ABSTRACT
The simplest domestic altar has just two permanent installations, an incense-burner and a pair of divination blocks. Most commonly an incense burner is a glazed earthenware or porcelain bowl filled with sand or chaff as a base and with incense ashes at the top. Incense is burned on sticks, held in the common gesture of formal greeting, hands folded over each other with the thumbs next to each other resting against the side of a forefinger. In worship, the incense sticks are inserted between thumbs and forefinger. Then the incense stick is stuck into the chaff and allowed to smoulder down, adding to the ashes in the pot.
