This is very likley the first english language article about 吳錦溪 and his talisman. I had posted it orginally on another blog site before moving to this one.
According to most sources, he was born in 潮州 and immigrated with his family to Thailand as a child. (some sources say that that he was born in Pathum Thani and that ChaoZhou was his ancestral home)
He was involved in the rice business and was also a devotee of his local 本頭公廟
Overtime, Wu Jinxi acquired a reputation as a superb practitioner of fengshui and the occult, and assisted in subduing the local crocodiles who had been causing problems for the local people.
He faithfully served the community for sometime and later became widely renowned due to the success of his disciple 謝國民
謝國民, had initally started with a small animal feed business in Bangkok Chinatown and with Master Wu’s help, grew his business into what is now 正大集團, which as a conglomerate owns PingAn Insurance, telephone companies and most of the 711s in the country. Forbes magazine has several times included Xie Guomin in their lists of very rich people.
One of factors in Xie Guomin’s success was his use of Master Wu’s Heaven’s Officers Bestowing Blessings amulet 天官賜福符
The 天官 refers to the 三官大帝:
錦溪堂 Wat Makham วัดมะขาม (Wat San Chao)
Master Wu's shrine 錦溪堂 is located at Wat Makham วัดมะขาม (Wat San Chao) in Pathum Thani along on the eastern bank of the Chao Phraya River.
During our visit to the shrine, the attendants took people in in groups of about 10-20 at a time. (The way they did this is similar to how Buddha’s Light used to take people into the relic shrine) Once seated at the shrine, everyone is taught to recite the gatha and together we pay our respects to the Master, afterwhich everyone is offered a talisman.
Most of these stalls are carrying the talismans cloth printed in various sizes and then either framed or rolled up like a takrut (interestingly takrut ตะกรุด, when speaking is generally said like ‘takrut’ but when written is generally rendered as 符管)
Regarding these amulets that are available at the stalls, could we call them fakes?
I wouldn’t, I would call them copies. Because while they are not from the shrine itself and therefore lack the seal, they can still be brought into the shrine to go through the incense 過香爐.
It is safe to say that most of the 天官賜福符 talismans that are available from dealers in different countries or online are of this type, whether or not they have been taken though the incense, well...
Finally, I would like to share that I feel a certain affinity to Master Wu Jinxi because one of the characters in his name is shared by someone very important to me.
So with that, I dedicate any merit I may have created with this article to her.
While I am still pretty sure this is the first English language article about Master Wu, I later found that someone put English subtitles on a video posted in January 2024.
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1dV411D74F/?spm_id_from=333.337
For more information on Wu Jinxi can see the below links:
王英Amulets’s blog post about Master Wu:
https://wangying168wt.pixnet.net/blog/post/222152841
王英Amulets’s blog post about Master Wu amulets:
https://wangying168wt.pixnet.net/blog/post/220319034
Wiki page about Wujinxi https://th.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B9
English wiki page on Xie Guomin:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhanin_Chearavanont
This site has some photos and more info:
https://ppfocus.com/0/sp544813b.html
English wiki page on Xie Guomin:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhanin_Chearavanont
This site has some photos and more info:
https://ppfocus.com/0/sp544813b.html