Skip to main content

What are the Incense and Paper Packets For Sale for?

Sometimes in Chinatown, you may come across shops selling incense bundles and paper packets. Ever wonder what those are? 

Wentworth Buddhist Supply on Jackson / Cross Ross Alley
courtesy author

This store is a "Buddhist Supply Store" (even though they serve Daoists as well), and they offer items needed to pay proper respect to our ancestors, as well as other traditional items for the practice of Buddism and Daoism. 

The incense stick bundles, often called joss sticks (a pretty archaic term), are usually made of sandalwood, and are known as 檀香 (tang-xiang). They are burned as offerings and to aid communication with the spirits. They are also sometimes used to simply scent the room, or around Chinese New Year, as a way to light small firecrackers. 

BONUS FACTOID: Honolulu's Chinese name is 檀香山, literally sandalwood mountain, because there used to be a lot of sandalwoods exported from Hawaii. 

The white packets are offerings to ancestors and are paper offerings of clothes and other belongings, basically daily items, to be burned in a burner to show proper respect to one's ancestors. 

This is a custom, not a religious observation. In fact, the Chinese have a special holiday for this, known as Qingming Festival, also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day, Chinese Memorial Day, or Ancestors' Day. At that time, families are supposed to visit the tomb of their ancestors, to clean it, pay respect, and make some ritual offerings, which can include food offerings (which will be divided among family members after the ritual), and/or burning of joss sticks, joss paper, and the white "care packets" as mentioned above. 

The store also sells small "shrines", that can be used to pay respect to the various minor deities around. Some businesses are known to put up a small shrine for Guangyu, for example. While others may put up a small shrine at ground level for Tudigong. You can also buy statues or figures of Buddha, Guanyin, or any of the other Buddhist deities, as well traditional Chinese deities such as the Eight Immortals, for your shrine or display. 

Other things they sell would include incense holders of various sizes and shapes, candleholders, display stands, shrines of various sizes and shapes, including display cabinets (may include power strip for lights), and much more.

 


Comments

About the author

Kasey is a professional tour guide and amateur historian who specialized in Chinatown History and Tours. You will often find him guiding groups sampling delicious food and learning interesting historical tidbits about Chinatown most weekends.

Popular posts from this blog

Look Tin Eli: The Revitalizer of Chinatown After 1906 Earthquake and Fire

Look Tin Eli is not a popular name unless you study Chinese-American history. Yet arguably, his greatest contribution was how he became the chief negotiator for the rebuilding of Chinatown after the 1906 Earthquake and fire, and can be considered the father of all modern Chinatowns.  Early Life Look Tin Eli (aka Look Tin Sing) was born in Mendocino, California, in 1870 to Luk Bing-Tai (known locally as Eli Tia Key) and Su Wong. Luk the elder originally worked as a cook for the local magnate upon arrival, but was able to raise enough money to open a general store in town. Luk the elder's bride is actually Native American, but raised by a Chinese American family. The couple had four children: 3 sons and 1 daughter including Look Tin Eli. The elder Luk decided that all of his sons needed a proper Chinese education, so he sent each of his sons back to China at the age of 9. Look Tin Eli left in 1879. The decision was likely based on the fact that back then Chinese Americans are not all

Origin of Chinese Laundry: How Chinese-Americans Turned Discrimination Into Opportunity

One of the oddities during the Gold Rush years of San Francisco was the extreme imbalance between males and females. It is believed the ratio was like 20 to 1. And remember, back in the 1800s, men do NOT do laundry... It was supposed to be women's work or domestic servant's work. Most men don't even know how to do laundry. Not to mention two buckets of fresh water would cost a quarter. This resulted in some very odd pricing, such as the cost of laundering a dozen shirts being $8-12 dollars, due to very few women available to do the laundry. A few men will try, but give up after a while after they either destroyed the shirts or lost all the buttons. The situation was bad enough, laundry was sent across the ocean to be laundered. A ship can carry back several hundred dozen pieces of laundry .  Hawaii, seeing an opportunity, started to offer $6 per dozen washes and a much faster turnaround.    Some folks in Chinatown recognized the profit potential, being close to the port and

So What Exactly Are the Tongs of Chinatown?

The Tongs of Chinatown started off as an attempt to do good, but ended up corrupted by greed and turned into a term of evil. But what are they really?  Tong 堂 literally means the main room or a hall. It could be termed an "association", and they still exist today in San Francisco Chinatown.  Hop Sing Tong, or 合勝縂堂 (lit: united victory main hall) photo courtesy of Wikipedia / Wikicommons The Tongs started as immigrant associations serving people with common former residency, common dialect, or common ancestry. The tongs will help people fresh off the boast to adapt to the new culture. If you can find a tong that is affiliated with your village or your clan or speak your dialect, you will be welcomed. You will be given a bed for the night, then help to find a job, and find proper housing.  The tongs also offered both physical and legal protection. By 1854, the Chinese have been ruled to have no right to participate in the court system . In People vs. Hall, a Chinese witness