Kaiguang

Kaiguang (Traditional Chinese: 開光; Simplified Chinese: 开光; Pinyin: Kāiguāng） is the Chinese term for consecration of a statue of a deity. In Chinese, the literal meaning of Kaiguang is "opening of light". While it is often performed in the Buddhist and Taoist faiths, it is also well known as the act of consecrating new lion costumes used for the traditional lion dance.
A kaiguang ritual varies amongst traditions, but it is essentially the act of formal consecration for proper usage by dotting the eyes of a statue or lion costume using an calligraphy brush coated with cinnabar. In Taoism and Buddhism, the ritual is performed by senior clerics and is done by inviting a specific deity, buddha or bodhisattva to empower an "empty" effigy of themselves and to fill it with a divine essence. 
It is believed that if a statue or lion costume not gone through kaiguang, it cannot be worshiped or used for performance, as the eyes are still "closed". 
==External links==
* Pictures of Buddha Statues
Category:Buddhist art and culture
Category:Buddhist practices
Category:Buddhist sculpture
Category:Buddhism in China