is considered to be
“complete.”54
In the case of Pulau Kusu, the Chinese worship of Tua Pek Kong has occurred
in parallel with the Malay worship of Datuk Keramat. Tua Pek Kong is not only
a Sino-Malay deity with a Muslim sworn brother; the cult has incorporated the
Islamic idea of “haram” into its religious practices and the worship of Datuk
52 Sim Chwee Eng (temple caretaker, Guiyu Fushan Gong Tua Pek Kong Temple), interview by
author, 22 September 2007, Singapore.
53 “Haram” is an Arabic term meaning “forbidden.” In Islam, it is used to refer to anything that is
prohibited by the word of Allah in the Qur’an.
54 Sim Chwee Eng (temple caretaker, Guiyu Fushan Gong Tua Pek Kong Temple), interview by
author, 22 September 2007, Singapore.
Figure 3. Devotees praying at Tua Pek Kong Temple and Keramat Kusu on Pulau Kusu.
Photographs by author
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454 • JACK MENG-TAT CHIA
Kong as part of the religious pilgrimage. The case of Pulau Kusu reveals that such
a religious system was different from the local deity cults that were transplanted
from China into Southeast Asia. The cult of Tua Pek Kong reveals the rich Sino-
Malay syncretism as a result of the intersections between the Chinese model of
personal devotion toward extraordinary persons and popular Islamic practices in
Southeast Asia.
PROSPERITY, VIRTUE, AND MORALITY: TUA PEK KONG
AS SINICIZED GOD
A third way of looking at the cult of Tua Pek Kong is to consider the deity as a
Sinicized God in the Chinese diaspora. While some identify Tua Pek Kong as a
personied “pioneer spirit” of the Overseas Chinese,55 others consider the deity
to be a Chinese Earth God (Tudigong 土地公).56 Leon Comber notes that Tua
Pek Kong was a “tutelary saint of the Overseas Chinese,” whose main function
was to look after the interests of the ethnic Chinese community. In addition, the
deity was relied upon to bring prosperity, cure diseases, calm the ocean, and avert
danger.57 Interestingly, Chinese epigraphic materials from the Tua Pek Kong
temples in Southeast Asia, as well as writings in the Annals of Overseas Chinese
(Huaqiao zhi 華僑志), present Tua Pek Kong as a Sinicized deity of the Overseas
Chinese community.
In the epigraphic materials from Malaysia and Singapore, Tua Pek Kong was
portrayed as a Chinese god of wealth, and the deity was often called the “God of
Prosperity, Virtue, and Morality” (Hock Teik Cheng Sin, M. Fude zhengshen 福德
正神). According to the inscriptions erected by Overseas Chinese devotees, Tua
Pek Kong was described as a deity with an “efcacious response” (xianhe linggan
顯赫靈感)58 and noted for being “extremely effective” (lingxian feichang 靈顯非
常).59 One of the steles points out that Tua Pek Kong “defended the country and
blessed the people” (huguo bimin 護國庇民).60 In other words, Tua Pek Kong
was depicted as a Sinicized deity that protected China and the Overseas Chinese.
Like the local cult deities that arrived with the migrants in the nineteenth
century, Sinicized Tua Pek Kong served an important function in the diasporic
55 Purcell, The Chinese in Southeast Asia, 39.
56 Xu, “Dabogong erbogong yu bentougong,” 7–8; Xu, “Zaitan dabogong yanjiu,” 19–20.
57 Leon Comber, Chinese Temples in Singapore, 33.
58 “Chongjian wucao dabogong miao tijuan beiwen,” 56.
59 “Chongxiu danrong bage dabogong ciyu bei,” 94.
60 “Chongjian wucao dabogong miao tijuan beiwen,” 56.
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Who is Tua Pek Ko ng? The Cult of Grand Uncle in Malaysia and Singapore
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community: conict resolution. Chinese gods and religious rituals, as Paul Katz
suggests, are symbols of divine justice and are often called upon to resolve
interpersonal conicts in Chinese societies.61 According to an inscription erected
in 1887, two committee members from Haichun Tua Pek Kong Temple (Haichun
fude ci 海唇福德祠) were involved in a conict and they decided to take the case
to court. The inscription highlights that the conict was eventually resolved by
the divine intervention of Tua Pek Kong. After ending the grudges between the
two members, a stele with a set of regulations, inscribed for members to follow,
was erected in the Tua Pek Kong temple.62 The inscription in this case served as
a contract between the deity and his devotees to prevent future disagreements.
Additionally, Tua Pek Kong was presented as a Sinicized deity in the Annals
of Overseas Chinese. According to the Annals of Overseas Chinese: Malaysia
(Huaqiao zhi: Malaixiya 華僑志：馬來西亞) published in 1959, Tua Pek Kong
61 See Paul R. Katz, Divine Justice: Religion and the Development of Chinese Legal Culture.
62 “Fude ci ersi zhusong gongbei,” 92–93.
Figure 4. Tua Pek Kong as the God of Prosperity, Virtue, and Morality.
Photograph by author
Chia.indd 455 18.12.2017 9:43:35
456 • JACK MENG-TAT CHIA
was regarded as a tutelary Chinese Earth God akin to Tudiye 土地爺, Tudishen
土地神 or Tudigong 土地公. The text also claims that Tua Pek Kong was a spirit
of the Overseas Chinese pioneers.63 The Annals of Overseas Chinese: Singapore
(Huaqiao zhi: Xinijapo 華僑志：新加坡), however, offers a Sinocentric and
bureaucratic perspective of Tua Pek Kong:
In China, [Tua Pek Kong is called] “God of Prosperity, Virtue, and Morality,” also
known as “God of the Earth.” His divine authority is said to be equivalent to the
chief deity of a single locale. [Tua Pek Kong] is usually worshipped together with
the Kitchen God.
在中國稱「福德正神」，又稱「土地公」，其神權職位，據謂專司一方之總
神。常與司命灶君同祀。64
The two annals seem to place Tua Pek Kong in a Chinese bureaucratic
framework. I would argue that this can be attributed to two reasons. First, it is
possible that the publisher (Huaqiao wenhua chubanshe 華僑文化出版社) of
these texts, an Overseas Chinese press based in Taiwan, had little knowledge of
the Tua Pek Kong cult as practiced in the local context of Southeast Asia. They
were imposing their understanding of Tua Pek Kong based on their knowledge
of local Chinese deities in China and Taiwan. Second, the incorporation of Tua
Pek Kong into a Sinicized bureaucratic mode of divinity could also be an attempt
to absorb the popular deity into the Chinese religious pantheon. By doing so,
Tua Pek Kong was “transformed” from a Southeast Asian Sino-Malay god into a
Chinese tutelary deity.
Nevertheless, given the absence of a Chinese imperial bureaucracy in Southeast
Asia, the Sinicized Tua Pek Kong was likely to have existed in the “personal
model,” ranging from being the spirit of extraordinary Chinese pioneers and the
god of prosperity and wealth to a protector of the Overseas Chinese and China.
The incorporation of Tua Pek Kong into the Chinese bureaucratic mode of
divinity, I would contend, disregards the local conditions that shaped the cult
and the migrant experiences that contributed to its popularity in Malaysia and
Singapore.
63 Huaqiao zhi: Malaixiya, 248.
64 Huaqiao zhi: Xinjiapo, 230.
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Who is Tua Pek Ko ng? The Cult of Grand Uncle in Malaysia and Singapore
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CONCLUSION
The question this paper set out to answer is: Who is Tua Pek Kong? In the context
of Malaysia and Singapore, Tua Pek Kong’s cult appeared in three divine forms:
a brotherhood spirit, a Sino-Malay deity, and a Sinicized god. In the case of Tua
Pek Kong as a sworn brotherhood, Tua Pek Kong was seen by its members as
being both a patron deity and a mutual aid organization. The group took control
of governance, and law and order in the diasporic community during the colonial
period. However, after the destructive riots involving Tua Pek Kong and its
rival groups in 1867, the British colonial government outlawed the group, and it
eventually ceased to exist by the end of the nineteenth century. Concomitantly,
Tua Pek Kong was venerated as a Sino-Malay deity, albeit in several different
forms. According to an inscription in Pahang, the local community worshipped
Tua Pek Kong as Bentougong. In other parts of Malaysia and Singapore, the
Sino-Malay Tua Pek Kong was known for symbolically blending elements of
Malay animistic worship with Chinese religious practices. More intriguingly,
Tua Pek Kong was a Sino-Malay deity with a Muslim sworn brother in Pulau
Kusu. The cult incorporated Islamic ideas and the worship of Datuk Kong into
its religious practices. Finally, the Sinicized Tua Pek Kong demonstrates how
the cult existed in what Robert Hymes calls a “dual model of divinity.”65 On
the one hand, the deity was the spirit of extraordinary Chinese pioneers, god of
prosperity, protector of Overseas Chinese, and even a mediator of conict. On the
other hand, Tua Pek Kong was absorbed into the Chinese bureaucratic religious
pantheon in the Overseas Chinese annals.
As the study of Tua Pek Kong’s cult has shown, the personal mode of
divinity explains the popularity of the deity. In the absence of a Chinese imperial
bureaucracy, Chinese migrants in Malaysia and Singapore probably saw the
familial connections and dyadic relationship between themselves and the
divine uncle as being more appealing than a multilevel bureaucratic hierarchy.
Furthermore, the Overseas Chinese themselves were active agents in inventing
their religious beliefs. Some were quick to incorporate local Malay animistic
worship and popular Islamic ideas into the Tua Pek Kong cult in making him
a Sino-Malay deity. Others deemed him a Sinicized god with an efcacious
response and a personal touch. Therefore, it is not possible to pinpoint exactly
who Tua Pek Kong was. Perhaps, it is precisely this multifaceted nature of the
cult that best serves the spiritual needs of the Chinese in Southeast Asia.
65 Hymes, Way and Byway, 4–5.
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458 • JACK MENG-TAT CHIA
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