Childhood fascinations and intrigge with The Monkey god

Monkey God worship came into my early Childhood interest when my Grandmother and eldest Aunt Dora introduced me to some sort of a medium at her house who venerated Tai Sheng on yeh with some claim to cure ailment and gave protection . It also accompanied by Chinese reading syllabus in School . It stuck with me all throught my childhood even till now as an overseas Chinese migrant that I would never forget . There is also the writings of Felix Chia of the Baba Malay Heritage in which he detailed the customs and superstitious beliefs of the noyna householder of the by-gone days. Amongst ancestral worship , the monkey God was one of the gods venerated besides the goddess of mercy and the Kitchen god . According to Sit Yin fong's Tales of Chinatown of early Malaysia and Singapore, Monkey God veneration was very popular in in those times . He describes how a local medium woman would go into a trance and spill rice all over the floor to invite the presence of the diety in which she would perform some fake martial art dances with a sword . she then wrote out an amulet and pasted it onto the body of the devotee , drank some water from a mug and sputtered it out all over him half -naked ! I am personally much more interested in its conncetion with early Singapore shipping history when the boat builders of Jalan Kayu worshipped the monkey God besides Guan yin , Shang di , Pek gong and Guan Gong and the accounts from the journey to the west in relation to the dragon king, rain-making , coconut plantations and fruit orchards in which fruit growers and confectioners venerated it to ensure the fruits and auspicious biscuits would thrive and contribute to a prosperous business . Here is the Tiong Bahru version http://tiongbahruestate.blogspot.com.au/2009/09/birthday-celebration-at-eng-hoon-street.html