Beowulf Topics-2: Fire Festivals in Shetland (UK) and Taiwan

Chau H. Wu · Post by **Chau H. Wu** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 7:02 pm

Dear All:

In Shetland, which is located in the North Sea off Scotland, there is a fire festival (called Up-Helly-Aa) on the last Tuesday of January every year. The festival is billed as "the largest fire festival in Europe" attracting as many as 5,000 people.

I think you all have heard of the world-famous Shetland wool cashmere, it's that Shetland. It's inhabitants are descendants of the Vikings of the Middle Age. Every year they will build a fancy Viking longboat, and on the last Tuesday of January they will hold a day-long festival, re-enacting the ancient ship burial of Viking kings, culminating in the burning of the longboat. The festival can sometimes get out of hand with people drinking freely and having a raucous time. Nowadays the celebrants are better behaved.

If you are interested in what it is like, please go to:

http://www.shetlandtourism.com/pages/up_helly_aa.htm

and click on Up Helly Aa - morning events, and evening events.

Taiwan also has similar ship-burning festivals, called "Sio Ong5 Chun5" (Burning the King's Ship). When a large temple of folk religion is being dedicated, a sio-ong5-chun5 is usually held. But the most famous one is the once-every-4-year fire festival at Tang-kang2 (East Port) in Pin-Tong, the southernmost prefecture of Taiwan. The festival attracts tens of thousands of people. A must-see festival for tourists. The organizers will spend years to build a fancy boat made of the best wood, on the day of burning they hold a temple ritual, put lots of fancy material goods in the boat, including refrigerators, fax machine, besides cloths, cakes, etc, and parade the boat through the town. The boat is burned near a shore at the climax of the festival. It is a sight to behold!

I read news accounts some years ago that there had been a similar festival in Malaysia. It was prohibited by the British colonial government in the old days. But now people are free to do it. Is it true? Do you have such a festival in SEA?

I will discuss the relationship with Beowulf in the next posting....

Heruler

niuc · Post by **niuc** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 3:57 am

Hi Heruler

Thanks for the info!

So 燒王船 sio1-ong5-cun5 or 燒王爺船 sio1-ong5-ia5-cun5 is not unique to my hometown, rather it looks like a Hokkien custom! Do other Chinese also have this custom?

In Bagansiapiapi (峇眼亞比 ba7-gan2-a1-pi2, usually shortened to ba7-gan2) the event is on 16th day of 5th month in Chinese calendar, therefore called 五月十六 go`7-ger8-cap8-lak8. It was the day when Chinese reached the place that eventually became a Chinatown named Bagansiapiapi. The leader or may be the patron of those pioneers afterwards became a deity celebrated in the festival. His surname was 紀 ki2, hence he was titled as 紀王爺 ki2-ong5-ya5.

The “burning of king’s ship” event may have begun in 19th century for many decades until it was forbidden by Indonesian government during Soeharto’s anti-Chinese regime (1965-1998). During that period, although without sio1-ong5-cun5, the festival of go`7-ger8-cap8-lak8 remained the biggest Taoist religious event in Bagan. Nowadays the festival again includes sio1-ong5-cun5 (“Bakar Tongkang” in Indonesian). Personally I have never seen it directly because my family has left Bagan in 1991.

Picture of the event: http://www.rokanhilir.go.id/galeri.php?go=tampil&id=50

Chau H. Wu · Post by **Chau H. Wu** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 4:39 pm

Hi Niuc:

Sorry for the delay in answering your message. I was away attending a church retreat, and thus had no access to the internet. Responding to your question, I don't know whether other Chinese also have the custom. Maybe our forum members who live in Fujian may have the information.

Thank you indeed for your information about the Indonesian festival "Bakar Tongkang". It is really great to receive confirmation that you have similar festivals in SEA. And you have a picture on Internet to prove it. Would you kindly tell me what does "Tongkang" mean in Indonesian? The famous Taiwanese fire festival is held in Tangkang (East Port), which can also be called Tongkang, depending on one's accent. Thanks!

Heruler

Chau H. Wu · Post by **Chau H. Wu** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 7:15 pm

Dear All:

In the Prologue of Beowulf, the poet describes how the Danish King Shild is “buried” (or rather, “sent forth”). The following quote is from the Modern English “translation” by Burton Raffel (published by Signet Classic – Penguin Books, Ltd., 1963)

Lines 28 – 29; and Lines 32 – 43:

“His comrades carried him down to the shore,
Bore him as their leader had asked…”
….
“There in the harbor was a ring-prowed fighting
Ship, its timbers icy, waiting,
And there they brought the beloved body
Of their ring-giving lord, and laid him near
The mast. Next to that noble corpse
They heaped up treasures, jeweled helmets,
Hooked swords and coats of mail, armor
Carried from the ends of the earth: no ship
Had ever sailed so brightly fitted,
No king sent forth more deeply mourned.
Forced to set him adrift, floating
As far as the tide might run…”

This was the ancient Germanic way of burying their kings and lords. However, one important part of the ritual is missing – the burning of the ship. At the end of Prologue we read (Lines 50 – 52):

“Slowly sliding to where neither rulers
Nor heroes nor anyone can say whose hands
Opened to take that motionless cargo.”

This may be a variation of the burial ritual. More customarily, the ship was burned at the end. We have two contemporary written sources as evidence.

(1) The Eddas of the Viking Age. Here I quote from “Norse Mythology – Great Stories from the Eddas” by Hamilton W. Mabie (first published by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1918, and republished by Dover Publications in 2002), from the chapter on “The Death of Balder”. Balder is a son of the greatest of all Viking gods Odin. Balder is killed by his blind brother Hoder through trickery by the cunning god Loke.

“Then the gods began with sorrowful hearts to make ready for Balder’s funeral. When the once beautiful form had been arrayed in grave-clothes they carried it reverently down to the deep sea…Since the world began no one had seen such a funeral...”

It goes on to describe how Balder’s body is placed in the ship, alongside which is laid his wife’s body. His wife Nanna has died of deep grief, broken-hearted. Finally,

“Suddenly a gleam of light flashed over the water; the pile had been kindled, and the flames, creeping slowly at first, climbed faster and faster until they met over the dead and rose skyward. A lurid light filled the heavens and shone on the sea…”

I will continue with the second written source in my next posting.

Heruler

Chau H. Wu · Post by **Chau H. Wu** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 9:56 pm

Dear All:

Continuing with the written sources for the burning of the king’s ship:

(2) An eye-witness account by the Arab Ibn Fadlan during the years AD 921-922. Ibn Fadlan served as secretary of an embassy from the Caliphate of Baghad to the Bulgars of the middle Volga. The east branch of the Vikings called the Rus (whose kingdom later gave the name Russia) had set up a camp and trading post in what would become the town of Bulgar, frequented by Arab traders. Ibn Fadlan’s whole account of his journey has been translated into German and French, but never into English. Fortunately, the section on the ship-burial of a Viking king has been translated by a scholar H.M. Smyser in a paper comparing the ship-burial ritual with that in Beowulf, “Ibn Fadlan’s Account of the Rus with Some Commentary and Some Allusions to Beowulf”. This translated section has been reprinted in Gwyn Jones’ “A History of the Vikings” (Oxford University Press, 1984), making it more accessible to the general public. This is a lengthy account, including the gruesome slaying of a slave girl to accompany the king to the netherworld. Here I quote only the part on ship-burning:

“Then the people came up with tinder and other firewood, each holding a piece of wood of which he had set fire to an end and which he put into the pile of wood beneath the ship. Thereupon the flames engulfed the wood, then the ship, the pavilion, the man, the girl, and everything in the ship. A powerful, fearful wind began to blow so that the flames became fiercer and more intense…”

There are a couple of similarities between the ancient burial custom and the Taiwanese Sio-Ong5-Chun5 festival. First, in Taiwan, the fire festival still retains the word “ong” (king) in the name of the festival, suggesting that it has something to do with “kings” in its ancient origin. The second similarity is placing treasures in the ship. In Beowulf, we read:

“…Next to the noble corpse
They heaped up treasures, jeweled helmets,
Hooked swords and coats of mail, armor
Carried from the ends of the earth: no ship
Had ever sailed so brightly fitted…
…
…they refused
To give him less from their hoards of gold…”

In the Taiwanese festival, the ship is made of the best wood, brightly painted and ornately decorated. It is loaded with the best material goods, including brocade cloths, cakes, refrigerators, fax machine, TV sets, etc.

The following is the Web site describing a Sio-Ong5-Chun5 in Peimen, which is not the original Tangkang festival, but the Peimen temple is related to the Tangkang temple. It is of a smaller scale than the Tangkang festival:

http://edu.ocac.gov.tw/LOCAL/WEB/Eng/Co ... 13&Class=2

Heruler

P.S. Correction: The fire festival in Tangkang is held once every 3 years, not every 4 years as I mentioned in an earlier posting here.

admin@bagansiapiapi.net · Fri Jun 30, 2006 1:16 pm

Hi... are you talking about “burning of king’s ship” ??
We just celebrate this ceremony.

In Indonesia, there is one place that called ChinaTown in Indonesia, it's Bagansiapiapi. You can find the chinese style : the coffe shop, the temple also the life style. Almost of the people are Hokkian.

we are making a website about bagansiapiapi, now we're develope in Indonesian Language, and very soon we'll give to you English version and Chinese version.

For more detail, please visit us at http://www.bagansiapiapi.net
and you can find some picture in the Gallery Collection

if you need more information, please fell free to email us.
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Chau H. Wu · Post by **Chau H. Wu** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 3:35 pm

Dear Anton:

Yes, we are talking about "Burning of King's Ship", the fire festivals celebrated in Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia (see the posting by niuc), and of course, Shetland, UK.

Thank you very much for the timely report of a celebration you just had at Bagansiapiapi, and the fantastic pictures. I would love to see your Web site fully developed for the world to see.

Keep up the good work!

Heruler

niuc · Post by **niuc** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 3:40 pm

Hi Heruler

Thanks for the reply and interesting postings. No problem, as I also just came back from vacation hence my late reply.

Btw could you email me: niucls at yahoo dot com? I'd like to ask you some info about churches in Taiwan. Kamsia.

"Tongkang" in Indonesian refers to a kind of ship, probably Chinese ship (junk). If not mistaken, I heard some said that it's a loan word - suppossedly from Chinese - but I am not sure. Yes, it does sound like 東港 tang1/tong1-kang2 but I don't think they are related. Btw in Bagan it's a yearly festival.

niuc · Post by **niuc** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 3:49 pm

Hi Anton

Nice to meet another Bagan-lang here!

Thanks for the pictures and the website!

Chau H. Wu · Post by **Chau H. Wu** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 9:49 pm

Dear All:

Here are some links to the King Boat Burning festivals in Taiwan:

(1) Tangkang, Pintong County:
http://edu.ocac.gov.tw/LOCAL/WEB/Eng/Co ... 11&Class=2

(2) Sikang, Tainan County:
http://edu.ocac.gov.tw/LOCAL/WEB/Eng/Co ... =6&Class=2

(3) Sanliao Bay, Peimen, Tainan County:
http://edu.ocac.gov.tw/LOCAL/WEB/Eng/Co ... 13&Class=2

(4) Suchu, Tainan County:
http://edu.ocac.gov.tw/LOCAL/WEB/Eng/Co ... 79&Class=2

(5) Hsiao Liuchiu (an offshore island):
http://edu.ocac.gov.tw/LOCAL/WEB/Eng/Co ... 72&Class=2

There are more, but I think you "get the pictures", so to speak.

Heruler