The Ancestral Tablets of Penang, Malaysia

About Ancestral Tablets—When a Chinese person dies, if the family wishes to pay for a memorial in a temple or kongsi, in addition to a gravestone or a columbarium niche, they will elect to have an ancestral tablet made up. As the Chinese worship or revere their ancestors, they will then have a place where they can go to pay their respects throughout the year, as well as going to the gravestone or niche during Tomb Sweepings which occurs in March and April of each year.

Front of the Tablets—An Ancestral Tablet can be a wonderful source of genealogical information. First of all, the name of the deceased is placed on the front of the tablet in Chinese characters. Sometimes, a photo of the deceased will also be included as well as the name or names of the wives with their maiden name(s). Occasionally, other information is placed on the front of the tablet, such as a death date or some comment about the person, such as whether they contributed to the community.

Inside the Tablets—But the real genealogical gems might be contained inside the tablets. Some tablets have a compartment inside which holds a piece of wood or paper on which further genealogical data may be inscribed. For some tablets, the bottom stand of the tablet can be pulled off to reveal the chamber inside; for others, the back may be opened.

In some cases, like for the Meng Eng Soo in Penang, all of the ancestral tablets have been opened and tabulated, and a great display of the contents can be found on the wall of their ancestral hall. Some clan associations maintain a list of their ancestral tablets, so that when someone inquires, the keeper of the records can tell them whether or not they have a tablet for their ancestor. Some temples have tablets, but no hidden compartments. This situation varies from site to site.

Guidelines and Complications—Generally speaking, only a relative can request that an ancestral tablet be inspected and opened to see if further genealogical data is contained inside. And only males can enter the place where the ancestral tablets are displayed. A further complication occurs due to varying dialects. Chinese Mandarin characters can be old or new, traditional or simplified, and depending on the way the characters are translated, they can be intelligible or unintelligible to a family member seeking more information on their deceased. For example, if the characters are translated into Pinyin, and the seeker speaks the Hokkien dialect, he will not be able to recognize the names that are translated. In that case, a person needs to find someone who can translate into Roman letters, a Hokkien rendering of the names. The surnames might be correct, but the given names may cause the seeker to pass the tablet by as not belonging to his family.

The Value of Ancestral Tablets—Despite all of these complications, the ancestral tablets are valuable. At the very least, one can get the correct rendering of a name, or the complete name of the spouse, or a photo of the deceased. At the very most, one may get the years of birth and death, the origin or place of birth of the deceased (which may be the village as well as the province in China), the names of children and grandchildren, a description of the person who died, or the dynasty or emperor at the time of death. In addition, these tablets are in nearly every temple and kongsi in Penang.