Ancient Ship Cremation Ritual
This ancient, rare and unusual Chinese Wangkang religious ritual festival, held in Malacca city, Malaysia, in November 2020, aims to cleanse away wandering evil spirits, following Taoist beliefs. This grand and costly event is not held annually, the earlier one was eight years ago. The main attraction is a huge royal ship, specially built for the festival, into which wandering souls, evil spirits and other negative elements are placed, and pulled around the streets in the city. At the end of procession upon arriving a sea beach, bags of joss paper sheets are transferred by the worshippers from its stock yard and placed underneath and surrounding the ship, to enable the whole ship and its contents to be ceremoniously set aflame to create large fires and sent into the unknown as offerings. This festival is registered as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Chua Bing Guan, Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur