ABSTRACT
Gongde involves a series of rituals performed over a period of three to five days. The first is usually the yinhun ceremony and the last the placing of the ancestor in his or her permanent home. Each day, two to three or five services are performed for the ancestors. Only the first and last involve the full participation of the lineage, those in between are reserved for monks or priests and the immediate family members. Like the rites of passage through the bridge of no return and the ten hell gates, the ceremony concerns rescuing the ‘soul’ of the dead from the netherworld. During this rite, the monks or Daoist priests (the Singapore Chinese have a preference for Buddhists) direct the eldest-male descendant to carry the yinhun streamer to provide direction to the soul of the ancestor. He is then followed by the rest of the family. This is usually arranged by the monks from the Qing Shui Yuan Temple. The main reason given for the preference for Buddhist monks is that they are better-trained, now full-time religious personnel, with some knowledge of liturgy, who also recite appropriate sutras. Daoist priests, on the other hand, are perceived to have a different type of training and are suited for different religious functions rather than for the care of the dead ancestors. The gongde ceremony requires three, five or seven clergy - depending on the amount the family is willing to spend (the fee, not surprisingly, being higher for monks).
