SINGAPORE — Spirit medium or just a charlatan? A female altar assistant accused a Chinese spirit medium (or called “tangki” in Hokkien) of allegedly molesting his assistant and devotees by the excuse of giving a massage, and even asked his devotees to buy a crab as an offering, in a name of a deity spirit.
Local Chinese media Shin Min Daily News reports that the assistant, 37-year-old Ms Lee was introduced to Mr Chong, a Chinese spirit medium through her mother’s friend as she was having some problems with her family last year.
Ms Lee seeks Mr Chong’s consultation every week at his worship altar which is set up in his house in the Bukit Panjang area.
Ms Lee firmly believes in Mr Chong’s guidance, having invited him to do a “spiritual cleansing” for her home and offered him money in return.
When the two got more familiar with each other, Mr Chong invited Ms Lee to become his altar’s “toh- thao” (medium’s interpreter) in August this year.
After Ms Lee took up the job, she began to have the idea that Chong was merely bluffing and deceiving others.
Ms Lee told the reporter that Mr Chong drew exactly the same fortune spell when communicating with Sky Deity（天神） and Yin Deity（阴神）, which are totally different deity spirits.
“He always ask me if I had won the lottery or not, and even questioned me when he pretended to be possessed by the deity.” said Ms Lee.
Asked devotees to buy crab for him, in the name of the deity
Ms Lee added, “He once demanded his devotees to buy crabs for him, in the name of a deity. He claimed that “Ji Gong(济公)” wanted to eat crab. Everyone was puzzled. Was crab ever favoured by Deity Ji Gong?
“He also asked devotees to make offerings in form of alcohol and cigarettes to show their devotion.”
Ms Lee later learned that the spirit medium even offers massages to his female devotees, pulling up their clothes and touching their bodies in the process.
She shared that Mr Chong once gave a massage to a female devotee while “possessed by a deity”. But after the ritual, Chong was able to discuss about the tattoo on her back.
“If he was supposed to be possessed by a deity at the time, how could he see that? He was obviously molesting her.”
Ms Lee further claimed that she herself was also a victim of sexual harassment.
She said she suffers from long-term spinal pain, and Chong took advantage of that in an attempt to molest her.
On one occasion, Mr Chong insisted to massage her to relieve her pain, but his hand was moving downwards and almost reaching her hip.
Ms Lee stopped him and later lodged a police complaint against him.
In October, Ms Lee expressed her wish to quit the altar, but Mr Chong alluded to other assistants that Ms Lee might enter the Intensive Care Unit for medical treatment and her father will come back to ask for his help.
“This was too much. I want to expose him in hope that no one will be deceived by him again.”
In response to media queries, Singapore police confirmed that they had received the complaint and are currently investigating the matter.
Spirit-medium denies allegation
When asked for comments, Mr Chong denied all accusations by Ms Lee. While he claims that Ms Lee is trying to make his life difficult because she holds a grudge against him, he declined to elaborate further on the matter.
He claims that he never had bad intentions for his devotees and there are always two other assistants on site whenever he gives a massage.
As to the offerings from devotees, he said these offerings were contributed by them voluntarily, out of thankfulness to the deity.
“The crab is not for me, “Ji Gong” helped the devotee, and all he asked is a crab as a form of gratitude,” said Mr Chong.
“I communicate and be possessed by the deity spirits, “Ji Gong” and “Heibai Wuchang”.
“There is no 100% deity possession as you will still retain 30% of your conscious, while 70 per cent is taken up by the deity spirit,” he explained to the reporter regarding the claim by Ms Lee that he was able to see the tattoo on female devotee’s back while being possessed.
Borrowing money from altar assistant
47-year-old Mr Leong, another altar assistant who works as bus driver, believes that Mr Chong has long-term financial issues.
“Every time he asks to borrow $100 or 200 from me. He once borrowed S$1300 from me, and borrowed S$1400 from another altar assistant. There must be a problem. While he did return the money at the end but not within the promised period of time. ”
Mr Leong said such loans took place seven times in a year, with amounts ranging from a few hundred to over a thousand SGD. He added that he had confronted the medium on 5 November over the issue of money together with five other assistants.
A quarrel took place with Mr Leong lodging a police report.
Against Mr Leong’s claims, the medium does admit to the loans that he took.
However, he said, “but I returned all the money every time I borrowed, I did not owe anyone money. I will lodge a police complaint too. ”
