Tudigong

Not to be confused with City God (China).
Tudigong
A shrine to a local Tudigong along the Ping Shan Heritage Trail, in Hong Kong
Chinese name
Chinese土地公
Literal meaningLord of the Land
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinTǔ dì gōng
Wade–GilesTu³-ti⁴-kung¹
IPA[tʰù.tî.kʊ́ŋ]
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanizationtóu deih gūng
Jyutpingtou2 dei6 gung1
IPA[tʰɔw˧˥.tej˨.kʊŋ˥]
Southern Min
Hokkien POJThó-tī-kong / Thó͘-tī-kong
Alternative Chinese name
Chinese土地
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinTǔ dì
Wade–GilesTu³-ti⁴
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanizationtóu deih
Jyutpingtou2 dei6
Second alternative Chinese name
Chinese土公
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinTǔ gōng
Wade–GilesTu³-kung¹
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanizationtóu gūng
Jyutpingtou2 gung1
Southern Min
Hokkien POJThó͘-kong
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabetThổ Công
Chữ Hán土公

A Tudigong (Chinese: 土地公; lit. 'Lord of the Land') is a kind of Chinese tutelary deity of a specific location.[1] There are several Tudigongs corresponding to different geographical locations and sometimes multiple ones will be venerated together in certain regions.[2]

They are tutelary (i.e. guardian or patron) deities of locations and the human communities who inhabit it in Chinese folk religion, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism.[3] They are portrayed as old men with long beards.[4]

The definitive characteristic of Tudigongs is that they are limited to their specific geographical locations. The Tudigong of one location is not the Tudigong of another location[1]

They are considered to be among the lowest ranked divinities,[5] just below City Gods[3] ("God of Local City"), and above landlord gods.

Often, a specific person who did a great service to their local community will be seen as becoming a Tudigong after their death.[6]

When people move from one location to another, they will say goodbye to their local Tudigong and worship the one of the new location[5][7]

The deities are considered to have a kind of appointed position like an alderman, with different deities being appointed to different areas.[8]

Houtu is the overlord of all the Tudigongs ("Lord of Local Land"), Sheji ("the State"), Shan Shen ("God of Mountains"), City Gods ("God of Local City"), and landlord gods worldwide.

  1. ^ a b "Tudi Gong | Chinese deity | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2023-04-09.
  2. ^ 基隆市政府 (2020-08-26). "Nuannuan Twins Tudigong Temple". 基隆市政府. Retrieved 2023-04-07.
  3. ^ a b The Encyclopedia of Malaysia, vol. Religions & Beliefs, edited by Prof. Dr M. Kamal Hassan & Dr. Ghazali bin Basri. ISBN 981-3018-51-8
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Stepanchuk Mooncakes and Hungry Ghosts Tudigong was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b "tudigong, god of the land, Manray Hsu". Retrieved 2024-02-06.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference :4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Shiv Visvanathan, “Mrs Brundtland’s Disenchanted Cosmos” (1991) in The Geopolitics Reader, eds. Gearóid Ó Tuathail, Simon Dalby, and Paul Routledge (London: Routledge, 1998).
  8. ^ Hall, Christopher A. (2009-01-01). "Tudi Gong in Taiwan". Southeast Review of Asian Studies. 31: 97–113.