Archives for posts with tag: offering

Offering Plate

03/06/2014 //
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plateplateDIA100xH140mm, China

This is an offering plate for the gods at the temple or even at the shrine at home.

The offerings are broadly divided into 5 groups; tea and wine, incense, fruits and cakes, the 5 grains, animals.  These offering has to be aesthetically beautiful, making a melodic sound and of course tasty.

However, it seems Master Chin Kung’s teaching makes more sense.

Instead of tea and wine, water should be offered, our mind should be as pure and peaceful as water.
We should understand the meaning of what it is we are offering.

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Categories container, pottery

Bronze Bowl

12/17/2013 //
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bronze bowlDIA270xH150mm, China

Perfect for beating egg white, melting of chocolate or just as a fruit bowl.

In the old days this bronze bowl would have been uses to provide offering in a Chinese temple.
See our other offering containers; offering bowl, eight trigram bowl, bronze plate, lacquer dish.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

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Categories container, metal

Wizard Costume

07/30/2013 //
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costume

W700xH1400mm, China

This costume belonged to the wizard of the minority Dong tribe.  In the villages of Guang Xi area, each village will have their own wizard, whom like Harry Potter are passed down from generations of wizards.  The wizard would make offering to the gods as well as casting away the evil ghosts.  Life in the villages are harsh, whenever sickness or other misfortune fell on a family, they would asked the wizard to see if the place needed cleansing.

costume OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

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Categories costume, fabric, tribal

Bowl – Eight Trigrams

07/05/2013 //
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bowlbowlDIA120xH50mm, China

This pottery bowl was used as a container for Taoist offering.   The horizontal line pattern on the bowl are trigram figures from the I Ching, on each face of the octagon bowl are the pattern; 乾 Qian, 兑 Dui, 离 Li, 震 Zhen, 巽 Xun, 坎 Kan, 艮 Gen, 坤 Kun.  These 8 trigrams correspond to 8 nature phenomenon, namely, Sky, Lake, Fire, Thunder, Wind, Water, Mountain, Earth.  From the 8 trigrams found by Fu Hsi, 64 hexagrams was developed capturing more natural phenomenon and human events,it was later used for prediction of events.  From the Yuan dynasty, trigrams pattern were introduced to ceramic decoration and flourished in the Ming dynasty.

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Categories container, pottery

Kitchen God

02/04/2013 //
2

kitchen god

W280xH400mm, China

Today, lunar 24th December, is the day for thanking the Kitchen God.

On this day, the Kitchen God is about to depart to do his yearly report to the Jade Emperor; a summary of the good and bad deeds of the family his has been with.  This is the day the family should thank him for his presence and to sweeten him up a bit so he will speak well of them.

The offering should include:
A Bowl of Rice + A Bowl of Water
– to show the relationship between the Kitchen God and the family is clean and innocent, if the Kitchen God is lenient, the 2 items would turn black when he return to heaven.
Sugar Canes with Nodes and End Leaves
– with the nodes the Kitchen God can use it as a ladder to climb up to heaven, the end leaves symbolizes a beginning and an ending.
Fried Rice Biscuits, Satsumas, Tangerines, Red Sugar and A Red Packet
– food to sweeten his mouth so good words would be used for his report.
A Paper Horse, Black Robe, Boots
– provision of transport and costume for his meeting with the Jade Emperor.
A Kitchen God Cheat Sheet
– a yellow piece of paper with words chosen by the family.

These offerings should be place in the rice storage container.
With so much bribe, I wonder if the rice and water should be there at all …

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Categories painting / prints, paper

Bamboo Box

03/11/2012 //
0

DIA400xH150mm, China

This is a bamboo weave box normally used for storing small items and for keeping offerings.  The lacquer coating on the interior makes the box more air tight.  The lacquer on the gives the opportunity for gold line decorative painting to be drawn on top if any.

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Categories bamboo, container, lacquer
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