Making offerings to deceased family members to show devotion and honor them or to revere gods, sprits or holy beings is part of most Asian religious traditions. In Theravada Buddhism, Burmese families bring food offerings to temples and monasteries in vessels called hsun oks to feed monks, make merit and enhance their karma and in Thailand flowers, incense and candles are common offerings made to Buddhist monks, Buddha images and people of higher rank to show respect.
In Mahayana Buddhism and Taoism, offerings are a way to communicate with and venerate gods and ancestors in temples or home altars, bring reciprocal blessings to the bearers and strengthen family ties. This may include offerings of fruit, vegetables, sweets, tea and flowers. Offerings may be represented in many ways: physically or symbolically on home and temple altars; as a single or pair of attendant statues holding offerings or as auspicious and symbolic images or decorative motifs placed on furniture, architecture, carved images, vessels, textiles or woodblock prints. For instance, a 3-item offering of dumplings on a plate is a pictorial pun for gold or silver coins symbolizing wealth and, also, a wish to pass the 3 civil levels of examinations guaranteeing a comfortable life as a civilian official. Offerings are made to the Kitchen God during the New Year to usher in health and prosperity. Traditionally, women made the offerings and men presented them on home altars or shrines to fulfill their family’s wishes.
Prasada is the word for food and water offered to deities during a daily puja ceremony in Hinduism. Five types of offerings – pushpa (flowers), dhupa (incense), deepa (light), naivedya (food) and gandha (sandalwood paste) – are made to symbolize the five elements – space, air, fire, water and earth. Offerings of fruit and flowers are also made at Hindu temples.
In Bali, trained dancers are considered messengers and direct communicators with the gods and make offerings before their performances for blessings and for acceptance of their offerings. Both the mask and dance are considered as having great power and are considered a symbolic spiritual offering to the gods.
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Artfully shaped lacquered Hsun Ok for offerings to monks lid with a finial symbolizing a Buddhist stupa and applied mythical animals and floral decorations. Early 20th century pieces with these special details are harder to find and copies abound.
This Dalem is a traditional folk-art and ethnic mask (topeng) from Bali made from pulai wood of a Hindu king (Dalem). He stares directly at the viewer while his high cheeks help express his poise and the ability to remain cool in a crisis. This is a fine example of a gifted carver able to…
H: W: D: Ht: 14.75″ W:12.125″ | FREE SHIPPING WITHIN CONTINENTAL U.S.
Rare vintage carving dedicated to Dewi Sri, Balinese Goddess of Rice. was probably made for a home shrine or small rice field temple . Hole near the bottom indicates it may have been part of a larger decorative scheme.
Rare and very fine vintage woodcarving of Dewi Sri Balinese Hindu goddess of rice and prosperity in excellent condition considering it is a much used piece. Depicted as a young, attractive and fertile woman with highly decorative headdress. Can be mounted on a wall.
The religion of the ethnic Dayak (Dyak) people of Kalimantan (Borneo), Indonesia is a mix of animism, shamanism and ancestor worship. Their word hudoq describes three different things: it describes the pests that can destroy the rice harvest on which their survival depends; the name of the huge yearly Dyak planting celebration and the name…
Vintage miniature lacquer and bamboo hsun ok used on a home altar for offerings to the Buddha statue there with circular tiers repeated on the foot and the stupa finial top.
Deeply set cut-out eyes and mouths are traditional for West Timor ancestor masks as are few, none or menacing teeth. They are rare and often have hair on animal hides on the upper lip, brows and head. Often looking threatening with stark features, their black color, teeth and often lack of balance scare off malevolent and evil spirits. Storing them in the rafters above the house hearth accounts for their smokey black color. Timor Ancestor masks have an earthy expressive presence and a raw spirit.
Timor’s religion has been described by Barbier as ritual exchanges between persons and social groups with their ancestors and fertility spirits. Timorese believe they can be upset by wicked forces, sickness, infertility and other forces, but particularly by the failure of the living to make suitable sacrifices to ancestral spirits. The departed protect and bring prosperity to the living as long as they are honored properly, so there is a close reciprocal link between the deceased and the secular world. Ancestors mediate between the living and the unseen world for living relatives. Their masks are used in animist veneration rituals, protective ceremonies and ritual dances or ceremonies tied to fertility, harvest, or funerary rites Besides masks, the living s are obliged to carve ancestor effigies to honor departed souls for them to occupy and rest in during their village visits. Many ceremonies usually occur in a house room known as “the womb” where a pillar supports beams rising up to the roof struts. This functions symbolically as an axis mundi (the center of the world or cosmic axis) that connects heaven and supports a simple altar above the floor to hold religious artifacts, protective fetishes and charms to ward off evil. So masks, effigies and fetish objects are protective and magic objects used throughout Indonesian islands in. Timor masks were rarely seen in the west until the mid-1970s.
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