An article by FROG member Ann Sydney about modern ritual activity on the Thames foreshore

1. FORESHORE GODS
© Ann Sydney
At various points along the Thames, from Isleworth in the west to Charlton, east of
Greenwich, we have been finding modern ritual artefacts (you can see images in the Thames
Discovery Programme Flickr collection here). They’ve been seen sometimes in pieces but
often whole. Though it’s not strictly archaeology, it’s an interesting development, since they
weren’t found in the 1970s - when I first started getting muddy. This is a summary of what I
know so far, collected from several people with academic backgrounds in religion, as well as
various websites and the Chinese woman on the train who presented me with a
complicated paper flower she had made while we talked. Such is the nature of research.
The artefacts are a mix of Hindu and Taoist/traditional Chinese. Plain earthenware bowls are
used by the Hindu community in London to disperse ashes on the river. We’ve found them
at Isleworth, Wapping, Putney and Charlton. They are plain, about 20 centimetres high and
have black scorch marks on them. Just as funeral rites are carried out in India, all rivers
become the Ganga for Hindus here. Sites where there is easy access, such as Putney, are
favoured. A sympathetic boatman at Greenwich takes families out into the river to perform
the ceremony.
The Hindu gods Shiva, Ganesha, Rama and Sita are represented in our finds. Shiva, the
destroyer of evil and Lord of the Dance is represented by a metal two-dimensional dancing
image about 35 centimetres tall. It may be associated with the Maha Shivrati festival which
occurs at a particular new moon in the Hindu calendar. The latest festival was in February
2012 and the next will be in March 2013.
A representation of the god Ganesha, who
has the head of an elephant, was found at
Fulham Palace in August 2011 (left), and
another was recorded at Alderman Stairs,
near St Katherine’s Dock in late July 2011.
Ganesha is worshipped as the Remover of
Obstacles, as the god of wisdom, prosperity
and good fortune and is traditionally
invoked at the beginning of any new
venture or at the start of travel. His festival,
Ganesh Chaturthi, like other Hindu festivals,
is determined by the lunar calendar. It falls
between mid-August and mid-September which would explain why our Fulham find was so
intact. The next time the festival will be celebrated is on September 9th 2012. At the end of
the festival he is immersed. The British Museum ran a project last year making murtis
(sacred images) then putting them in the Thames at Putney at the end of the festival. There
is another major Hindu festival which culminates in immersion. Navratri, which is 9 nights of
worshipping the Goddess and is usually around October, also encompasses a major Bengali
festival called Durga Puja. In both Navratri and Ganesh Chaturthi the sacred images of
Ganesh and the Goddess are traditionally made from mud so that they take form for the
festival and then return to mud as they are movingly immersed. Pottery images are unusual:

2. believers generally choose something biodegradable and all that is left are Ganesha’s beads,
but increasingly plastic versions are available. The largest festivals are in Mumbai – and
Shoeburyness.
The figures of a Hindu couple
found at Wapping in June 2011
(right) are thought to be Rama
(carrying a container of arrows)
and Sita. Where the male of the
couple is playing a flute, they are
Krishna and Radha. Rama and Sita
are usually connected to the Diwali
festival of lights in the autumn, but
it is not clear why someone would
put what looks like an impressive
bronze image of them into the
Thames. Hindu sacred images
undergo a ritual of ‘enlivening’
when God’s presence is invited
into the image, which makes it a
suitable focus for worship. If the
image is damaged, the ‘presence’
has to be ritually removed and the
image is traditionally ‘drowned’.
The shallow earthenware bowl found on the foreshore is a dipa, a ghee lamp, traditionally
lighted during Diwali to signify remembrance of the return of Rama after years of exile, and
the return of righteousness, justice and light, which he epitomises.
The feeling among those who know is that objects of the size we are finding are probably
personal offerings rather than part of community events.
The pink and white bowls seem to belong to the Chinese or Vietnamese communities. They
are not Buddhist but ‘traditional Chinese’/Taoist. One may be ‘The Laughing Buddha’ or
Budai, which means ‘Cloth Bag’ not to be confused with the Buddha we know. Budai with
his bag represents happiness, prosperity, luck, wealth and contentment to lots of Chinese
and Vietnamese families. There is quite a sizeable Vietnamese community in the borough of
Greenwich.
The statues of Chinese men we found at Charlton in July are two of three Fu Lu Shou figures,
again Chinese gods of luck. They are sometimes referred to as the Three Wise Men or Three
Noble Men. The old bearded man represents Shou –Longevity, who carries a walking staff
and a gourd containing the elixir of life. The more robust figure with the red hat is Lu, whose
sceptre indicates Affluence and Power. The full set includes Fu, who carries a baby boy and
a scroll, the sign of Happiness. We haven’t found him yet. The trio of figures are seen most
often around Chinese New Year in homes and shops, on a small altar with offerings of water
and an orange. It is unclear why they are in the river. One of my correspondents suggests

3. that they have been put in the river to ‘protect the city’ from almost anything- the economic
downturn/summer riots. Look out for them made of porcelain, metal or wood, or indeed
modelled from dough sealed under a glass cover. Those we found are pretty cheaply made.
You can buy a full set of the three figures on Ebay for £1.99, or see the same figures on the
floating Chinese restaurant at Canary Wharf rather more expensively.
The pink and white glazed pottery bowls are also possibly containers for ashes. At
Greenwich in July 2011 we found a small pink and white glazed pottery ‘altar’ with incense
sticks wrapped in gold and red paper still attached as if it had been in the river a very short
time.
In traditional Chinese religion there is a Hungry Ghost month, like a prolonged Halloween,
when ghosts are up and about. Believers do not swim because the water is full of harmful
spirits. It could be that these objects are to placate them. In 2011 Ghost Month lasted from
July 31st to August 28th, which ties in with the finding of the altar.
There is a debate about whether we should be picking up these religious images. A Hindu
might consider that the images of gods had been discarded as part of a ritual with the
psychological idea of taking the worshipper’s karma, and therefore shouldn’t be disturbed.
It has been suggested that collecting the accoutrements is acceptable, but we should leave
the sacred image behind. What do readers think about this?
Acknowledgements: this article is a digest of what various helpful people have told me.
Special thanks go to Carol Tibbs who as a Hindu has a wealth of knowledge, but also to
Roger Butler, Pauline D’Cruz, Terry Tibbs and Adrian Abbotts and all those who posted
photos of sacred objects on www.flickr.com.