Tu Di Gong () is an indigenous earth god worshiped in in East Asia, whose roots stem from China. A popular deity, he is worshiped by Chinese folk religion worshipers and Taoists. A formal name for Tu Di Gong is Fúdézhèngshén (福德正神), meaning the earth god of wealth and merit.
In China, every village had a shrine to Tu Di Gong. It was this deity who was in charge of administering the affairs of a particular village. In traditional times, village concerns were primarily agricultural or weather-related. This god was not all-powerful, but was a modest heavenly bureaucrat to whom individual villagers could turn in times of drought or famine.
Today, he is still worshiped by most Chinese, with many housing small shrines with his image, commonly located under the main altar, or below the house door. Many worshipers make prayers to him for wealth and their well being. He is also traditionally worshiped before the burial of a loved one, to thank him for using his land to return their loved one to the earth.
Commoners often called Tu Di Gong "Grandpa," which reflects his close relationship to the common people.
Tu Di Gong is portrayed as an elderly man with a long white beard, a black or gold hat and a red or yellow robe, which signifies his position as a bureaucrat. He carries a wooden staff in his right hand and a golden ingot on the left.
In the countryside, he is sometimes given a wife, Tu Di Po (土地婆 tǔ dì pó), placed next to him on the altar. She may be seen as a just and benevolent deity on the same rank as her husband, or as a grudging old woman holding back her husband's benedictions, which explains why one does not always receive fair retribution for good behaviour.
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Di Zhu God
Dizhu (Chinese: 地主神, meaning Earth Spirit) is a spirit in Chinese folk beliefs, which is analogous to Tu Di Gong. Di Zhu God's tablet is inscribed with (middle two rows) "left: The Earth God of Overseas Tang peoples (Overseas Chinese), right: The dragon of five sides & five lands (Fengshui). The side inscriptions mean "The wealth comes from ten thousand directions and the business comes from thousands of miles." It is believed that the Di Zhu God has powers to help gather wealth, and the position of the tablet must be placed properly according to the laws of Feng Shui.
Village gods in Taoism
In Taoism, the God of Village have developed from land worship. Before Gods of Towns dominated in China, land worship had a hierarchy of deities conforming strictly to social structure, in which the emperor, kings, dukes, officials and common people were allowed to worship only the land gods within their command; the highest land deity was the Earthly Queen of the Four Imperial Ones. Ranked lower than Town gods, the God of Village have been very popular among villagers as the grassroot deities since the 14th century during the Ming Dynasty. Some scholars speculate that this change came because of a royal edict, because it is reported that the first emperor of the Ming dynasty was born in a Village God shrine. The image of the Village God is that of a simply clothed, smiling, white-bearded man. His wife, the Grandma of the Village, looks like any old lady who lives next door.
See also
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External links
References
- The Encyclopedia of Malaysia, vol. Religions & Beliefs, edited by Prof. Dr M. Kamal Hassan & Dr. Ghazali bin Basri ISBN 981-3018-51-8 [1]
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