Houten standaard voor op het altaar

This little piece of wooden altar furniture is used for the display of offerings. It is painted in red and gold, and made out of one piece of wood with rather simple carvings of floral motifs on its front side, which indicates that it is locally made in Indonesia. This offering stand is called a meja cian ap or also cenap for short. Meja is Indonesian for ‘table’, and cian ap is derived from Hokkien. It is placed on the altar during festive occasions such as the ninth day of the Chinese New Year or at a wedding ceremony, and decorated as part of the offerings. There are specific rules on how to prepare and arrange the decorations which consist of bamboo skewers strung with candied fruit, that are fixed in the little holes on top of the meja cian ap. Among these fruits are young papaya which symbolizes abundance and fertility, since it has many seeds, the fruit of the sugar palm (kolang-kaling), and red berries. Little beaded dolls can also be added to the decorations.

Indonesia; first half 20th century; wood, lacquer, pigments