Master Huang's data

Master's Huang Luo pan and his Western Compass

Date of Interview:
Duration of Interview: 11am to 3pm
Location: At Master Huang's house in Choa Chu Kang
Age: in his 50s
Years of Experience in Feng Shui reading: 20 over years
Years of Experience in using Luo Pan: 10 over years
Skills learnt from: A Thai Monk from a Buddhist Temple located in Choa Chu Kang

20 years ago, Master Huang was then a young guy in this late 20s. It was fate that brought him to meet a Thai Monk. The Monk believed that Master Huang has the potential to master feng shui. In addition to Master Huang's strong interest in feng shui, the Monk imparted his knowledge to him.

Since then, Master Huang takes up studying of feng shui as his hobby. Although he is not a professional geomancer, he was still able to help his friends in evaluating their houses and offices due to his strong understanding of feng shui and his vast experiences. He has also travelled together with the Monk widely to Myanmar, China and India to improve his knowledge and to understand the stars.

As Master Huang is not a professional geomancer, his friends who have approached him to help evaluating their homes or offices often give him treats or gifts as a token of appreciation for his help. Two of the gifts he received are the 10 inch San Yuan luo pan and the Xuan Kong luo pan. According to Master Huang, he said that a true geomancer do not need the luo pan when evaluating, as he/she should remember the luo pan's functions thoroughly. Therefore, he often used a normal western compass to evaluate. However, our research tells us that a professional geomancer needs to use a luo pan to get accurate and detailed readings. Only an amateur uses the normal compass.

Master Huang also mentioned that there are cases where professional geomancers use a luo pan in their customers' presence, so as to create a professional and good impression. Generally, customers have this perception that one who uses a normal compass would not derive good readings of the places as compared to one who uses a luo pan. He also commented that most geomancers and books do not teach everything as they do not want to impart their knowledge to everyone. By not teaching the readers, we are still dependent on them, and will continue to approach professionals to evaluate. Thus, their rice bowls are still secured. Therefore, Master Huang warned us not to believe easily to what the geomancer says.

Theoretically, we found out through research that there are 3 types of luo pan. The two most commonly used are San Yuan and San He luo pans. However, there is a 3rd type which is known as the Zhung He luo pan. This luo pan adopts both the San Yuan and San He luo pans. According to Master Huang, he said that are actually 9 types of luo pan. Those 6 not mentioned are not commonly used.

To first use a luo pan, Master Huang emphasized that it is important that we put the luo pan on a flat surface, but not on the floor. We must also only use it at a certain day, date and time, also known as Shi Cheng.

Lastly, Master Huang ended by saying that the luo pans we see nowadays are very different from the ones used in the past. In the past, one should be able to rotate the layers. But the revised luo pans are fixed, all the layers are attached together. He said that there are a lot of inaccurate luo pans in the market now, and it is very important that one should check carefully before buying.

The afternoon spent at Master Huang's house was very fulfilling. Although we did not managed to master the art of reading the luo pan, we did learnt a lot including certain information that we will not be able to find from the references. Understanding the feng shui and luo pan is not a 'Learn it in 24 hours' kind of skill, it involves over years of practise and learning. As what Master Huang quoted to us, "There's too much to learn about Feng shui and Luo pan in one day."

We noticed that there are certain differences to what Master Huang has taught us and what we have learnt from the references. Here is a summary of the differences.

We concluded that the differences could be due to the possiblility that different geomancer masters have various views on interpreting the luo pans. Understanding Feng Shui and Luo Pan is a very complicated skill to master. For a same site, there may be different interpretations by 2 feng shui masters. This is because there are many different schools to learn from. This results in various methods of evaluating too. Therefore, different masters have their ways of understanding and interpreting.