11. Life As A Taoist Priest

Taoist Priest

Our grandfather Chan was a very well-known Taoist priest, and his work required him to travel as far north as Kepala Batas in Province Wellesley, Penang and the whole of Perak. My colleague, Hor Ah Har, whose parents lived in Kepala Batas told me that they knew our grandfather Chan as he often visited their area in his heydays.

Grandfather Chan had a god-son who live in Lenggung, Perak. His parents own a sawmill there. In the mid-90s, I took our parents and visited him and his family in Lenggung. One of his son operates a seafood restaurant in town.

Taoist Deities

In the old days, Taoist priests usually worked alone and traveled far and wide to serve the people. Grandfather Chan had a lot of responsibilities and had to follow certain religious ethics. He could only accept certain amount of payment, for example, he was paid $3.60 for prayers services in Sitiawan which was more than 80 km from Taiping.

Performing funeral services and rituals were some of the toughest and most tiring tasks as it could last from three to five days with praying sessions lasting until the wee hours of the morning. It was hard work and not much pay then, very unlike the commercialized and profit-oriented services offered by priests and monks nowadays.

Chinese Opium Smokers

Thus, it was not uncommon to find Taoist priests indulged in smoking opium and drinking alcohol - two of the many harmful vices in the old days. They had taken to opium and alcohol as a means of 'revitalizing' themselves physically and mentally after long and tiring hours performing funeral rites. And our grandfather became a victim too.

However, it was not opium (nor tuberculosis which was very prevalent then) that killed him, but rather his addiction to samsu - an alcoholic drink brewed from rice - which eventually damaged his liver.

During the Japanese Occupation from 1942 to 1945, his health deteriorated as medical facilities and medicine were greatly lacking or unavailable then. In foresight, grandfather Chan insisted that our father Chung Chow become a mechanic, and not follow in his footsteps to be a Taoist priest. He feared that Chung Chow might succumb to opium and alcohol that were so popular among the Taoist priests in those days.

So, around the mid-1930s, grandfather's younger brother Ting Yang who was working at the Kamunting Tin Mining Company, helped our father Chung Chow obtained a job as an apprentice machinist at the same place. The company operated several dredgers that mined for tin ore in the outskirts of Taiping and had a large ironworks factory situated behind the mosque in Kamunting.

Tin Dredger

Tin Dredger

Tin Dredge Buckets

Tin Dredger

Fortunately, father Chung Chow had heeded his father's advice. He was then in his early 20s, and it was about time for him to help support the family that had grown to six: Chung Chow, his father and mother, two sisters, and a younger brother.

His granduncle, Chan Ying Kau and Ying Kau's son, Ah Choon, were both Taoist priests like our grandfather Chan Ah Kee. And as members of a fraternity, they banded together for mutual help and shared the same dwelling. Ying Kau's father, Chan Kau Seng had passed away and was buried at the Quangdung Cementery in Tupai. During Cheng Meng, we would pray at his grave first before we proceed to the rest of our ancestors' burial sites.

Next: 12. Father Chung Chow's Siblings