Ancestor Worship—East Asia | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

Ancestor Worship—East Asia

Asia's widespread tradition of venerating ancestors has been shaped by indigenous folk beliefs and major religious traditions. Depending on the local culture, this worship or veneration may combine elements of filial piety, agricultural traditions and seasonal observances, lineage patterns, animistic concepts of the actions of spirits in the world of the living, an emphasis on obligations to superiors, and the idea that human beings become deities at death. Confucian ancestral rites and the fundamental concept of filial piety and the Buddhist tenet of transmigration of souls are common ancestral beliefs throughout Asia, but the relative importance of these.....

Ancestor Worship—East Asia article

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