Spirit tablet
A spirit tablet, memorial tablet, or ancestral tablet, is a placard used to designate the seat of a deity or past ancestor as well as to enclose it. The name of the deity or past ancestor is usually inscribed onto the tablet. With origins in traditional Chinese culture, the spirit tablet is a common sight in many East Asian countries where any form of ancestor veneration is practiced. Spirit tablets are traditional ritual objects commonly seen in temples, shrines, and household altars throughout China and Taiwan. General usage. A spirit tablet is often used for deities or ancestors  (either generally or specifically: e.g. you might have one for your grandmother or one for your entire family tree). Shrines are generally found in and around households (for household gods and ancestors), in temples for specific deities, or in ancestral shrines for the clan's founders and specific ancestors. In each place, there are specific locations for individual spirit tablets for ancestors or one or another particular deity. A spirit tablet acts as an effigy of a specific deity or ancestor. When used, incense sticks or joss sticks are usually burned before the tablet in some kind of brazier or  incense holder. Sometimes fruit, tea, pastries, or other offertory items are placed near the tablet to offer food to that particular spirit or divinity. In Chinese folk religion a household will have one or more tablets for specific deities and family ancestors: 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.