Shrines & Altars

Small doors opening on a seated Buddha. Antique shrines and altars here come from Tibet, Nepal, India, Burma, Thailand, China, Japan and Bali. Tibetan and Nepalese traveling shrines in copper, bronze and silver were made to be carried, some enclosing a prayer wheel, one cast with the dancing skeletons of Citipati. Japanese butsudan, household Buddhist altars with folding doors, held images and memorial tablets for the family’s ancestors.

From India come brass traveling altars, a bronze anointing temple from Gujarat, a stacking Jain altar of rosewood and silver from Kutch and an 18th century shrine on paw feet from Maharashtra. Burmese home altars and Thai mini altars of wood and glass sit beside Chinese elm table altars, one carved with clouds and yin yang fish. From Bali come stone altars on tall pedestals, one of lava stone from Mount Agung. Place a small shrine on a dresser or a stone altar in a garden. Devotion travels light, mostly.