Offering

MOA: University of British Columbia

3396/21

Joss paper hat-style offering. The folded red paper offering is open along the bottom edge, then folded and adhered shut on the top edge. There is a light pink with green imitation foil floral decoration, partially outlined with an orange ribbon at bottom centre. At top centre there is a copper-coloured imitation foil three-point decoration.

  • Narrative

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

  • 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.


  • Type of Item offering
  • Culture Thai
  • Material paper, metal, adhesive
  • Measurements height 10.1 cm, width 25.3 cm (overall)

  • Previous Owner Dorothy Field
  • Received from Dorothy Field

  • Made in Bangkok

  • Creation Date during 1990
  • Ownership Date before October 10, 2019
  • Acquisition Date on October 10, 2019

  • Item Classes works on paper
  • Condition fair
  • Accession Number 3396/0021