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Communications with the dead are part of Asian traditions. Incense and ceremonial burning are means to contact the spirit world.

Chinese burn paper money for ancestors; the Japanese release lit lanterns onto rivers in the joyful Obon Festival to guide lost spirits to the other world; ancient Koreans buried letters to their departed's tombs.

In this ceremonial raku firing, I will burn the shreddings from letters and cast paper Spirit Houses to glaze ceramic Spirit Houses.

The words will be smoked into the clay and also released to the skies by the firing.

Raku is a special firing technique used in ceramics.

Click on the YouTube video above to learn about this exciting technique.

Video short ©2004 Linda Greene

Narrated by Jennie Chien, with John Badik

Burning

Ceremony