Thank you very much, Cat. I shall pass on your information to the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre in Luang Prabang, with whom I attended this ceremony. Any more info always welcome
Guest
22-Sep-2013 17:17
This shows the 8 'Kings of Hell'. They are 'judges' who preside over courts that mete out punishment for different types of sins. In Taoism there are 10 of these Kings (known as Shi Dian Ming Wang in Mandarin Chinese), but here there are 8, & the name of the 8th King differs from the Taoist version. The names of the 1st to 7th Kings are identical to the Taoist version.
The wordings on the paintings are written from right to left, & in traditional style Chinese characters. All names given below are in Mandarin Chinese (hanyu pinyin romanisation system), hopefully someone can add the Mien version.
Left column, from top to bottom: King Ping Zheng of the 8th court. King Bian Cheng of the 6th court. King Wu Guan of the 4th court. King Chu Jiang of the 2nd court.
Middle column: Types of punishment in hell for sinners.
Right column, from top to bottom: King Tai Shan of the 7th court. King Yan Luo (aka. King Sen Luo) of the 5th court. King Song Di of the 3rd court. King Qin Guang of the 1st court.
