Tongji (spirit medium)

'youth diviner'; Tâi-lô: tâng-ki) or Jitong (Chinese: 乩童; pinyin: jītóng; Wade–Giles: chi-t'ung; lit.

'divining youth') is a Chinese folk religious practitioner, usually translated as a "spirit medium", "oracle", or "shaman".

Tong (Vietnamese: ʔdoŋ; Mon: doŋ) has an Austroasiatic substrate which means 'to dance under daemonic possession' is represented phonologically by the character 童 "child; youth; boy servant" and ji 乩 means "to divine" (cf.

Regional variants include Hokkien tâng-ki 童乩 and Cantonese gei-tung 乩童 or san-daa 神打.

A tongji or jitong is a person believed to have been chosen by a particular shen (chinese deity) or spirit as the earthly vehicle for divine expression.