NO. 2 FOLK RELIGION IN SOUTHWEST CHINA — GRAHAM I73 



ing. This assures them that the deity is actually present and is paying 

 attention to the worshiper, his acts, and his prayers. 



One day I had a long discussion with some boatmen about gods. 

 Finally one boatman said, "You Christians worship a god all right, 

 but it has no body. We make images of the gods so that we can see 

 them and know what the gods are like." The common people feel 

 that there must be something visible and tangible so that the mind 

 is reached through the senses, in order that they may realize the like- 

 ness and actual presence of the god. The image is thought of as his 

 body. 



It is also assumed that sometimes the god may be asleep, or that 

 the soul may temporarily leave the image and go elsewhere. There 

 is therefore in front of each image a bell or a gong which is beaten 

 by the priest to make him wake up and pay attention and to inform 

 him that he is being worshiped. The bells or gongs generally have 

 beautiful tones, and to the priests and the worshipers the beating and 

 the resulting harmonious tones are an essential part of the worship. 



A few gods are worshiped when there is no image present. In the 

 temples there are images of the sun god and the moon god, but in 

 their homes the people often worship the sun and the moon as gods 

 without the use of any images. T'ien-lao-yeh, the aged one in heaven, 

 is often worshiped, but I have never seen or heard of an image of this 

 god. Sometimes in a shrine or in a temple the image of a god is re- 

 moved but the people go on worshiping as though the god were still 

 present. 



Some of the tribespeople of West China, including the Ch'uan Miao 

 and the Ch'iang, have gods of their own but make no images of them. 

 This sometimes leads to the mistaken belief that they have no gods 

 or that they are monotheists. A Christian Lolo once convinced me 

 that most of the Lolos are monotheists. At the time I believed it 

 and expressed the belief in two short articles, but now I know that I 

 was very badly mistaken. The Ch'iang people convinced Rev. Thomas 

 Torrance that they were monotheists, and Mr. Torrance made this 

 affirmation in every one of his articles and in his book about the 

 Ch'iang. Ch'iang friends, however, informed me that they purposely 

 deceived Mr. Torrance and gave me long lists of their gods — 5 major 

 gods, 12 lesser gods, some tree gods, numerous stones worshiped as 

 gods, and a large number of local deities. Tens of these gods are 

 mentioned by name in the sacred books (chants) of the Ch'iang 

 priests. 



Sometimes the only visible evidence of the presence of the god in 



