Ritual Weapons of Chinese Folk Religion

[ghostexorcist]

I'm unsure how many people are familiar with the concept of spirit-mediums (Ch: jitong, 乩童; Hokkien: tangki 童乩) in Chinese folk religion. For those who don't know, they are believed by their respective communities to channel the spirits of gods and bodhisattvas, giving believers direct access to the divine. What's interesting is that they use the "Five Treasures" (wu bao, 五寶), a prescribed set of ritual weapons, to inflict wounds on themselves. Self-mortification serves two purposes: 1) The weapons are believed to charge the medium with spiritual power when the blades/spikes pierce the flesh. This aids the medium in his battle against malevolent forces; 2) The resulting holy blood is believed to ward off evil. It is often smeared on paper talismans to call on heavenly forces.

The main reason I'm making this thread is to share a picture of a set of Five Treasures that I just acquired in Wanhua District, Taipei City, Taiwan. These are by no means heirlooms. But the quality of the weapons is not important, only their intended use in folk rituals. These include a spiked ball, a spiked mace, a sawfish nose sword (the biological product has been replaced here by a modern metal variant), a seven-star crescent moon axe, and a seven-star jian.