How to draw a fortune lot
Also called kau chim, chien tung, or asking for a stick
Drawing lots is one of the oldest ways people bring a question to a temple. The procedure is simple, and nobody will mind if you are new to it.
What it is
A lot tube holds a hundred flat bamboo sticks, each numbered. You shake the tube until one stick works its way out, then read the poem that goes with that number. In Guanyin temples the set is usually the hundred-lot Guanyin oracle; in temples to other deities the poems differ, but the procedure is the same.
The poem is not an instruction. It is a short classical verse, often an image or an old story, and the work is in sitting with how it lands against the question you brought.
The steps
- Wash your hands if there is a basin. Offer incense first if the temple has a censer in use.
- Stand or kneel before the altar. Say silently who you are — some people give their name, birth date and where they live — and state the one thing you are asking about.
- In many temples you first throw the moon blocks once to ask whether you may draw a lot at all. If the answer is no, that is taken as a sign to simply sit for a while instead.
- Hold the tube at a slight angle and shake it steadily until one stick rises above the others and falls out. If several fall, put them all back and start again.
- Note the number on the stick. Throw the moon blocks to ask whether this is really your lot. One sacred answer confirms it; a laughing or negative answer means you put the stick back and shake again.
- Take the matching paper slip from the drawer of pigeonholes, usually along one wall.
- Read it. Many temples have someone who will talk it through with you, often for free or for a small donation.
The customs around asking
Ask about one thing at a time. A lot answers a question, not a life.
Do not ask the same question again hoping for a better poem. If a lot is unwelcome, the usual advice is to sit with it rather than to re-roll it — and a cautionary lot is read as a warning to slow down, not as a sentence.
Do not draw a lot to test whether the practice works. It is understood as asking in good faith, and an idle question is considered to deserve no answer.
There is no requirement to be Buddhist, or to believe anything in particular. Temples are used to visitors.
Drawing a lot online
An online lot tube cannot reproduce a temple, and it does not try to. What it can keep is the shape of the practice: settle the question first, shake until one lot comes, confirm it, then read slowly and stop at one.
In this temple you shake the tube by holding a button or shaking the phone, confirm with the moon blocks, and the site holds you to one lot a day for the same question.
Common questions
- Can I ask about more than one thing?
- Ask about one thing per lot. If you have two questions, most people draw one lot, sit with it, and come back for the other another day.
- What if two sticks fall out at once?
- Put them both back and shake again. Only a single stick counts.
- What if I keep getting a laughing or negative answer when I confirm?
- Shake again for a new stick. If it happens several times in a row, the usual reading is that the question itself is unclear or badly framed, and it is worth rephrasing what you are actually asking.
- Do I have to be Buddhist to draw a lot?
- No. Temples are public places and visitors of any background are welcome. Nobody will ask what you believe.
- I drew a bad lot. Does something bad have to happen?
- No. A cautionary lot is traditionally read as advice to wait, to check your footing, or to reconsider a plan — it describes a situation, not a verdict. If one unsettles you, the ordinary response is to sit a while, and to talk it over with someone at the temple.