In many world religions, home altars are spiritual tables on which sacred images, symbols or texts are placed and honored with offerings made for venerating deities and/or ancestors by family members that generally include light from candles or lamps, incense, flowers, food, and water. In Buddhism, home altars are physical spaces that support spiritual practice, encourage devotees to attain enlightenment and show gratitude to the Buddha for showing the way to enlightenment. Buddha and Buddhist deity statues and other spiritual symbols remind devotees of the qualities of Buddha’s wisdom and compassion and serve to inspire devotees to develop these qualities as they recall Buddha’s teachings.
Chinese Taoist and Popular Religion family home altars or shrines (Kam or Kung) honor ancestors, attract blessings and avert malevolent forces and influences. Ancestor worship is a family affair to communicate with and provide greetings and support to the deceased, engage in prayer, display filial piety and make offerings to ancestor statues and/or tablets. Taoist, Popular Religion and Buddhist deities maybe placed along with images of Taoist and Buddhist priests, deified local heroes and legends. Home altar statues are blessed in an eye-opening consecration ceremony performed by a Taoist or Buddhist priest or monk to imbue with them with chi and give them life. Offerings of candles, incense and foods are placed to attract blessings of fu which they augmented by placing furniture in certain locations and using propitious colors (red and gold attracts the most fu).
In Hinduism, the home altar is the most important part of a household where all family actions and decisions are made, special events are celebrated, and members gather to perform daily prayers (puja) to show reverence and devotion through prayer, supplication, songs, ceremonial worship and rituals. Hindu statues, images of deities who protect the family and engender good fortune, are placed there along with other ritual items of devotion.
Home altars are now viewed as spiritual, and often meditational spaces to celebrate one’s family. Along with spiritual icons or statues, they include photos of loved ones, well-loved mementos or trinkets, hand-written notes, or letters. Additional spiritual elements include candles, crystals, or incense.
Showing 25–36 of 77 results
Home altar provincial Queen Mother carving depicted her as approachable, humble and matronly. Iconic phoenix on headdress. Cavity with original sealed covering indicates it was consecrated.
Small table probably was in young couple’s bedroom as a wish for a prosperity, health, and many sons. Panels with Guanyin on a hǒu holding lotuses and rats with melons as fertility symbols. Perfect personal home altar or wedding gift.
Extremely ornate black lacquer cabinet with intricately carved doors, and gilded openwork panels with opening to red lacquer, gilt fringe interior with backdrop with Chinese scenes. Display of status and piety, designed as dignified display for honoring ancestral spirits.
Intricately carved black and heavily gilt cabinet is a fine example of a Straits Chinese furniture Carved openwork panels with phoenixes and lotuses are symbolic wishes for harmony, blessings, rank, good fortune; outstretched wings wish for harmonious marriage, many sons and the inside decoration a wish for status and successful career. Although somewhat flamboyant, it is a unique accent piece and great gift for newly weds.
This masterfully carved ancestor as a mandarin official sits on horseshoe chair set on a footed high decorated plinth dressed in a well-appointed formal 3-button Mandarin long coat and pointed rattan hat. His face is uniquely and unusually individualized with heavy lidded eyes, in a benevolent expression and his advanced aged indicated by the wrinkles clearly depicting a loved individual. This exquisitely carved image in excellent condition with a fine patina was true homage to a revered family member and is one of our finest ancestor figures.
Portrayed as an official, this ancestor figure sits on a horseshoe chair showing his status wearing compulsory officials attire: a 5-button Mandarin long coat with a round collar and official headwear – a woven hat whose shape and color reflected his rank. His personalized personalized oval-shaped is tranquil with a hint of a smile on his pursed lips, and a triangular pigtail down his back.
During the Qing Dynasty, reverence for Mandarin officials and their associated high status with it was so significant that families sought to perpetuate this image through the generations in carved and painted renderings of their ancestors. Ancestor-figures were the highest form of filial piety, and ancestor-worship was a cornerstone of Confucianism. Stuart (p. 82) states…
Mazu, protector of sea, is portrayed as the imperially sanctioned “Empress of Heaven” on an elaborate, horseshoe shaped dragon throne, holding a hu tablet, with elegant dragon robes, official’s girdle, Empress headdress and small feet on gilt fu lion foot rest.
Provincial Nanhai Guanyin palms at heart in anjali mudra, a mudra of offering rarely used for Nanhai Guanyin. On lotus throne at Tidal Cave on Putuo under a craggy rock outcrop with pierced openwork.
Rare provincial white hooded Nanhai Guanyin in Cave below openwork draped moss and barbed rocks holding precious scrolls, with vial and parrot. Open lotuses symbolize her purity and enlightenment, closed lotuses potential for enlightenment of others.
Elegant Guanyin in meditation, gilt covered with five-lobed crown. Sacred vial on her right and parrot on left. Guanyins statues with symbols in this condition are rare and impart a feeling of serenity to the environment around them.
Nanhai Guanyin in her Cave in lalitsana, below draped moss arch holding a scrolls, next to vial of humanity’s tears and parrot, her constant companion. Small Nanhai images with these symbols are very rare.
This ancestor statue emphasizes his status as an official. official’s pose holding us his belt of office, official’s hat and boots, worn only by those who could afford them. high on his forehead which also represents his officialdom, as the word “hat” (guan) is a homophone of the word “official.” The inscriptions on the back of the chair which are too faded to read indicate it was consecrated and probably were a dedication from the family who commissioned it to placed on the home altar.
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