Ciam Si

Eid Holiday and my mother insisted us go out of town. Thus, on the first day of Eid, we went to Semarang instead of going around visiting relatives. Well, not that we were not visiting relatives though, since in Semarang we saw my great grandaunt, a nun.

On our way back home, we decided to visit Vihara Buddhagaya near Semarang. It’s very interesting though, with the high Pagoda, named Avalokitesvara Pagoda. We could even see Bodhi tree there, since the monks there got the seed of Bodhi directly from Sri Lanka. It is a very big tree, grand one.

In the pagoda, there was big Guan Yin statue, and in the wall around it, there were many statues of Guan Yin in many positions. But what stroke me more was four vases with bamboos in it. I knew it, recognized it as Ciam Si (or Ziam Xi? Or Zhiam Si? Gosh, I really hate this Pinyin things! Lemme just write it with Wade-Gilles!).

Ciam Si is one of the fortunetelling schools. I read about it many times, and now it was under my nose. Curious, I asked the worker there, whether I could use it or not. Yes, he nodded and started telling me the procedure. First, I got to utter my question after asking permission from Guan Yin. “Mak Cho, me, Chrysogonus Siddha Malilang, would like to ask --------piiiiip!-------------“ (Sorry, censored! XD) Then, I had to throw two wooden blocks. Yes, one faced up and one faced down, meaning I was allowed to ask the question and shake the bamboos. The worker there said that I should shake the vas until a single bamboo stick was down. Gee, there were 60 sticks there, and I was nervous how can I make only one single stick fell? I finally made TWO bamboo sticks fell. Invalid, said he. Got to repeat the shaking……

Crik! Crik! Crik! One single stick fell. Huh, finally. I thought it was over, and I could get my piece of paper. Turned out not. I got to throw the wooden blocks once again while asking whether this really was the answer or not. Again, I threw it. Once more, one up and one down. CONFIRMED!

I picked the paper, and guess what? I was very afraid of bad result before, since my mind was totally screwed at the moment. But what I got was something promising success and only little obstacles. I took a deep breath there. Aargh, thank God!