THIS DATO DON’T EAT PORK

Prosperity and fortune are words that hang right at the tips of Chinese lips. My dad is no exception. To the Chinese there are three ways to make the fortune and be prosperous.

The first is the good old fashioned hard work, if you work hard and focus you will make it big. The second is you know somebody who can help you or your business prosper. The last way is the by the power of divine blessing from above and beyond.

I will tell you the story of the fortune by the power from beyond, from the world of spirits.

My dad had a stall selling dim sum outside the now famous Ipoh Aun Kheng Lim Salted Chicken. This story happened in 1977 when I was 13 years old. Aun Kheng Lim in the seventies was a coffee shop. I knew the owner very well. The father of the current owner was a teacher, in fact a brilliant artist and a number of the pictures drawn in Perak Tong or cave and in Sam Poh Tong were drawn by him. I was told that the picture was so huge he has to modify a broom and commercial paint brush to paint it. The mother of the current owner was a lovely lady, my dad asked me to call her Ah Dor, it means aunty or something in the Hainanese language.

The circle and arrow indicates where my dad's stall was.

Aun Kheng Lim at night was the place where people from all walks of life gathered. Contractors, construction workers, taxi drivers, gambling den taikor, gangster and me. On the wall facing the main road were two big school size blackboard. Written on it in old Chinese were riddles and dreams. The people there will read and try to understand and guess the meaning or the image of the meaning. From the image the Chinese will refers to one of the 3 chinese numbers prediction book , one of them is Kuan Yin Book of lucky numbers, I cannot remember the other two. My dad had all three which I threw away in 2019. The book will associate the image to a 3 digit lucky number. For example, the number for python is 606, a cobra is 592 and the number for viper is 381.

Visuals take n from The StarOnline

To make it 4 digit, the pundit has to guess the fourth number which, usually is the first number ahead of the 3 digit.

How do they get the fourth digit? Well there is a simple reference e.g. if the person who guess the number correct is the only son, then the first digit is 1. If the image that represent the 3 digit is feminine like a wok, because women are the one usually using it, then the number is 8. Masculine number is 7.  So, the guessing games goes on this way.

Let me unpack these riddles and dreams for you. Apparently, the world beyond, the spirit world talks to us, sometimes through dreams, sometimes through visions and sometimes through the Chinese ‘fortune lots’ or ‘Kau Chim’ when one goes to ask the spirit personally.

Chien Tung or fortune lot sticks and container. To get the numbers the person performing the rituals will shake it until one number drops and to be repeated 3 times to get all the four digits.

And here begins my story of four friends whose name defines what they do and their roles in this escapade. Taxi Cheong (obvious), Mumbo Seng (the self-appointed Taoist priest), Fresh Fruit Fatt and Pau Lo Kok (my dad Pao is Cantonese for Chinese bun). Most Chinese knew somewhere out there are spirits who lived in rocks, old giant trees or cave.  My dad, Pao Lo Kok and his three friends heard there was a spirit of an old tree about 2 miles off the road to Lawan Kuda, Gopeng, Perak, a place located 13 kilometres from Ipoh.

All these spirits are usually known with the term of reverence ‘Dato’ and the Cantonese pronounce it as ‘LATUK’, besides ‘R’ Chinese cannot pronounce ‘D’. It was known to give 4 digit numbers accurately and many people they heard struck 4 digit numbers many times.

A bit of history about this 'Dato' spirits:
A "datuk" or colloquially known in Cantonese as "Latuk" or "latuk kung" are local deities           protecting a particular area. Just like Taoist gods, eg Guan Yu, the god of war, "datuks" are persons elevated to deity status after their deaths. Most of these "datuk" deities are powerful or respected Malay leaders or rulers with the title of Datuk (or Dato'). This is why "datuk" deities don't accept pork offerings. - information from Steven Lee, an old friend.

The date was set, it was a Friday night in November 1977, they were to meet at Aun Kheng Lim and move out from there to Gopeng. Unfortunately, Fresh Fruit Fatt cannot make it, but still my dad and two others went. The modus operandi was simple, Taxi Cheong drives, Mumbo Seng to perform the ritual, Fresh Fruit Seng to provide offerings and dad provide supper of Pao.

On arrival, they forgot that there was no offerings as it was always the duty of Fresh Fruit Fatt to prepare. But Mumbo Seng said never mind and ask for my dad’s pao or buns as substitute for offerings.  After that my dad and friends returned with an exact 4 digit number. The very next day Saturday, my dad and his friends bet on the 4 digits, buying from Magnum and Bookie (illegal black market 4 digit). The number given was 2417. That evening the number came out as 2416, missing by one digit.

My dad’s friends said that it was strange because no one who ever went lost. So the four of them sat down in Aun Kheng Lim to analyse what went wrong. First to query was Taxi Cheong, “Did you all showered yesterday/” All replied. “YES.” And that is good. Fresh Fruit Fatt said it could not be his fault he was not there. All said “OK”. My dad asked Mumbo Seng, “Did you do the rituals according to the instructions?” (apparently there was an SOP for talking with spirits) Mumbo Seng replied, “Yes, exactly as instructed.” Then they asked my dad, “What Pao did you bring for the supper? (which, they conveniently used for the offering in the absence Ah Fatt’s fruits)” My dad replied, “Char Siew Pao.” (Pork Bun) Then Mumbo Seng exclaimed, “Cannot! This Latuk do not eat pork! It takes only fruits!”

Therefore, for your general knowledge, that there are spirits out there who don’t eat beef, some don’t eat pork but okay with chicken, some are vegetarians and some just like fruits.