Home Altar

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 61–72 of 95 results

  • Antique Rare 5pc Piece Stoneware Altar Set, Shiwan, China (16901BLKE) $2950

    $2,950.00
    H: 15.25″  W: 24-28 ”  D: 5″    | CALL 213-568-3030 FOR SHIPPING COST

    This rare apple green glazed Shiwan stoneware altar set contains its original 5 pieces. A censor is at the center, it is flanked by a pair of candlestick holders and vases are at each end. Each elegant piece has coordinated glazes, decorative and structural designs and intricate and well-proportioned features with symbolic wishes for health, wealth, longevity, a virtuous life, a natural death and the fulfillment of all of one’s wishes.

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  • Antique Rare Carving of a Huntsman with Rifle, China (16743WHK) $315

    $315.00
    H: 9″  W: 3.625″  D: 3.5″ | FREE SHIPPING!

    This unusual ancestor-huntsman figure is like a similar example in the collection of described by the notable scholar Keith Stephens as “An Unusual and Extraordinary Ancestral Image” standing with legs spread firmly on a plain rounded triangular base holding an 19th century flint lock rifle while scouting for prey. Much of original paint has been lost or covered by darkened lacquer, but the flesh tone on the face and remnants of red and white paint remain.

  • Antique Repoussé Vishnu Votive Plaque, India (5174A-TAK) $250

    $250.00
    H: 7.5”  W: 5.75”  D: 2.5” | FREE SHIPPING

    This repoussé votive plaque portrays the Hindu deity Vishnu, the Protector of the Universe with a double aureole holding the conch shell he uses to make the om (aum) sound that embodies divine energy and is considered to be the sound of the universe which encompasses all sounds within it. He wears a crown representing his supreme power and earrings signifying  the dual nature of creation. The lotus next to him and the lotus leaves of his throne symbolize purity, truth, and the unfolding of creation.

  • Antique Seated Ancestor Official, China (16289BME) $650

    $650.00
    H: 7.25”  W: 4.625”  D: 3.5” | FREE SHIPPING

    This finely carved ancestor wears official’s attire and hat and sits in a horseshoe chair with his feet on a pedestal to emphasize his power and status, although he appears to be a lovwer level civilian official.  It is masterfully carved and lacquered and is painted on front and back in red  with traces of gilt – all propitious colors of “fu” as a wish for wealth, health, good fortune, long life and long life – that has faded over it years of use into a great patina.

  • Antique Seated Taoist Priest Holding Elixir of Immortality (16312BOK) China

    $675.00
    H: 9 ”  W: 5 ”   D:3.5  ”    | FREE SHIPPING!

    This finely carved, beautifully detailed statue of a Taoist Official was created using a combination of simplified geometric forms and colors to create a small but striking and significant piece. Holding the Elixir of Immortality, the statue symbolizes a wish for a long and happy afterlife. Mounted on a uniquely crafted frosted acrylic base, it complements any décor.

  • Antique Small Guanyin on a Radiating Lotus, China (16534MSK) $595

    $595.00
    H: 8.675″  Dia: 4.5″ | Free SHIPPING!

    This delicate small carving of seated White-Robed-Guanyin in meditation is carved in the round with fine details on all sides. Her face with downcast eyes is calm and serene, and she sits on a two-tiered radiating lotus-throne with her elegantly carved hooded robe flowing to the top of the base in lyrically curving patterns. Small, important and beautiful, this image was placed on a home altar with other Buddhist statues and house gods. It is mounted on a frosted acrylic base.

  • Antique Songzi Guanyin, Bestower of Children, China (16311XOKE) $2250

    $2,250.00
    H: 14.5”  W: 8.25”  D: 5” | FOR SHIPPING INFORMATION CONTACT US AT 213-568-3030

    This beautiful Guanyin is carved in the rural provincial tradition: a modest, compassionate and humble deity with a simple “crown” of lotus leaves holding and unadorned robe with flowing sleeves extended to her plain pedestal lined with simple leaves. Her face is extremely empathetic with a slight smile as she tenderly grasping her child who resembles the infant Buddha. Given its size and elegance it was probably on a home altar of a well to do couple desirous of having a (male) baby.

     

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  • Antique Stone Fu Lion, China (16394JLM) $195

    $195.00
    H: 4.5″  Dia: 3.25″ | FREE SHIPPING

    This hand carved antique stone flu lion is a fun loving benevolent creature as seen in his open mouth with sharp teeth in a fanciful grin with a curled tongue, mischievously twinkling eyes under bushy eyebrows and a compressed rotund body with a very small tail. This is not your refined portrait of an elegant protective beast, it’s just a friendly pet hanging out with you. He probably lived in the garden of a provincial fun-loving family and is looking for a similar environment where people like old wonderful pieces to remind them not to take themselves too seriously.

  • Antique Stoneware Fruit Offering, Shiwan, China (19330-BLE) $375

    $375.00
    H: 8.75″  DIA: 6.75 ” | FREE SHIPPING!

    This colorful antique Shiwan stoneware food offering would have been placed on a Chinese home or temple altar to augment or in place  of a plate of stacked fresh fruit. These offerings are still made honor the family’s ancestors, communicate with deities and bring prosperity, good luck and health to the home.

  • Antique Stoneware Offering Bowl with Peaches and Lotuses, Shiwan, China (19330A-BLE) $450

    $450.00
    H: 5.5″    Dia: 6 ”    | FREE SHIPPING!

    Shiwan stoneware fruit offerings were especially popular during the Ming and Qing dyansties when the were placed on temple or home altars to communicate and venerate ancestors t augment fresh offerings and bring auspicious blessings of fu to families presenting them. The three peaches interwoven with lotuses are associated with springtime, fertility, and especially a long healthy life for many generations.  They are considered propitious gifts for birthdays, especially for the elderly.

  • Antique Taoist Official Holding a Hu Tablet, China (19043QRK) $295

    $295.00
    H: 12.875”  W: 5”  D: 2.75” | FREE SHIPPING!

    This carving  is a Taoist official or priest wearing a traditional high hat, a high collared robe adorned with painted cobalt blue cloud designs, and an official’s belt. Seated on a modest low backless chair, he holds a long, slender and curved Hu tablet and the open cavity on the back contains its concentration slip placed there during an eye-opening ceremony. .

     

  • Antique Taoist Official or Priest with Hu Tablet, China (16095DRK) $245

    $240.00
    H: 10.5”  W: 6”  D: 4” | FREE SHIPPING!

    This image is a seated Taoist priest or official placed along with ancestor figures and other religious images on a home altar. Wearing long-flowing official’s robes with deep-folds, he ceremonially holds a hu tablet with raised arms and hands under a ritual cloth. Images were frequently damaged or darkened by incense and candle smoke from regular ritualistic offerings and were often repainted or re-lacquered as this was, probably done in the early 20th-century.

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