G-SEC WORKING PAPER No.22
The prevalence of
the worship of Goddess Lin Guniangby the ethnic Chinese in southern Thailand
TAMAKI, Mitsuko *December, 2007

Keywords

ethnic Chinese, Thailand, folk religion, charity, ethnicity
Abstract

Goddess Lin Guniang is the characteristic deity worshiped by the ethnic Chinese
in southern Thailand. From the 14th to 18th centuries, there was an Islamic kingdom
named Patani in southernmost Thailand. Today, Malay Muslims still account for
approximately 80% of the population there. In the 16th century, Lin Daoqian, aChinese pirate, defected to Patani from Chaozhou in southern China and converted
to Islam. It is believed that Lin Guniang, his younger sister, went there to take him
back to China. But she failed and hung herself. It is unclear when this worshipbegan, however it likely began in the late 19th century. At that time southern
Thailand saw a massive ingress of Chinese immigrants, and a cultural conflict
between Chinese and Malays affected this worship.
The worship of Lin Guniang is prevalent in southern Thailand due to theestablishment of Shantang, a Chinese charity foundation, after the 1950s. Recently,
Lin Guniang has been introduced to “Dejiao,” a Chinese religious association, insouthern Thailand and northern Malaysia through the network of the ethnic Chinese.
Because Shantang and Dejiao originated in Chaozhou, it is thus supposed that
Chaozhou ethnicity is the main factor leading to the prevalence of this worship.

* Visiting Researcher at Center of Overseas Chinese Studies of Takushoku University.

E-mail: mtamaki@ner.takushoku-u.ac.jp

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to consider the local worship of Goddess Lin
Guniang1 by the ethnic Chinese in southern Thailand.
Many ethnic Chinese have settled in Southeast Asia. Most of them have alreadybeen naturalized in their host country; however, the degree of assimilation into thehost society varies by country. It is considered that the difference of religion is oneof the main reasons for such variation. Especially in Islamic countries such as
Malaysia and Indonesia, because of repressive policies toward Chinese
immigrants, a comparatively deep division between the ethnic Chinese and thehost society is evident. In Thailand, however, which has established Theravada
Buddhism as the national religion, the ethnic Chinese have highly assimilated intoa host society in Southeast Asia; they have no religious conflict and have freely
been marrying into the host society for generations.
From the late 19th to the mid-20th century, there was a large influx of Chinese
immigrant workers from south China into Thailand. Currently, ethnic Chinese
account for more than 10% of the population in Thailand. The Thai government

1“Lin Guniang” means “the daughter of Lin’s family” in English.

1does not release its population census by ethnic group. According to the statistics
by the Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission of Taiwan;2 however, 7 million
ethnic Chinese were estimated to be in Thailand in 2005, which accounted for
11% of the total population.
As in other countries in Southeast Asia, the Chinese community in Thailand isdivided mainly into 5 regional dialectical groups (known as “bang” in Chinese),
namely, Chaozhou,3 Kejia (or Hakka), Hainan, Guagzhou (or Canton), and Fujian(or Hokkien). According to an estimate by Dr. G. W. Skinner in 1955, Chaozhou
speakers were predominant, and they accounted for 56% of Thailand’s Chinese
population. Other groups were as follows: Kejia 16%, Hainan 12%, Guangzhou
7%, and Fujian 7% (Skinner, 1957:211). Basically, these percentages have notchanged. The notable predominance of Chaozhou speakers is characteristic of theChinese society in Thailand. In contrast, in neighboring Malaysia and Singapore,
Fujian is the predominant dialectical group.
It is said that Chinese folk religion has syncretic characteristics of Taoism,
Confucianism, Buddhism, and animism (Sasaki, 1991:77). South China, the main2

http://www.acac.gov.tw
In this paper, the romanization of Chinese words follows the Putonghua Pinyin system,
except for names that have been incorporated into the English language, e.g., Taoism andConfucianism.
32

home region of the ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia, is known as an area where
folk religion has been most popular in China, creating various local gods andgoddesses. For example, Mazu, the Empress of Heaven, originated from a small
district in Fujian and has gradually come to prevail throughout China.
Furthermore, along with immigration from China, it spread mainly throughout
Southeast Asia. Today, Mazu is professed widely by all Chinese people inSoutheast Asia, regardless of their dialectical groups. On the other hand, many
local deities are mainly professed by specific dialectical groups; for instance, theGoddess Shuiwei and the 108 Brothers God in Hainan, Master Song Dafeng in
Chaozhou, and Master Qingshui in Fujian.
All these local deities originated in China and spread to Southeast Asia. In
contrast, Goddess Lin Guniang, whom we will discuss in this paper, is acharacteristic deity who originated in a legend of the ethnic Chinese living in
Pattani Province in the southernmost part of Thailand bordering Malaysia. Fromthe 14th to the 18th centuries, there was an Islamic kingdom named Patani.4
Currently, Pattani and the neighboring two provinces, Yala and Naratiwat, arecalled “Three Provinces in the Deep South,” and the ethnic Malays still account4

The name of the kingdom is distinguished from the present province. In English, theformer is Patani; the latter is Pattani.

3

for approximately 80% of the population there (see Table 1).

Table1：

Population by province in southern Thailand, 2000
Population

Buddhist

MuslimMalay speaker(‘000)

(％）

（％）

（％）

Pattani

596.0

19.2

80.7

76.6

Yala

415.5

31.0

68.9

66.1

Naratiwat

662.4

17.9

82.0

80.4

Songkhla1,255.7

76.6

23.2

4.6

Southern region*

8,087.5

71.7

27.9

16.4

Total in Thailand

60,916.4

94.2

4.6

2.2

Source: National Statistical Office, Thailand (http://www.nso.go.th/)* There are 14 provinces in southern region including the above 4 provinces.

In previous times, the Kingdom of Patani prospered as the base of East-Westtrade, and many Chinese people emigrated there from southern China. In the
middle of the 16th century, a Chinese pirate named Lin Daoqian defected to the
kingdom and worked for the Queen of Patani. It is believed that Lin Guniang, theyounger sister of Lin Daoqian, came to Patani to take her brother back to their
homeland. However, she failed and ultimately hung herself in grief.
Currently, the ethnic Chinese in southern Thailand have a deep faith in Lin
Guniang as a goddess, despite the absence of concrete evidence corroborating her

4existence. It is unclear when the worship of Lin Guniang, as we know it today,
began. However, it is considered that it dates to the late 19th century, the time of a
massive ingress of Chinese immigrant workers into southern Thailand. Since the1950s, this worship has prevailed in other cities in southern Thailand, and recently
it also came to be known in Bangkok and Northern Malaysia through the networkof Chinese associations.
The worship of Goddess Lin Guniang has been scarcely studied. Dr. Skinner(1957:4-5) refers only to Lin Daoqian and Lin Guniang briefly in his classicalwork about the Chinese society in Thailand. And some Chinese scholars introduce
the worship of Lin Guniang in their articles5; however, they do not seem to havemade field surveys, and their analyses are not quite satisfactory. Moreover, theprevalence of its worship has never been studied.
In this paper, I will first present an outline about the worship of Lin Guniang insouthern Thailand. Next I will examine why this worship has prevailed in several
cities of southern Thailand, resulting from the establishment of the “Shantang”
charity foundations by the ethnic Chinese after the 1950s. In conclusion I willconsider that Lin Guniang recently has been introduced to regions other than5e.g., Gao (2001) and Li (2004).

5

southern Thailand: to Bangkok and to northern Malaysia.6

I．Background of the worship of Lin Guniang

1. The Kingdom of Patani and a Chinese pirate Lin Daoqian
As mentioned above, from the 14th to the 18th centuries, there was an Islamic
Kingdom named Patani: the sultanate of this kingdom extended over the present
provinces of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat, Satun, and parts of Songkhla in southern
Thailand and over Kedah, Klentan, and Terengganu in Northern Malaysia. This
kingdom prospered as the base of East-West trade with countries including
Ayuttaya, China, Ryukyu and Japan. Many Chinese merchants from southern
China settled there. It is unclear when Chinese people began to immigrate to
Patani. However, it is considered that it was after 1567, when the Ming Dynasty
modified the maritime bans that full-fledged immigration from China began. In
the middle of the 16th century, a famous Chinese pirate, Lin Daoqian, defected to
the kingdom from southern China. At that time people living in the southeastern
coastal district in China suffered from attacks by Wakou. Wakou was a Japanese
6

The basic data of this paper are based on the author’s continuing fieldwork in Thailand
and Malaysia from 2004 to 2007.

6

gang of pirates as originally defined, but later it consisted mainly of armed groupsof Chinese contraband traders.
Lin Daoqian is considered to have been one of the powerful ringleaders of
Wakou. There are several mentions about him in Chinese chronicles, such as“Ming Shi” (the official chronicle of Ming Dynasty) and “Chaozhou Fu Zhi” (thelocal chronicle of Chaozhou Province). The biography of Lin Daoqian in“Chaozou Fu Zhi,” volume 38, describes that he was smart, but sly and cruel. He
was originally from Huilai in Chaozhou Province and later moved to Quanzhou in
Fujian Province. In 1563, Yu Dayou, a famous commander of the Ming Dynasty,
subdued Lin Daoqian. Lin and his thousands of followers were forced to escape to
Taiwan, staying there for years and finally defecting to Patani in 1578 (Xu,
1946:118).
According to tradition, it is said that Lin Daoqian became a Muslim andmarried a princess after his arrival in Patani. From 1584 to the late 1680s, fourqueens had ruled the Kingdom of Patani. At that time, the kingdom was one of thesmall countries having tributary relationships with the Kingdom of Ayutthaya incentral Thailand. Ayutthaya was the most powerful kingdom in the area and had
contrived to rule Patani. To counter potential attacks from Ayutthaya, the second7Queen Raja Bill (Queen of Blue), commanded Lin Daoqian to produce cannons(Teeus and D.K.Wyatt, 1970:225-227). It is said that Lin made three cannons forthe queen. In Kru Se village, which was the capital of the kingdom, the ruins of amilitary factory are considered to be where he produced these cannons.
Furthermore, Lin Daoqian is believed to have died from an accidental explosionof one of the cannons he made.

2. The legend of Lin Guniang
The legend of Lin Guniang in Pattani is as follows.

After the exile of Lin Daoqian, his aged mother and Lin Guniang, his younger
sister, were left at home. His mother was worrying herself sick about her son, so
Lin Guniang resolved to sail for Patani to find her elder brother and to persuade
him to return to their hometown. She swore to God that she would never return
until she had her brother back home. Lin Guniang and her group experienced
difficult sailing to Patani, but eventually arrived there without serious incident.
However, Lin Daoqian, who had converted to Islam and had married a princess,would not listen to the persuasion of his younger sister. On the contrary, hebegan to build a mosque in Kru Se village to show his devotion to Islam. Lin
Guniang abandoned her hopes, and wishing to remonstrate with him by her own
death, hung herself on a cashew nut tree near the mosque under construction.
Because of a curse by Lin Guniang, the roof dome of the mosque was doomed
never to be completed. The Chinese people in Patani mourned her death andmade a wooden statue of Lin Guniang in the tree on which she hung herself, and8they also built a small shrine in Kru Se village for her.

Some Chinese literature reports that Lin Guniang is named “Cizhen (meaning
mercy and woman’s honor)”. However, in the Chinese chronicle “Chaozhou FuZhi,” neither her existence nor her name is mentioned. So we cannot prove
whether she really went to Patani to take her brother back to their homeland. Dr.
Xu Yunqiao (1946:19) denied the possibility of her existence because her sailingfrom Chaozou to Patani suggests that she was a great woman pirate. If the stories
about her travels, her devotion to her family, and her suicide were true, she would
surely have been mentioned in history books.
The Kru Se Mosque, which is believed to have been hexed by Lin Guniang, isstill at its original location without a roof dome. Next to the mosque is the "grave"of Lin Guniang and a large Chinese garden. They are in contrast to the Malay
villages in the surrounding area. It is unclear when the grave was built because thegravestone has no date. However, it seems to have been placed there in the early
20th century as a result of donations from Chinese immigrants in Patani (Xu,
1933:84). It is uncertain whether a kind of grave for her had originally been there
rebuilt along with the garden, or if a grave had been newly built in keeping withthe legend of her death.

9It may be worth mentioning that there is another legend about Lin Daoqian andhis younger sister in Taiwan, where it is believed Lin Daoqian used to findtemporary shelter. In this story, Lin Daoqian hid treasures in Mt. Dagou near
Gaoxiong in southern Taiwan and ordered another younger sister, Jinlian, to keep
them. Eventually, Lin Daoqian killed Jinlian with a sword and sailed alone to asouthern sea on a boat made of a large banana leaf. This story has other several
mythical elements, and it is unclear whether it has any connection with the legend
in Pattani. However, because of the legends of Lin Daoqian and his younger sisterin Thailand and Taiwan, it is worthy of notice.

3. Formation of the worship of Lin Guniang and its relation to the ethnic Malays
The Lin Guniang Temple (Ling Ci Gong) in Pattani is located on Arnoaru Street,
which used to be a “Chinatown” in the Kingdom of Patani. This temple wasoriginally called “Zushi Gongci,” a temple of Master Qingshui established in thelate 16th century. It is considered to be the oldest Master Qingshui Temple inSoutheast Asia (Li, 2004:136). Master Qingshui, a Buddhist monk and medical
doctor in the Song Dynasty, is one of the characteristic local deities in southern
Fujian. Thus it proves that there were many Chinese people from Fujian living in

10

Patani during the 16th century.
In the main hall of this temple is mainly enshrined Master Qingshui, Mazu,
Fude Zhengshen (a land guardian god in Fujian and Guangdong), and Lin
Guniang. In the side hall is also enshrined Guanyin (a Deity of Mercy) andGuangong (a famous general in the “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”). It was in
the late 19th century that Lin Guniang came to be dedicated in this temple. During
the reign of King Rama V (1868-1910) of the Chakri Dynasty, a Chinese leader
proposed to move the statue of Lin Guniang from Kru Se village to its present
location.
The temple was partly reconstructed in 1912 and again in 1969. The temple initself is not very big, yet they have related facilities, including an open space withtiered bleachers and a three-story building for the reception of worshippers acrossa street. Every year three large festivals based on the lunar calendar are held there,
which many Chinese people come to see not only from neighboring areas, but also
from Bangkok, Malaysia, and Singapore. It is unclear when these festivals, as weknow them today, began to be performed. However, on the first page of“Beidanian Shi (the history of Pattani),” written by Dr. Xu in the 1930s, is aphotograph of the festival of Ling Ci Gong Temple, so it is indubitable that the11

festivals have been continuing since before the 1930s.
Actually, the reality of the worship of Lin Guniang before enshrinement began
in Ling Ci Gong Temple in the late 19th century is not clear. We have no evidence
that there used to be another temple that enshrined Lin Guniang around Pattani
except for Ling Ci Gong before late in the 19th century. This suggests that theworship of Lin Guniang, as we know it today, could have been formed in the late
19th century.
In 1785, the Chakry Dynasty of Siam conquered the Kingdom of Patani withforce, which then was under the rule of Siam. However, the sultanate waspreserved until 1909 when an Anglo-Siamese treaty set a borderline between Siamand Malaya, and three Muslim-majority provinces of Pattani, Yala, and Naratiwat
came to be authorized territories of Siam. The conquest and immediate dominanceby Siam triggered a backlash of Malay Muslims and resulted in a series of
insurgences of Muslim separatists that continues today.
The ethnic Chinese at the time of the Kingdom of Patani, as typified by Lin
Daoqian, adopted Islam and married Malay women. Some of them became highofficers and blended into the Malay society. On the other hand, after the end of
19th century a tide of mass immigration from south China poured into southern

12Thailand for work in tin mines or rubber plantations. Most of the newcomers werepoor and needed to unite for survival. The folk religion could hold them together
and confirmed their ethnic identity. Thus a question arises―was the legend of Lin
Guniang made by Chinese newcomers after the 19th century?
Among the ethnic Chinese in the Malay Peninsula, we can see the worship of“Datu-kong,” said to be a fusion of Dabo Gong, a typical land guardian god inSouth China, and Datu, an intrinsic Malay god. Sakai (1983:340) notes that
Datu-kong is a transformation of Chinese folk religion in the Malay Peninsula.
Kubo (1987:35) states that it is the only case in which Chinese people who
immigrated into Malay Peninsula created a fusion between their folk faith andlocal faith. Lin Guniang is not that which absorbed the faith of Malay like
Datu-kong; however, they have a similarity because both are deities generated
from contact between Chinese immigrants and Malay society.
Then the question remains, why was the legend of Lin Guniang born, and why
did it become worshipped by the Chinese people in Pattani? In the legend of Lin
Guniang, the purpose of her sailing all the way to Patani was to take her brother
home and to make him fulfill his filial duties. Today, especially in Chinese
documents, she is honored as a patriotic woman who had a firm will to uphold

13

Chinese traditional moral values. On the other hand, according to the Chinese
traditional sense of values, her elder brother Lin Daoqian is considered to be atraitor who abandoned his family and homeland and married a heretic. Therefore
Dr. Gao Weinong (2001:169) considers that the legend of Lin Guniang reflects
Chinese traditional ethics.
This may be a reasonable explanation. However, I consider that it was not theethnic Chinese who had been assimilated into the Islam culture in the era of theKingdom of Patani, but the Chinese immigrant workers after the 19th century who
had circulated the legend of Lin Guniang. For the Chinese people in the Kingdomof Patani, Lin Daoqian was a kind of hero who represented them, so they had noneed to positively emphasize his disloyalty.
That is to say, it is assumed that the origin of the worship of Lin Guniang dates
to the late 19th century. At that time southern Thailand saw a massive ingress ofChinese immigrant workers, which resulted in some sort of ethnic conflict between
the Chinese and the Malays.
Dr. Xu, who stayed at Pattani in the 1930s, introduced another story about Lin
Guniang, as narrated below (1933:83-84).

14

In her search for Lin Daoqian, Lin Guniang came to Patani with her soldiers.
She was outraged because her brother refused to return home with her andtherefore attempted to annihilate all Malays in Patani. She fought hard with the
Malay soldiers, but unfortunately she lost the battle and finally hung herself as aresult of her shame and rage.

In this story, Lin Guniang is depicted as a belligerent woman pirate whoabhorred the Malay Muslims. As I mentioned above, there is an old mosque withno domed roof in Kru Se village. It is believed that the curse of Lin Guniang had
thwarted the construction of this mosque. Actually, it should be attributed to thelack of building technology at that time (Izumida, 2006:66). This story indicatesthe antipathy of the Chinese people toward the Malay Muslims. Next to the Kru
Se Mosque is a “grave” of Lin Guniang where many Chinese people visit to offer
prayers. From the position of the Malays, it can be offensive that the Chinese
people adore the woman who is said to have put a curse on their historic mosque.
Dr. Xu (1933:84) also said that the miracles of Lin Guniang told by the ethnic
Chinese in Pattani do “nothing but punish the Malay and protect the Chinese.”
Furthermore, he noted that the Malay in Pattani consider Lin Guniang as taboo.
For example, one day they had planned to build a large new mosque in Kru Se
village. However, when they started the construction, several workers died in an

15

accident, and so they became frightened of the curse of Lin Guniang andabandoned the project. That story may or may not be true, but it provides evidence
that people regarded the curse of Lin Guniang as reality in the 1930s.
As can be seen from the above examples, it is supposed that there was some
sort of conflict between the Chinese immigrants and the Malay Muslims around
Pattani, at least in the 1930s. This conflict seemed to affect the formation of theworship of Lin Guniang. However, there is no space for an extended discussion. It
is an issue in the future that investigates how social relations between the Chinese
immigrants and Malays influenced the formation of this worship.

II．The prevalence of the worship of Lin Guniang

1. The prevalence through Shantang charity foundations(1) In southern Thailand
The Goddess Lin Guniang is originally a local deity that has been worshippedby the ethnic Chinese around Pattani, which is an isolated Islam culture region in
Thailand. Before World War II, it seemed that there were no other Chinese
temples enshrining Lin Guniang except Ling Ci Gong Temple in Pattani. It was16only after the 1950s that it began to be enshrined in other Chinese temples insouthern Thailand.
First, Lin Guniang is enshrined in Pattani in the temple of “Huaqiao Huzhushe(or Mutual Aid Society of Overseas Chinese)” established in 1950 on Arnoaru
Street close to Ling Ci Gong Temple. Huaqiao Huzhushe is also a member of“Dejiao,” a Chinese religious-charitable association, as described later. The reason
for enshrining Lin Guniang in Huaqiao Huzhushe is very likely because it is theneighboring Ling Ci Gong Temple and naturally has a close connection. There are
two other Chinese temples in Pattani, Chaozhou and Hainanese, yet neither
enshrines Lin Guniang.
Second, besides Pattani, the worship of Lin Guniang is prevalent in several
cities in southern Thailand, a result of the establishment of Shantang charity
foundations by the ethnic Chinese after the 1950s. According to my current
investigations, there are six Shangtang charities that enshrine Lin Guniang insouthern Thailand, as follows: Ci Shantang (Yala); Tongsheng Shantang (Hatyai
in Songkhla Province); Wande Shantang (Trang); Yangde Shantang (Surat Thani);Ci Shantang (Betong in Yala Province); and Dade Shantang (Nakhon Si
Thammarat). Songkhla and Yala are bordered by Pattani, but the other three17

provinces, especially Surat Thani, even though they are in southern Thailand, arequite distant from Pattani. Thus it is unlikely that the worship of Lin Guniang was
directly transmitted from Pattani to these cities.

(2) The origin of Shantang charities
Shantang charities in Thailand originated in Chaozhou, and their temples
mainly enshrine Master Song Dafeng and other deities, such as Fude Zhengshen
and Guanyin.
Master Song Dafeng is a characteristic local god in the Chaoyang district of
Chaozhou. He was a nameless Buddhist monk from southern Fujian who lived in
the 12th century and has been admired by local people because of his
benevolence of building a bridge across an easily flooded river. It is said that the
local people dedicated a shrine after he died; however, this temple had once
collapsed in the Ming period and was rebuilt in the middle of the Qing Dynasty asa Buddhist temple (Lin, 1996:41).
According to Fuma (1997:3), Shantang has roots in “Tong Shan Hui,” amembership society established by local gentlemen to provide relief to poor
people in Henan Province in the 16th century. In the Qing to Minguo (Republic of18

China) periods, Shantang charities had spread throughout China.
These charities were basically secular organizations. On the other hand, after
the end of Qing Dynasty, religious societies that performed “fuji,” a Chinese
traditional planchette divination to get oracles by using a Y-shaped willow stick,were formed throughout China, especially in the southern region. Some were also
called Shantang and actively practiced charitable works. In short, regardless ofwhether they were religious or secular, at that time there were many charitablesocieties in China named Shantang.
In Chaozhou, social disruption at the end of the Qing dynasty stimulated theestablishment of a beneficial association that included Shantang charities.
Shantang charities in Chaozhou also had characteristics as religious societies:
they conducted the ritual of fuji and mainly enshrined Song Dafeng as a symbolof dedication. It is said that in the 1930s there were hundreds of Shantang
charities in this area. The divine messages gained through fuji rituals were
published and distributed by local Shantang groups and called shanshu.

(3) The Chaozhou ethnicity in Shantang
As mentioned before, the Chaozhou speakers are the majority in Thailand’s

19ethnic Chinese population. In the early 20th century, Chaozhou-born immigrant
merchants introduced the Shantang charity to Bangkok from their hometown
Chaoyang and named it “Baode Shantang.” Currently there are many Shantang
charities in Thailand. Baode Shantang (also known as Poh Teck Tung in the
Chaozhou dialect) was established in 1910 in the Chinatown of Bangkok and is
the most famous and influential of all. Baode Shantang is said to be the biggest
Chinese voluntary charity association in Southeast Asia, and it contributes to theThai host society through various charity works such as rescue activities and freeclinical services. Its financial source depends completely on donations frommembers and worshippers. Baode Shantang has been admired for its charitable
activities by the Thai people, including the royal family, and currently many
Chinese charitable associations that are not from Chaozhou are also named
Shantang in Chinese, after Baode Shantang.
Unlike Bangkok and other regions dominated by the Chaozhou speakers, insouthern Thailand, the Fujian speakers have held a majority in the Chinese society.
After World War II, the Thai government pursued a measure to transplant theethnic Chinese in the northern region into southern provinces that were
dominated by the ethnic Malays (Nakamura, 1995). Although this measure

20

resulted in an increase of Chaozhou speakers in southern Thailand, the Fujian
speakers are still predominant there. According to an estimate by Dr. Skinner in
1955, Fujian speakers accounted for 32% of the Chinese population in southern
Thailand, and other groups, in order, are as follows: Chaozhou 20%, Kejia(Hakka) 20%, Hainan 13%, and Guangzhou (Canton) 11% (Skinner,
1957:211-222). It is considered that the establishment of Shantang charities inseveral cities of southern Thailand after the 1950s reflects an increase of the
Chaozhou speakers in this region.
As I described above, there are six Shantang charities that enshrine Lin
Guniang in southern Thailand: Tongsheng Shantang (Hatyai) was established in
1957; Ci Shantang (Yala) in 1955; Wande Shantang (Trang) in 1959; Yangde
Shantang (Srat Thani) in 1965; Ci Shantang (Betong) in 1962; and Dade
Shantang (Nakhon Si Thammarat) in 1990. The temples of these charities mainly
enshrine Song Dafeng, Lin Guniang, and other deities, such as Fude Zhengshen
and Guanyin. However, they do not enshrine Mazu (the Empress of Heaven), themost popular goddess among the ethnic Chinese living in Southeast Asia. The
Ling Ci Gong Temple and Huaqiao Huzhushe in Pattani also enshrine Mazu with
Lin Guniang.

21Is there any particular reason why Shantang did not choose Mazu as a religious
object? It is said that Lin Guniang shares several features with Mazu (Xu,
1946:119). For instance, they are daughters of Lin’s family, they have an elder
brother, and their legends are deeply linked to the sea. On the other hand, there
exists an essential difference between Mazu and Lin Gunian: the former is from
Fujian and the latter is believed to be from Chaozhou. Compared with the Fujian
speakers, the Chaozhou speakers were not only minorities, but also newcomers insouthern Thailand in the 1950s to the 1960s. It is assumed that the members ofthese Shantang charities have therefore consciously selected Lin Guniang as areligious object instead of Mazu to emphasize and reconfirm their Chaozhou
ethnicity.
Currently, Lin Guniang has been “upgraded” to “Ying Ling Xian Gu.” (orGoddess of the spirit of war dead) through the fuji ritual that conducted at
Tongsheng Shantang in 1992. Actually Lin Guniang is a common noun in naturethat means “the daughter of Lin’s family.” On the other hand, Ying Ling Xian Gu
could be considered a Taoist title. This upgrade of name reminds us of the case ofMazu, which is also a common noun, and lines of emperors have given it holy
titles for authorization.

22

The six Shantang charities that enshrine Lin Guniang are core members of“Federation of Disaster Relief in the 14 Provinces of Southern Thailand”(hereinafter abbreviated as FDST). This federation consists of private Chinesevoluntary associations in the 14 provinces in southern Thailand, and its purpose isliterally the relief and rescue of disaster victims and the promotion of charitable
activities in 14 provinces of southern Thailand. The head office is in Tongsheng
Shantang in Hatyai, which is the largest Chinese charitable foundation in southern
Thailand.
The predecessor of this federation was the “Song Dafeng Disaster Relief Union
in Southern Thailand” established by Tongsheng Shantang, Ci Shantang (Yala),and Wande Shantang in April 1961. In 1970, they invited neighboring Chinesevoluntary associations to join the union to expand their activities. At first, theFDST had only seven member associations, but it has steadily developed insucceeding years. Currently, 54 associations participate in FDST, including the
Ling Ci Gong Temple and Huaqiao Huzhushe in Pattani. In fact, all Chinese
associations that worship Lin Guniang participate in this federation.

23

(4) Introduction to Bangkok
In Thailand, we can observe that many Chinese voluntary associations,
including Shantang charities, develop a nationwide network of charity acts.
Baode Shantang, the largest and most well-resourced Chinese charitablefoundation in Thailand, has led this network since the 1960s. When at the end of
2004 a huge earthquake occurred off Sumatra, causing enormous tsunamis thatdevastated beach resorts in southern Thailand, this network made a significant
contribution. The FDST in the southern region also links to this network, arelationship that recently has been strengthening more and more.
As mentioned above, the worship of Lin Guniang has spread in southern
Thailand since the 1950s with the establishment of Shantang charities. Thisworship was limited to the southern region until the 1970s, and since the 1980s it
has also been introduced to Bangkok. In the early 1980s, TongsSheng Shantang in
Hatyai began to make a visit with a statue of Lin Guniang to Baode Shantang in
Bangkok. This “sacred visit,” or “pilgrimage,” of Lin Guniang to Bangkok ismade annually in the second month of the lunar calendar for 4days. During thisperiod, a great number of worshippers visit Baode Shantang and make charitable
donations.

24

In China, if people want to establish a new temple, they receive the sacredashes of the incense from an existing famous temple and place them in the newtemple's incense burner. This tradition is called a “sharing of incense,” and thetemple providing the ashes is considered the “head temple” of the new temple. In
this way, Chinese temples have proliferated systematically. And it is notuncommon that a “branch temple” will visit the “head temple” regularly with astatue of the main deity.7
However, according to my own field research, Baode Shantang in Bangkok andTongsheng Shantang in Hatyai have no such head-branch relationship, though
they have maintained a close partnership for years. Because our information on
this visit is limited, we cannot say for certain why it was launched; however, it isreasonable to suppose that the establishment of the FDST in the 1970s and asubsequent strengthening of cooperation between the FDST and Baode Shantang
influenced it. Baode Shantang is very influential in Thailand. On the other hand,
Lin Guniang is one of the most popular deities among the ethnic Chinese insouthern Thailand; therefore, Lin Guniang’s visit to Bangkok seems to symbolize

7

The pilgrimage of Mazu in Taiwan is a typical example. Recently, the Mazu Temples of
Taiwan began to make visits to Meizhou Island, the “holy place” of Mazu, in northern
Fujian Province of China.

25the solidarity of the ethnic Chinese community in Bangkok and the southern
region of Thailand.

2. Introduction of the worship of Lin Guniang to Dejiao(1) The origin of Dejiao associations
Now, we shall look at the concern between Dejiao associations and the worshipof Lin Guniang. After the 1990s, the worship of Lin Guniang has been introduced
to Dejiao8, a Chinese religious-charitable association. Dejiao was established in1939 in the Chaoyang district of Chaozhou. In brief, Shantang and Dejiao have acommon origin. Yoshihara (1999) notes that Dejiao is an emerging sect thatsystematized the Shantang charities. In common with Shantang, it emphasizes
charitable acts as a practice for the accumulation of good deeds and performs fuji
as the central ritual.
In the 1950s, Dejiao was transmitted into Southeast Asia by ethnic Chinese
businessmen from Chaozhou. It has developed there, especially in Thailand andon the Malay Peninsula. Currently, Dejiao associations in Thailand and Malaysia
each have their own national organization and work to strengthen domestic and8“De” in Dejiao means moral and “jiao” means teaching. So in Malaysia it is called“Moral Uplifting Society” in English.

26

international partnerships. There are about 80 membership associations inThailand and more than 100 in Malaysia. Many of their members are still the
Chaozhou speakers.
Dr. Tan Cheebeng (1984) classifies Dejiao in Malaysia as a syncretic sect that
includes Islamic and Christian elements besides the three Chinese traditionalreligions: Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. In China, Dejio had no Islamicor Christian elements. This concept of “unification of the five greatest religions in
the world” is the characteristics of Dejiao in Southeast Asia, especially in the
Malay Peninsula. It is obvious that this concept is made for adaptation to hostsocieties; however, we should notice that their actual religious objects leanheavily toward the popular Taoist deities.
Dr. Tan classifies all the Dejiao associations in Malaysia and Singapore into
five groups according to origin and name, namely Zi group, Ji group, Zan (hua)group, Zhen group, and “others”. These groups each have different deities asmain religious objects; for instance, the Ji group enshrines Ji Gong (a bizarre
monk of the Song Dynasty), and the Zhen group mainly enshrines Master Song
Dafeng. Many of the Dejiao temples in Southeast Asia conduct fuji as the central
ritual. They can get many divine messages from various deities through fuji, and27

what deities more often appear and possess the spirit medium reflects the
popularity of deities in that temple.

(2) In southern Thailand
The FDST has several Dejiao associations among its members. As I said earlier,Huaqiao Huzhushe (or Zi Ming Ge in the Dejiao associations) in Pattani
enshrines Lin Guniang. This is assumed to be the first Dejiao association, which
introduced Lin Guniang as a religious object.
Besides this, Zi Nan Ge, established in 1971 in Hatyai, is the largest Dejiao
association in the southern Thailand and enshrines Lin Guniang as Ying Lling
Xian Gu with other deities on its altar. As mentioned above, Lin Guniang has
been “upgraded” to Ying Ling Xian Gu through the fuji ritual in Tongsheng
Shantang in the early 1990s. Dejiao also introduced this renaming in the 1990s.
Recently, Lin Guniang sometimes appears as Ying Lling Xian Gu in their fujirituals of both Dejiao temples.

(3) Introduction to Bangkok
Dejiao associations in Thailand have a national organization established in the28late 1970s and headed by Zi Zhen Ge in Bangkok. Since the late 1990s, thisorganization has expanded forces and sent visiting parties to local regions. In
April 1999, they visited Dejiao and other Chinese voluntary associations insouthern Thailand and northern Malaysia to strengthen partnerships and exchange
views. Then in November of the same year, the Ling Ci Gong Temple in Pattani
visited Zi Zhen Ge with a “gold statue” of Lin Guniang in return. Lin Guniang
appeared in the special fuji ritual held to welcome her visit. Ling Ci Gong, theoriginal temple of Lin Guniang, is not a Dejiao association; however, it isconsidered that this visit could contribute to enhancing the publicity of Lin
Guniang in the ethnic Chinese community of Thailand. Furthermore, recently thenational organization of Dejiao has actively bid other Chinese associations into
Dejiao; therefore we cannot deny a possibility that the Ling Ci Gong Temple will
join Dejiao association in the future.

(4) Across the border
The worship of Lin Guniang finally crossed the national border with Malaysia
through the network of ethnic Chinese mainly from Chaozhou who live in southern
Thailand and northern Malaysia. There is a Dejiao association named Zi Yang Ge

29

in Kangar in Perlis Province of northern Malaysia. Perlis is very near theThai-Malaysian border; it takes only two hours to drive from Kangar to Hatyai. Zi
Yang Ge is one of the most active Dejiao temples in Malaysia, conducting the fujirituals three times a week. It once supported the establishment of Zi Nan Ge in
Hatyai and has maintained close partnership with it. Zi Yang Ge sends its members
to Zi Nan Ge once a month to support them in performing fuji rituals.
Through such a strong relationship, Lin Guniang has recently begun to appear in
the fuji rituals of Zi Yang Ge. This is the first case in which the worship of Lin
Guniang has been observed outside of Thailand. Zi Yang Ge also occasionallysends members to several Dejiao associations in northern and middle Malaysia to
conduct the fuji ritual, and in such cases Lin Guniang also appears and leaves
divine messages. This suggests that Lin Guniang has already been recognized tosome extent in northern and middle Malaysia. Actually, the ethnic Chinese wholive in northern Malaysia and southern Thailand have had close ties with eachother across the border; therefore Lin Guniang has not been unfamiliar to theethnic Chinese in northern Malaysia. In brief, they have a good grounding toaccept Lin Guniang. Zi Yang Ge has not yet enshrined Lin Guniang as a deity,
though it sometimes appears in its fuji rituals. If the presence of Lin Guniang

30increases in northern Malaysia, there is a possibility that Zi Yang Ge will enshrine
it on its altar.
Conclusion

The worship of Goddess Lin Guniang was born in Pattani, an isolated Islamic
cultural region in Thailand. When we say “the assimilation of the ethnic Chinese
into the host society in Thailand,” we naturally consider assimilation into the Thai
society. However, the ethnic Chinese in the southernmost area of Thailand havebeen forced to assimilate not only into the Thai culture, but have also had tocoexist with the predominant Malay Muslims in the local community. In thisrespect, the ethnic Chinese in southern Thailand are in a more complicatedposition compared with the ethnic Chinese who live in other areas of Thailand orIslamic Malaysia.
It is said that relations between the Malay Muslims and the ethnic Chinese in
the deep south area of Thailand have been comparatively serene (Guilquin,
2002:60). However, this coexistence is not always peaceful. Because of its
specific historical factor, the deep southern area has long been a stronghold of
Muslim separatists. The movement of Muslim separatist groups once weakened in31the 1980s; however, violent incidents such as shootings and assaults have recurredin this area since the beginning of 2004 when a large quantity of weapons wererobbed from a garrison of the national army, and about 2,000 people, including
ethnic Chinese, have been killed during the past three years. Ling Ci Gong Temple
in Pattani was bombed in 2004, and it is believed that the incident was also causedby Islamic extremists.
In recent years, the festivals of Ling Ci Gong Temple have been relied on topromote local tourism. Actually, it used to be that huge numbers of tourists mainly
from Malaysia and Singapore visited Pattani to see the festivals and enshrine Lin
Guniang. However, the escalation and continuance of violent incidents havecaused heavy damage to the local tourism market and economy. For now, thefestivals in Ling Ci Gong Temple have been continued, but if the situation grows
more serious, they will be discontinued. Under such conditions, field research inthis area is also difficult to conduct.
As we have noted, we can observe that the worship of Lin Guniang has
gradually spread from the small town of Pattani through southern Thailand,
Bangkok, and northern Malaysia via Shantang charities or Dejiao associations. In
this process, Lin Guniang seems to lose the original context of conflict between

32the Chinese immigrants and the Malay Muslims in the deep south area ofThailand, and has received universality as a common deity. Currently many
worshippers of Lin Guniang are not very likely to know the tragic story about Lin
Daoqian and Lin Guniang in the Kingdom of Patani. For the worshippers, Lin
Guniang is only a miracle-working goddess like other deities. This universality is
supposed to be an advantage to a spreading of the worship. Because Shantang andDejiao originated in Chaozhou, it is thus supposed that Chaozhou ethnicity is themain factor leading to the prevalence of this worship.
The worship of Lin Guniang, which we have examined in this paper, has been
scarcely studied in the past, and some questions remain unanswered about it. I
will now show the problems that need to be solved in the future.
Firstly, how has the social relationship between Chinese immigrants and Malay
Muslims affected the formation of the worship of Lin Guniang?
In the latter half of the 19th century, Lin Guniang began to be worshipped in
Ling Ci Gong Temple in Pattani. We have no record of any other temples or
shrines that enshrined Lin Guniang around Pattani before this time. Therefore it
seems reasonable to suppose that the worship of Lin Guniang as it is known today
dates to the late 19th century at the earliest. At that time, the massive movement33

of workers began to immigrate into southern Thailand from south China; therefore
it is considered that this worship was formed as a result of contacts between the
newcomer Chinese immigrant workers and the Malay society. This is a matter thatneeds to be unraveled through future investigation.
Secondly, what is the process of migration and development of the worship of
Lin Guniang in the Shantang charities of Thailand?
In southern Thailand, all Chinese associations that worship Lin Guniang are
members of the “Federation of Disaster Relief in the 14 Provinces of Southern
Thailand (FDST).” In the FDST, the member associations did not always originate
in Chaozhou. However, its leading associations are of Chaozhou origin; therefore,
it is supposed that the networks of Chaozhou speakers through the FDST haveaffected the development of this worship.
It is also necessary to investigate Lin Guniang’s annual visit to Baode Shantang
in Bangkok from Tongsheng Shantang in Hatyai. Baode Shantang is the most
famous and influential Chinese charitable association in Thailand, and several
studies of it have been made in the past, but little attention has been given to thenationwide network of Chinese associations headed by Baode Shantang. The Lin
Guniang visit to Bangkok is considered to provide a valuable case study on this34

point.
Finally, what is the process of the introduction of the worship of Lin Guniang to
the Dejiao association? The introduction of Lin Guniang into Dejiao could beconsidered in the context of the expansionary trend of the Dejiao association after
the late 1990s.

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