{"id":6658,"date":"2013-05-14T10:41:30","date_gmt":"2013-05-14T02:41:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tvsmith.my\/?p=6658"},"modified":"2013-05-14T10:45:22","modified_gmt":"2013-05-14T02:45:22","slug":"la-tuk-kong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tvsmith.net.my\/blog\/la-tuk-kong\/","title":{"rendered":"La Tuk Kong"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In Malaysia and Singapore, you will often see a little red shrine under a tree or next to a big rock. The La Tuk Kong (in Hokkien) or Na Tok Kung (in Cantonese) is a Malaysian deity with a unique Malay-Chinese name. La Tuk is <em>datuk<\/em> or grandfather in Malay and <em>kong<\/em> is diety in Chinese. Believers consider it to be the spiritual protector of the area it reigns. The deity has its roots in a bizarre mixture of Taoist elements, traditional spiritual healers (bomoh) practices and superstitions.<\/p>\n<p>Worshippers light incense sticks, candles and bring fruits as offerings. La Tuk is a heavy smoker as he is often appeased with tembakau jawa, rokok daun and kemanyan (aromatic benzoin). Often, the motive is to ask for a lucky number to bet at the lottery shop. If the devotee is lucky, the La Tuk Kong&#8217;s humble abode gets a makeover with concrete and metal gates. Superstitious construction workers will often clear everything on site but leave the shrine alone as a peace gesture or for fear of retribution.<\/p>\n<p>Olympus OM-D, ISO 200, f8, 1\/1250 sec.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tvsmith.net.my\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/la_tuk_kong.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6659\" title=\"La Tuk Kong\" src=\"http:\/\/www.tvsmith.net.my\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/la_tuk_kong.jpg\" alt=\"La Tuk Kong\" width=\"1080\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"http:\/\/tvsmith.net.my\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/la_tuk_kong.jpg 1080w, http:\/\/tvsmith.net.my\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/la_tuk_kong-113x113.jpg 113w, http:\/\/tvsmith.net.my\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/la_tuk_kong-169x169.jpg 169w, http:\/\/tvsmith.net.my\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/la_tuk_kong-450x450.jpg 450w, http:\/\/tvsmith.net.my\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/la_tuk_kong-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Malaysia and Singapore, you will often see a little red shrine under a tree&#8230; <a href=\"http:\/\/tvsmith.net.my\/blog\/la-tuk-kong\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377,563,8,519,9],"tags":[75,518,114,511,1481],"class_list":["post-6658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-festivals","category-instagram","category-life","category-omd","category-photography","tag-culture","tag-landscape","tag-olympus","tag-om-d","tag-superstitions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tvsmith.net.my\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tvsmith.net.my\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tvsmith.net.my\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tvsmith.net.my\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tvsmith.net.my\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6658"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/tvsmith.net.my\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6665,"href":"http:\/\/tvsmith.net.my\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6658\/revisions\/6665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tvsmith.net.my\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tvsmith.net.my\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tvsmith.net.my\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}