Box containing cigarettes and lighter, from set of funerary offerings

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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: National Museums Scotland
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  K.1999.1167
• Date: 1999
  
• Material: Card; paper
  Cigarette / lighter / tray
  
• 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:
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