Pray

Pray

This was taken at my house in Indonesia. My brother was praying to the Heavenly God (Tian Gong) for a blessing for his coming marriage. This photo had been processed to make it black and white while leaving the three oversized joss stick in original colour. The background had also undergoes photoshop new filter, "Lens blur".




Chinese religious belief that predates Taoism and Confucianism, but was later eventually incorporated into both Taoism and Confucianism.

Ancient Chinese believed in a non-corporeal entity called Shangdi, an omnipotent, just, monotheistic supreme God. Over time Shangdi became synonymous with Tian, or Heaven. Worship of Heaven is highly ritualistic, and the emperor has to hold official sacrifices and worship at an altar of heaven, the most famous of which is the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. There are no idols allowed in Heaven worship.

Heaven worship is closedly linked with ancestor veneration, as ancestors are seen as the medium between Heaven and humans. Rulers of China, also known as Sons of Heaven, derived their Mandate of Heaven, and thus legitimacy, from their supposed ability to commune with Heaven on behalf of his nation.

Early Abrahamic missionaries saw similarities between Shangdi/Tian and the Abrahamic God, and therefore translated their God into "Shangdi" in Chinese. Some Chinese Christian scholars assert that the Christian God and Chinese Shangdi are in fact the same entity.

(courtesy wikipedia.com)