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The Cultural Context for a Tibetan Altar
 A domestic altar in ritual use.
Most Tibetan-Buddhist households have a portion of the house set aside for religious activity.
In wealthier homes, one or more rooms may be dedicated as altar-rooms. Traditionally, devout families worship daily at this altar, offering incense, beverages, and foods to the deities they house. For special occasions (such as weddings, religious holidays, or specific ceremonies to bring luck to the family or to cure family members’ illnesses), religious practitioners are invited to a family’s altar room to read prayers and perform rituals. In the past most Tibetan families had relatives who became monks or nuns, thus religious practitioners called for these services were often related to their patrons.
Idols and Icons
Statues, ritual implements, prints, and books are usually placed in the central niches of Tibetan-Buddhist altars. Each item is imbued with specific meanings. For example, necessary components of a consecrated altar include symbols of the Three Gems and Five Senses.
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| Significance of the Three Gems |
| Object |
Symbolism |
|
Body |
Teacher |
Buddha |
 |
Speech |
Teachings |
Dharma
(Buddist Teachings) |
|
Mind |
Students |
Sangha
(Buddist Community) |
Symbols of the five senses are often found in Tibetan-Buddhist paintings of deities. How these senses are represented within the painting depends on the character of the deities depicted in the painting.
The five senses are usually represented on an altar by the following objects, which are inserted into the niches of the altar: butter lamps (sight), incense holders and flowers (smell), cymbal and bell (sound), ceramic lemon fruit (taste), khatak offering scarf (touch).
| Peaceful and Wrathful Symbols of the Five Senses |
Peaceful Symbol |
Sense |
Wrathful Symbol |
Mirror |
Sight |
 Eyeballs |
Incense |
Smell |
 Nose |
 Cymbals |
Sound |
 Ears |
 Peaches |
Taste |
 Tongue |
 Cloth |
Touch |
 Cloth |
Usually several images (both paintings and sculptures) of a variety of deities are included with Tibetan altars. What specific deities are chosen for an altar depends on sectarian affiliations and personal preferences of the devotees who will use the altar. For example, followers of the Nyingma religious order of Tibetan Buddhism most often have statues of the famous exorcist
Padmasambhava, while followers of the Gelugpa religious order frequently include a statue of Tsongkhapa, the founder of the order. One of the most popular deities regardless of sectarian affiliation is Tara, Goddess of Compassion, who is worshipped as a benevolent intercessor.
Physical and Symbolic Offerings
Offerings are placed on or next to Tibetan altars. Water, milk, alcohol, grains, incense, and butter lamps are essential to worshiping the deities believed to live within consecrated images.
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 Ritual offerings of water, grains, incense, lamps, and torma dough cakes.
Daily rituals include changing the water offerings as well as lighting fresh incense and new butter lamps. Offering scarves, called khatak in Tibetan, may be hung on an altar or wrapped around some of the altar’s statues or books.
Often, these scarves are blessed by a Lama. The blessed scarves are then placed on an altar to transfer the power of the Lama’s blessing to the altar.
These types of ritual offerings create physical residue (such as coatings, soot, and fibers) that leaves clues as to how the Museum's altar was originally assembled and used.
Altars, like the Museum's, usually display a range of symbolic offerings in the form of wood-block prints, ritual dough cakes, or the items themselves. For example, on the interior of the panel decorated with cranes are two fragments of a print depicting Amitabha (Bodhisattva of Infinite Light) and a parasol. The parasol is one of eight auspicious symbols that frequently decorate altars. Prints like this one are used to bring luck to the worshipers.
Consecration
Tibetan-Buddhist ritual use of many religious artworks often necessitates that these artworks be consecrated. Ritual specialists are required to consecrate an object for worship. The methods of consecration vary depending on the object consecrated.
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For example, statues and stupas may be filled with empowered objects, such as paper prayers, incense, and votive plaques.
 Amitayus, Bodhisattva of Limitless Life, c. 19th century Inner Mongolia, Chahar Province, Dolonnor Silver with red color and semiprecious stones Height: 11 3/4 inches (29.8 cm) Gift of Natacha Rambova, 1962 1962-178-8 [ More Details ] 
Statues, like this image of Amitayus, Bodhisattva of Limitless Life (left), are often sealed at the bottom with the symbol of the vishva-vajra (above).
Paintings (lacking a hollow cavity) may be consecrated with inscriptions. The most frequent inscription found on Tibetan paintings are the sacred syllables om ah hum that symbolize the body, speech, and mind of the deity. These syllables are marked at the heart, throat, and head of a figure.
The back (above) of this elaborate
painting (above-right) displays
numerous repetitions of the
syllables om ah hum behind most
of the small figures in the painting.
 Yamantaka Mandala, Late 15th century Central Tibetan Colors on cloth 25 1/4 x 21 inches (64.1 x 53.3 cm) Purchased with the Stella Kramrisch Fund, 2005 2005-74-1a [ More Details ]
Some figural representations are consecrated through an “eye-opening” ceremony in which the eyes of the statue or painting are colored last as part of ritual consecration. The act of consecration not only blesses the object, but is also intended to make the blessed work a nexus of spiritual power. Devotional adornment, perfuming, lustration, and touching the object further enhances its spiritual potency. Without consecration, the artworks are only reminders of Buddhist elements, rather than empowered active objects. The physical remnants of certain types of oils and soot (from incense, various liquids, and light offerings) signify the Museum's altar was once consecrated, at least through use.
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