Theravadin Home Altar

I have noticed there are four other religious images in the second and third tiers in your home altar. One image looks like a Chinese Laughing/Fat Buddha (?) in the second tier; one looks like an important Thai Buddhist monk (?) in the third tier. The other two images are not clear to me. Could you give some information about the essential religious images in your home altar? Thanks.

Some of these are essential only because my partner placed them on this altar.:wink: The small statues are the Chinese Buddha for good luck, a Tudong monk and a famous Chiang Mai bhikkhu my wife chose. The framed items are my wife’s lucky numbers within a kind of Hindu universe context. The sitting LP monk is Ajahn Mun (my choice here). The alms bowl is mine from when I was a temp Samanera in Fang Chiang Mai. My wife is Lisu and so I have the wonderful experience of a tapestry of spiritual experiences with her and her home village. I can say though it was wonderful today chanting at length in Pali for the house blessing.

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This is my home altar. In summer there were fresh flowers there, but now there are no wild flowers and I have no money to buy flowers from the shop, so I have to settle for artificial ones just for decoration.

By the way, I think that people who give recomendations like “You should have a whole room dedicated to altar” or “The Buddharupa should be the highest point in the room” really should check their privilege. (Or their former privilege, if they are monastics). Because many people in the world do not have a spare room for an altar! Many people in my country have only ONE room - not one bedroom, one room, period! Me and my husband live in a room of about 16 square meters - we sleep there, we rest there, we watch movies there, I work there, 'cos I work at home. We change our clothes there, eat there, etc.
And, yes, that’s where the altar is. There’s simply no other place.
And I think it’s okay. It’s okay to be poor, it’s okay to have only one room to live in, it’s okay to set an altar in this very room. Buddha won’t be offended by me undressing in the room where his image sits serenely. :laughing:

So I take all these recomendations with a grain of salt. A big one. A very salty one.

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Do you mean the hatted one who’s looking up? If so, this is the Burmese and Thai representation of Upagupta (พระอุปคุต), not a Chiang Mai bhikkhu.

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Listen to Sujato’s talk on Upagato: 2022-10-28 Dharma Seed - Bhante Sujato's Dharma Talks
or read here on Sutta Central.

Bhante, thanks and I’ll have to check with my ภรรยา on that…I may have misunderstood her (wouldn’t be the first time…) and naturally, I am sure you’re right about the figure depicted.

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