Paper Offering

Item number 1521/13 from the MOA: University of British Columbia.

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Description

Yellow tiger made from two pieces of paper that have black ink printed upon them. The piece for the head is stapled to the piece for the main body, which is simply folded in half to create a ridge for the tiger's back.

Iconographic Meaning

In the same way that the White Tiger deity is tamed to serve the opera troupe, villain-hitting rituals put the White Tiger in service of the ordinary person. The White Tiger is also part of “villain-hitting ritual” da siuyan (beating down the petty people) on the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, which gives the opportunity to worship the White Tiger and request his help in dispelling the so-called petty villains in one’s life, be they people, things, or situations. Part of this ritual involves a female shenpo (villain hitter), writing the name of the offending person or presence on a piece of paper. After some physical alterations to it, it is placed inside a paper tiger to feed it to the White Tiger deity. Sometimes the tigers are offered raw pork/fish; then they are burnt.