天人合一：新加坡裕廊西“斗天宫”乩童的祭祀仪式空间建构 = THE UNITY OF HEAVEN AND HUMAN: THE CONSTRUCTION OF RITUAL SPACE OF SPIRITUAL MEDIUM IN TAO TIAN KENG TEMPLE AT JURONG WEST, SINGAPORE

Abstract

This paper takes Jurong West Tao Tian Keng Temple of Singapore as case study, and attempts to demonstrate how the traditional conception of the "unity of heaven and human" has become a fundamental cultural and cosmological resource for Chinese folk belief temples in their effort to survive and maintain sustainable development in the context of Singapore's modernization process. The thesis will demonstrate this point by means of an analysis of three aspects of the temple and its rituals: 1) the construction of the sacrificial ritual space by the spirit medium; 2) the organisation of the sacrificial ritual space of the temple as a whole; and 3) the construction of the sacrificial ritual space of community interactions. The reason for the success of Tao Tian Keng Temple spirit medium and his committee is that they have been able to inherit the old cosmological model of the unity of heaven and humans as well as to partly integrate and interpret the new style cosmological model of the unity of heaven and human. It is by means of the active blending and promotion of these two cosmological models that the Tao Tian Keng Temple has achieved its current scale of development.