demons

you can find them everywhere in china. at any corner there are demons and ghosts who are usually very crabby.

so, where do they come from and why are they here and why the bad mood? according to chinese belief, everyone lives with two souls in his body: hun and po, they are the yin and yang that together form qi, the energy of life. but when a person dies, they separate. the hun soul is going to heaven, becoming an ancestor. the po soul instead stays in the grave and rests.

but if someone dies unexpectedly or violently then this separation does not happen. the hun soul has no chance to go to heaven. instead it has to stay as a demon among the living, and no wonder, because of this the demon is quite upset.

chinese believe that if something goes wrong, it must be the work of an angry demon. so the people are trying their best to keep them in a good mood, which fortunately can be done quite easily: burn some incense and offer them some food.

for that you can find everywhere small shrines that are dedicated to the demons, especially at almost any house there is one or two of these places to pay respect to the demons. usually there is some incense burning and often there are some fruits or even some drinks. but sometimes this is not enough. then you have to offer them some bigger presents. but how to send something to the ghost world? well, again easy: by burning it. so people buy papermodels of anything you can imagine: clothes, cars, houses, smartphones, perfome bottle, hand bags etc. - and bring them to a temple where they are burnt (i will show some photos about that later). there is even a special death money issued by the "hell bank".

there are also some more easy tricks to protect yourself from the demons. it is a fact that demons have no knees, so a simple, little higher than normal door sill which you can notice at the entrance of most chinese homes does prevent the demons from entering - no knees, no leg-bending, no stepping over this obstacle. so inside you might be safe, but nobody can spend his lifetime inside his home. so you need also take care not to upset the demons when you are outside of your four walls.

if you stay in asia and use a taxi, then you will notice that it is very often not possible to use the security belt. usually it has been partly removed. strange change of topic? well no, because the reason for this is again not to displease the demons. using a seat belt - or a helmet as a motorcycle driver - means that you are expecting that something bad is going to happen. in other words you are accusing the demons of doing something bad, which might make them even more angry. so it is better not to do so.

even that i am talking about the belief in ghosts in china - but in fact a same or very similar belief can be found in thailand, malaysia, south korea, taiwan or any other country in east or south-east asia.

so if this kind of belief seems a little strange to you or if you are even amused by it, well, then maybe think about a man who was born by a virgin, who could walk on water and who later returned from the dead...