Going green: Creator Chiang (right) with volunteer Teh Yeong Jye building the ceremonial Emperor Boat entirely from joss sticks. — LIM BENG TATT/The Star
BUKIT MERTAJAM: In a creative and eco-conscious twist to this year’s Nine Emperor Gods Festival, devotees at the Kuang Je Chun Wang Devotees Association in Taman Impian Ria built their ceremonial Emperor Boat entirely out of joss sticks and incense.
The 7.6m-long structure, made from more than 60,000 joss sticks of various sizes, will be set ablaze during the send-off ceremony on Wednesday.
Its creator, Chiang Kah Wei, 41, said a team of five volunteers spent three months completing the intricately detailed boat, which features miniature altars and ornaments.
“We wanted to make the boat more environment-friendly by avoiding plastic and other non-biodegradable materials.
“When it burns, everything turns to ash and leaves no waste behind. It even releases a pleasant fragrance.
“We used mostly materials that devotees had already offered, so nothing will go to waste,” he said.
Chiang, a contractor by profession, said the team began work in July without a fixed design in mind.
“We built it spontaneously in the evenings after work, making changes as we went along, depending on the joss sticks available,” he said.
The boat has been filled with joss paper and other symbolic offerings, in line with Taoist tradition where devotees bid farewell to the deities at the end of the nine-day festival.
Association chairman Ooi Huck Chye said this marks the fifth year the group is celebrating the festival since its founding.
“We have about 60 active members and expect over 300 devotees to attend the send-off.
“Our aim is to preserve this cultural heritage while being mindful of the environment. Apart from prayers, we will distribute food items to about 500 needy families and elderly residents,” he said.
The send-off procession will begin at 8pm on Wednesday.
Devotees will accompany the boat from the association’s premises to a nearby riverbank, where it will be burned to symbolically return the deities to heaven.
The Nine Emperor Gods Festival began on Oct 21, the first day of the ninth lunar month.
The festival, observed by Taoists, is dedicated to the nine sons of Dou Mu Yuan Jun, the Goddess of the North Star, who is believed to control the Books of Life and Death.
Her sons, deified as Ren Huang (Human Sovereigns), are said to have the power to cure illnesses and bless devotees with luck, wealth and longevity.
Devotees believe the gods arrive through waterways, and processions are usually held from temples to rivers or the seashore as a symbolic gesture of their return to the heavens.
