Master Tan – My Ancestor
On the next occasion to Bali, I went to visit the two other temples at Kuta and Singaraja. Nothing happened until many years later when I have my holiday in Bali at the same time as my brother who lives in Bandung. I told him about our ancestor Tan Hu Cin Jin (Kongco[1] Tan) and brought him to pay our respects at the temple in Kuta.
That visit to the temple triggered something within him. Every time he travels to Bali he always visits the temple, seeking much more detailed story about our ancestor. One day he went to a little shrine at Taman Mesir in Abiansemal, where our ancestor used to meditate. His wife and a cousin of ours was with him too.
He spoke to the temple carer, an old lady, who suddenly fell in a trance and her voice changed to a male voice. She was channelling our ancestor who directly spoke to my brother, his wife and our cousin. First, he confirmed that we are his 9th generation direct descendant, and then he gave my brother a few pieces of advice relating to his newly acquired obsession, learning about Feng Shui.
Many years have passed, and one day he gave me a booklet, the official publication by the management of the temple, the Vihara Dharmayana Kuta about its history, written by Hindra Suarlim. It was the second edition dated 2007 while the first edition was dated 2004.
In the foreword, Hindra Sualim wrote that he succeeded Go Ik An, the temple elder, in his task of compiling the history of Tan Hu Cin Jin in 1981. In 1982 he completed the manuscript, ready for printing. However, as a tradition, he prayed and asked for permission, and the answer is, not approved!.
While wondering what is wrong with the manuscript and why Kongco Tan didn’t approve it, a psychic came along and without any reasoning suddenly pointed his finger to him and said: “You didn’t mention about Mengwi.”[2]
He didn’t know what to do and ceased working at the manuscript until 1997. The problem is, what happened in Mengwi is ‘magical,’ and he didn’t feel right to include that magical story in an official publication, because it may sound too outlandish, especially when he was the President of The Indonesian Buddhist Association. (WALUBI). So, he decided to include the magical story of what happened in Mengwi but delayed the publication until he retired from being the President of WALUBI.
Currently, there are many stories, myths, and legends about Kongco Tan on the internet. By googling his name “Tan Hu Cin Jin” in Hokkien or “Chen Fu Zhen Ren” in Mandarin, we will get all those sites including Wikipedia, Wikivisualy and many blog spots. They all may sound weird even outlandish, but according to the above, I think the story in the official booklet is the most accurate.
According to the story written in the booklet (in Indonesian), Kongco Tan was a Feng Shui Master and a Healer, who came to Java and Bali with his two brothers in the early 18th Century. He crash-landed in Blambangan at the East end of Java. Unfortunately, there is no more story heard about his two brothers.
His original name was Tan Bun Ciong.[3] The Balinese respect him very much because of his dedication to healing people. Being known as Chinese Feng Shui Master that in those days also mean an architect, the King of Mengwi commanded him to build a beautiful garden palace surrounded by a moat, similar to what the King has heard about the magnificent Forbidden City being built in China.
Kongco Tan expressed his concern about the lack of workforce and insufficient building material in the area and especially about the water source for the moat. However, he was given 40 days to build it.
Thirty days have passed, and nothing happened because he was very busy healing people. He only ordered his construction crew to dam the river to elevate the water level to fill the moat later. The King got angry and gave him an ultimatum that he will kill him if the palace is not ready in the next ten days. Kongco Tan said that he only needs three days to build the palace and he will start working on it after seven days. The King then sent his guards to watch him and ordered to kill him if the palace is not ready by the due date.
On the seventh night, three days before the due date, the King’s guards found the area very dark but noisy like thousands of people are working to build the palace. On the next morning when the Sun rose they saw that the land had been cleared, flattened, a brick fence built around the place and a beautiful lake were in the middle of it with lotus flowers. The construction of the whole palace was completed precisely at the due date.
The King was firstly happy to hear the good news that the palace is ready, but also to know that one of his people was so powerful and can command beings from other dimensions. However, the Prime Minister was afraid of losing the King’s favour and manipulated the meeting, convincing everyone that being able to command beings from other dimensions was very dangerous to the kingdom and hence the architect (Kongco Tan) should be eliminated.
Source: Tripadvisor
The King then sent out two of his most powerful guards to kill Kongco Tan. They went to see Kongco Tan, and instead of killing him, they advised him to run away. The guards went back and reported that Kongco Tan ran away and they couldn’t find him. The King went mad and commanded the guards to find and to kill him. Otherwise, they will be killed.
As their conscience wouldn’t let them kill Kongco Tan, they asked Kongco Tan for some advice. Kongco Tan then told them to follow the King’s command and kill him so that they won’t be killed. At that moment both guards fell on their knees and asked Kongco Tan to be accepted as his guards to protect him and to run away together. There are more stories about how they ran away back to Java and disappeared/ascended at Mount Sembulungan.
However, the interesting point about the above story is that other beings from another dimension have helped Kongco Tan to construct the Palace in only three nights. A similar construction may also apply for ancient buildings like Nan-Madol in Pohnpei, Oceania.
The big revelation is; “When we can get help from other dimensional beings to build a colossal building in such a short time, do we need our mechanical construction ‘technology’ that seems to be very limited?”
Source: Ancient pages.[4]
[1] Kongco = Grand Ancestor
[2] This Chapter has been approved after Kongco added a clarification that we, – my brother, our cousin and me, are his 9th generation direct descendant.
[3] The name Tan Hu Cin Jin in Hokkien or Chen Fu Zhen Ren in Mandarin is a title similar to “Master Tan/Chen.” “Cin Jin” or “Zhen Ren” means “True Man”. More on this in the next Chapter.
Mystic Reflections 
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