Chinese. ‘Obscure currency’ or ‘hell money’. Name for a
special form of
joss paper
called
jin zhi
and takes the form of
hell
banknotes, a
currency for afterlife usage. There are banknotes with real money value (fig.),
whilst others are of
a very large denomination. All show a portrait of
Yu Huang, the
Jade Emperor and the seal of the Bank of Hell
(fig.).
There are banknotes of both foreign and Thai (fig.)
allusion. They are sold in stacks of around 30 bank notes and the backside of one -the
last- bank note in each stack will be of a different colour, indicating it is
the last banknote of the stack. They are offered by the relatives of the
deceased by burning (fig.) them in specially built joss ovens
(fig.)
during certain traditional Chinese ceremonies, such as
funerals, to escape punishment or as as a tribute to
Yama, the god of
hell. They are often
burned together with other paper items, such as replicas of material goods, in
order to ensure that their spirits have all things necessary. Hell banknotes are
taken seriously and are for ceremonial burning only. They should never be kept
around in the house as that is considered bad luck and one should never give a
hell banknote to a living person, not even as a joke, as it is considered as
wishing that person's death, a grave insult.
Before burning hell money the person offering it will first make a vow called
athitahn,
in which the hands are brought
together
above the head, making a
wai.
In Thai
transcribed as meng pih. Sometimes called
ghost money and in Thai known as baenk
gong de.
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