Giant candles to light up Lunar New Year

JAKARTA (JP): Dedicated Chinese Indonesians in the city are vying to brighten up the upcoming Chinese New Year celebration by offering giant and expensive candles to their temples.

Almost all Chinese temples in the city are dominated by red candles, some of which have carvings and whose price can reach up to Rp 4 million (US$571.4) a pair. The candles will be lit on the eve of the new year.

Several temple officials said separately on Monday and Tuesday that people needed to offer the candles so that their fate would be brighter next year, which is marked by the symbol of the gold dragon in the Chinese calendar.

An official of the Sin Tek Bio Temple in Pasar Baru in Central Jakarta, Hong Beng Gie, said the richer the people were, the bigger the candles they would offer.

"People believe that their 'light' will last longer in the future if the candle lights longer. That's why giant candles are preferred," Hong said.

The giant candles, about two meters high and 50 centimeters in diameter, can last for about one month and cost Rp 3.6 million a pair. Such candles were placed around the small temple, which is located in a narrow aisle within the Pasar Baru shopping complex.

The price of similar candles is Rp 4 million a pair at other temples. The candles are inscribed with Chinese characters -- which mean "the whole family is saved" -- and with the name, sometimes several names, of the people who offered them.

"Several people can offer a candle together so that they don't have to individually spend too much money," Hong said.

Another temple official, Nio Siu Siu, predicted that the number of candles offered this year would be greater than previous years in conjunction with the new government's openness toward Chinese culture.

"Previously, some temples even limited the number of candles, especially after the city was gripped by the (May 1998) massive unrest which targeted Indonesians of Chinese descent," he said.

Nio said temple officials were afraid at that time that candle lights would provoke people to create disturbances in the temple's compound.

Both Nio and Hong said most of the candles were produced in Surabaya, East Java.

"Candle producers here can only produce candles of lower quality," said Hong who, like other temple officials, claimed he did not know the location of candle producers in the city.

There was a different atmosphere at Vihara Tri Ratna Temple on Jl. Lautze in Central Jakarta where there were no large candles.

A temple official, who asked for anonymity, said the congregation had agreed to opt for homemade lanterns lit with coconut oil, to avoid the smoke from candlelight.

The temple employees were covering the altars with hundreds of these lanterns, which displayed thin red cards printed with Chinese characters and the names of the donors.

Separately, a teacher of Confucianism Bunsu, Masari Saputra, suggested that Chinese Indonesians should not compete with each other when offering expensive candles.

"We should not waste a lot of money on useless things. It would be better if the money was donated for alms," he said.

Masari said people should go to temples only to pray, but not for any superstitious reasons. (ind)