Record

Box containing cigarettes and lighter, from set of funerary offerings

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Postcard of Box containing cigarettes and lighter, from set of funerary offerings.
000-100-104-906-C
© National Museums Scotland

Box containing cigarettes and lighter, from set of funerary offerings

This presentation box of cigarettes and lighter, bought from a funerary goods supplier in Singapore, is from a boxed set of paper and cardboard offerings for a man. The offerings represent a full set of symbolic possessions for the afterlife.

This cardboard box, covered in clear cellophane, contains a set of paper cigarettes and a lighter made of gold-coloured cardboard. The lighter has the prestige trade mark 'Dupant/Made in France', and the box is labelled 'CHOON PING T'.

These symbolic possessions are burned in a night-time Daoist funerary ceremony, several weeks after the deceased's cremation. It is a widespread contemporary tradition in south-east Asia. The cardboard items are burned to ensure a comfortable afterlife.


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Online ID: 000-100-104-906-C
Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
Project: 0098: National Museums Scotland
Project description | View all records in project
Ref: National Museums Scotland  K.1999.1167
Date: 1999
Material: Card; paper
Dimensions: 17 mm H x 179 mm L x 109 mm W
What: Cigarette / lighter / tray
Subject: Paper offering
Who:
Where: Singapore
Event:
Description: Set of ten card cigarettes and one gold lighter in a green and white tray, part of paper offerings for a man, which would be burnt at the graveside as an offering for ancestors: Singapore, 1999
References:
Translations:
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