Offering Item Number: 3396/20 a-b from the MOA: University of British Columbia

Description

Joss paper offerings in the form of a shirt (part a) and pants (part b). The paper shirt has grey, off-white and orange florals on a wine-coloured background. The red with green and yellow streaks, grey dots and triangles paper open collar is adhered to the main shirt, and is outlined with shiny dark pink ribbon. The short paper pants have burgundy waffle-like spheres on an off-white background, with light blue-grey clouds, burgundy, and dark taupe dots and other shapes.

History Of Use

Joss papers (金纸, literally 'gold paper') are paper offerings and physical representations of money, and/or daily necessities, and are burnt in Chinese ancestral worship as ritual offerings to the dead. They are also used around Lunar New Year festivities. The Lunar New Year is not a public holiday in Thailand, but many ethnic Chinese, who make up about 15 percent of the population in Thailand celebrate it there. The offerings may have been made in Thailand, or imported from China.

Narrative

Collected by the donor in Bangkok in either 1989 or 1995.