A spirit tablet, memorial tablet, or ancestral tablet, is a placard used to designate the seat of a deity or past ancestor as well as to enclose it. The name of the deity or past ancestor is usually inscribed onto the tablet. With origins in traditional Chinese culture, the spirit tablet is a common sight in many East Asian countries where any form of ancestor veneration is practiced. Spirit tablets are traditional ritual objects commonly seen in temples, shrines, and household altars throughout China and Taiwan.
General usage
A spirit tablet is often used for deities or ancestors. Shrines are generally found in and around households, in temples for specific deities, or in Ancestral halls or for the clan's founders and specific ancestors. In each place, there are specific locations for individual spirit tablets for ancestors or one or another particular deity. A spirit tablet acts as an effigy of a specific deity or ancestor. When used, incense sticks or joss sticks are usually burned before the tablet in some kind of brazier or incense holder. Sometimes fruit, tea, pastries, or other offertory items are placed near the tablet to offer food to that particular spirit or divinity. In Chinese folk religion a household will have one or more tablets for specific deities and family ancestors:
One near the front door, and at or around eye level dedicated to the Jade Emperor. Generally, but not always, this tablet will be above the tablet dedicated to Tudigong. This tablet reads.
Some houses will have a tablet at or near the gate which reads, this tablet is dedicated to the Door Gods.
One which is dedicated to the Landlord god, Dizhu Shen. This tablet comes in several forms. The simple form which reads or a longer, more complex form which comprises two couplets commonly reading.
Two in the house, usually at least one in the living room. These tablets will usually be put in a cabinet, similar to a Japanese butsudan household shrine and they will be usually for a family's ancestors and some other deity which may or may not be represented by a spirit tablet.
In their most simple form the spirit tablets can simply be a piece of red paper with the words written vertically. More complex forms exist, these could be: full, small shrines made of tile, wood, metal or other material; statues and attendants with text; small posters with incense places and so on. A common form of the tablet for Tudigong meaning something close to "May my household welcome a great deal of auspiciousness, may my doors welcome hundreds of blessings". In Taoism, spirit tablets are often used for ancestors. Sometimes spirit tablets are found before or below statues of deities, which represent the enclosed spirit of the deity. In Buddhism, spirit tablets, known as “lotus seats” for the dead and “prosperity seats” for the living, are used in the same manner for ancestors, wandering spirits, demons, hungry ghosts, and the living. Temporary tablets in the form of paper are common around the time of Qingming and Ullambana dharma festivals, which are incinerated en masse at the culmination of these services. Japanese Buddhism, tablets are used in funeral rites and stored in the homebutsudan. Tablets are also common in Japanese temples. In Korean culture, spirit tablets are of great importance in ancestral rites called jesa, as they are the centerpieces of food offerings and represent the spiritual presence of the deceased.
