In Taiwanese culture, haunted houses or inauspicious abodes (xiong zhai) are abhorred and avoided like the plague. When shopping for a home, most people try to avoid haunted houses so as to keep calamity from befalling the entire family. But how do you find out if the house you would like to buy is haunted? What do you do if you happen to buy a haunted house?
Apart from asking local borough wardens, neighborhood chiefs and neighbors, there are also Web sites on the Internet which have been around for a while that provide information specifically about haunted houses. The two main sites out there are the “Taiwan unlucky house site” (http://www.unluckyhouse.com) and the “J2H dead house site” (http://www.j2h.net/deadhouse). Both sites allow you to search and ask about the particular conditions of houses.
What should you do if you are unfortunate enough to have purchased a haunted house? National Tai-chung University Associate Professor Lin Mao-hsien, who specializes in Taiwanese folk customs and ceremonial offerings, says that if you know the house you are buying is indeed haunted, you can invite deities to help tranquilize the house when you move in and communicate with the spirits in the house through the deities, pacifying the spirits through negotiations. You can also burn ghost money for the spirits during regular ghost festival ceremonies arranged by temples, asking a Taoist priest to recite scripture. Lin says that it is best to view the spirits as “old landlords,” and make ceremonial offerings to them as the home’s guardian spirits, which is customary in Taiwan and will allow you to live together in harmony.
Photo: Hsieh Wu-hsiung, Liberty Times
照片:自由時報記者謝武雄
Lin says that according to folk belief, if a major accident occurs after buying and moving into a house it is probably because a ghost is trying to possess someone in the house, which requires an exorcist ceremony to be performed, with a Taoist priest or religious puppet theater troupe coming in to expel the evil spirits and demons.
(Liberty Times, Translated by Kyle Jeffcoat)
在我國的民情風俗中,對於「凶宅」較為嫌惡,甚至避之唯恐不及,而一般人在購買房屋時,也會儘量避免購買凶宅,以免居住後家宅不寧,但如何得知想買的房子是不是凶宅?萬一買到凶宅該怎麼辦?
除了在購買前先詢問當地里鄰長、鄰居外,其實在目前的網路世界中,早有人成立「凶宅網」,提供相關訊息。主要的凶宅網有二,一是「台灣凶宅網」,網址是:http://www.unluckyhouse.com,而「J2H凶宅網」,網址是http://www.j2h.net/deadhouse,都可以查詢或詢問房屋狀況。
Photo: Yang Yi-chung, Liberty Times
照片:自由時報記者楊宜中
若不幸買到凶宅,該怎麼辦?專研台灣民俗祭典的國立台中教育大學副教授林茂賢表示,如果在購買時就得知是凶宅,可以藉由「入厝」(搬家)時請神明「鎮宅」,透過供奉的神明和亡魂「溝通」,以談條件方式加以安撫;或是利用一般廟宇舉辦「超拔法會」時,為亡魂燒金紙,並請法師誦經超渡;更好的方式,則是將亡魂視為「老房東」,以台灣習俗的「地基主」來供奉,也能相安無事。
林茂賢說,萬一屋主入住後家人發生意外事故,此時就可能是民間傳說中的「捉交替」(捉替身),如此一來必須以「跳鍾馗」的儀式,請法師或是傀儡戲班來驅妖除魔。
(自由時報記者林良哲)
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