Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of I Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the Artifact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind, focusing in on particular objects, ideas, and moments in time. In the absence of modern medicine, and sometimes in conjunction with it or in spite of it, cultural practices around the world have long looked to supernatural
causes of illness. In some cases, the source of the illness is identified as a nefarious witch or wizard, but other times the culprit is seen as a demon or evil spirit. Inevitably, such identifications come with means of driving the spirit away. Perhaps it is exercised from the individual via the consumption of sacred substances, locked out of homes with special rights, or driven off into the bodies of beasts, or you could send them away aboards sacred model boats.
This practice and vestiges of it can be found throughout Southeast Asia, with many variations turning up in Malaysia. As outlined by Prince John Loewenstein in the Journal Atropus in nineteen fifty eight, Malaysian evil spirit boats or kapal hantu were neither toys nor full scale ships, but sacred vessels of magical significance. They range from small wooden boats to larger vessels splendidly decorated with sales and wooden crew members.
Depending on the stature of the afflicted individual or the overall scope of the misfortune to be exercised, it might be the illness or misfortune visited on a particular individual or upon an entire community, but the evil spirit would be lured onto the vessel with offerings and then set adrift, either down a river or out to sea, as reported in the Malay Mail in December of One of the most important surviving ceremonies of this sort is the Wang
King or barge festival, which YUNESCO recently recognized as an example of intangible cultural heritage. In the Wenkang, a procession of ships are used to draw out wandering spirits, evil forces, and negative energy. In this ritual, the ship's actually quote unquote sail down the streets of Malacca City and then are ritually burned. It is therefore through fire, rather than disappearance upon the sea or down the river, that the
evil spirits are expelled into the void. According to Yunesco related practices in coastal Malaysia and China can be broadly classified. Is on Chun ceremonies rooted in the worship of the deity on Ya, who is said to protect worsh appears from disaster, especially oceanic disaster. Tune in for additional installments of the artifact each week. As always, you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of I
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