will be usually for a family's ancestors and some other deity which may or may not be represented by a spirit tablet. In their most simple form the spirit tablets can simply be a piece of red paper with the words written vertically (in mainland China and in Hong Kong). More complex forms exist; these could be full, small shrines made of tile, wood, metal or other material; statues and attendants with text; small posters with incense places; and so on. A common form of the tablet for Tudigong (as seen in Guangdong, China), for example, consists of a baked tile which has the core text of the tablet , flanked by two additional couplets reading ) meaning something close to "May my household welcome a great deal of auspiciousness, may my doors welcome hundreds of blessings". In Taoism, spirit tablets are often used for ancestors. Sometimes spirit tablets are found before or below statues of deities, which represent the enclosed spirit of the deity. In Buddhism, spirit tablets, known as “lotus seats” () for the dead and “prosperity seats” () for the living, are used in the same manner for ancestors, wandering spirits, demons, hungry ghosts, and the living (for the perpetual or temporary blessing of the donor). Temporary tablets in the form of paper are common around the time of Qingming and Ullambana dharma festivals, which are incinerated en masse at the culmination of these services. In Japanese Buddhism, tablets are used in funeral rites and stored in the home butsudan. Tablets are also common in Japanese temples. In Korean culture, spirit tablets are of great importance in ancestral rites called jesa, as they are the centerpieces of food offerings and represent the spiritual presence of the deceased. In Vietnam, spirit tablets have declined in usage due to the adoption of the Latin alphabet, and have been largely replaced on ancestral or Buddhist altars by photographs of the deceased. Gallery See also Ancestor veneration in China Ancestor worship Ancestral shrine Chinese lineage associations and Kongsi Zhizha and Religious goods store Zhong Yuan Festival Ullambana Zupu and Chinese kin Chinese kinship References Practices in Chinese folk religion Filial piety Ancestral shrines Religion in Japan Religion in Korea Religious Confucianism Traditional rituals of East Asia