Singapore Woodpecker (subspeciae examinensis)
It’s examination time at the university, and the students are extremely quiet. But today on our morning walk around the campus, we were passing a dormitory when we heard a peculiar, rhythmic knocking sound. Clearly it was not a machine – could it be a really big woodpecker? Well, sort of.
As we went by the dorm’s recreation room, which was lit from within, we saw a single student, sitting cross-legged on the couch, with a wooden fish* on the coffee table in front of him. He was banging away on it (noknoknoknoknoknok), with his eyes closed, apparently humming some prayers to himself. So much for studying – time for divine intervention!
When you go by a Buddhist temple (or Taoist – there’s so much overlap I often can’t tell the difference) you’ll often see people pounding the fish – only really big, ornate ones that fill the neighborhood with a knocking sound. This student imported the practice to the dorm. And this explains why the temples in Bugis are so very busy at this time – all the families are praying like mad for good exam results.
*I’m not sure why these drums are called wooden fish, except that the ones in temples usually have fish designs carved into them. Probably some connection to the association of fish (yu) with abundance. Anyway, if you bang on them, in the temple or out, you’re performing an activity called “pounding the fish” – shorthand for “asking the gods for something you really want.”