CEREMONIAL OBJECT

any object used in a ritual or a religious ceremony. Throughout the history of religions and cultures, objects used in cults, rituals, and sacred ceremonies have almost always been of both utilitarian and symbolic natures. Ceremonial and ritualistic objects have been utilized as a means for establishing or maintaining communication between the sacred (the transcendent, or supernatural, realm) and the profane (the realm of time, space, and cause and effect). On occasion, such objects have been used to compel the sacred (or divine) realm to act or react in a way that is favourable to the participants of the ceremonies or to the persons or activities with which such rituals are concerned, or to prevent the transcendent realm from harming or endangering them. These objects thus can be mediatory devices to contact the divine world, as, for example, the drums of shamans (religious personages with healing and psychic-transformation powers). Conversely, they can be mediatory devices used by a god or other supernatural being to relate to man in the profane realm. They may also be used to ensure that a chief or sovereign of a tribe or nation achieves, and is recognized to have, the status of divinity in cultic or community ceremonies. Of such a nature may be phallic cult statues bearing the name of a king associated with that of the Hindu god Siva, in areas under Indian influence (such as in ancient Vietnam, Cambodia, and Indonesia, where the lingam was worshipped under a double name: Indresvara [Indra, king of the gods, plus Isvara, Lord, a name of Siva]), or the Buddhist body of glory statues in Cambodia dating from the end of the 7th century. The religious dance masks of many societies, including those used in ancient Tibet and in Buddhist sects of Japan, may, to some extent, also belong to this class. Additional reading James Hastings (ed.), Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, 13 vol. (190826, reprinted 1955), although outdated, is a very complete general source. See also the Histoire gnrale des religions, 2nd ed., 2 vol. (1960); Symbolisme cosmique et monuments religieux, 2 vol. (1953), texts and illustrations from an exhibit at the Muse Guimet, Paris; and Le Symbolisme cosmique des monuments religieux (1957), the proceedings of an international conference of the Istituto per il Medio ed Estremo-Oriente, Rome. For the ancient period, see Charles V. Daremberg and Edmond Saglio (eds.), Dictionnaire des antiquits grecques et romaines . . . , 5 vol. (18771919); Pierre Lavedan, Dictionnaire illustr de la mythologie et des antiquits grecques et romaines (1931); and Mircea Eliade, Le Mythe de l'ternel retour (1949; Eng. trans., The Myth of the Eternal Return, 1954, reissued 1989).Jeannine Auboyer, Introduction l'tude de l'art de l'Inde (1965), is a basic work on the Holy Place; for the principal components, see James Fergusson, Tree and Serpent Worship, 2nd ed. (1873), which uses Indian facts as a base but makes many comparisons with data from antiquity. This work is complemented by Odette Viennot, Le Culte de l'arbre dans l'Inde ancienne (1954). Jeannine Auboyer, Le Trne et son symbolisme dans l'Inde ancienne (1949), makes many references to the role and the morphology of the throne (royal and divine) in ancient and modern civilizations. D.R. Shastri, Origin and Development of the Rituals of Ancestor Worship in India (1963), is helpful. Jean Przyluski, Le Symbolisme du pilier de Sarnath, in Mlanges d'Orientalisme, vol. 2 (1932), deals with the gnomon and the cosmic pivot. See also Leopold M. Cadiere, Croyances et pratiques religieuses des Annamites dans les environs de Hue, 2 vol. (191819).For architectural symbolism, George Coedes, Pour mieux comprendre Angkor, rev. 2nd ed. (1947; Eng. trans., Angkor: An Introduction, 1963), contains pertinent information in the chapters on temples and tombs and on architectural symbolism. Rolf A. Stein, Architecture et pense religieuse en Extrme-Orient, Arts Asiatiques, 4:163186 (1957), deals with tents used in Central Asia, especially Siberia, and Rupestral temples.Icons and ritual symbols are discussed in J.N. Banerjea, The Development of Hindu Iconography, 2nd ed. (1956), particularly ch. 2, The Antiquity of Image-Worship in India, ch. 5, Deities and Their Emblems on Early Indian Seals, and ch. 8, Canons of Iconometry; George Coedes (op. cit.), ch. 3; and Pierre Francastel (ed.), Emblmes, totems, blasons (1964), an exhibition catalog produced by the Muse Guimet, Paris.Cultic and ritual objects are discussed in Henriette Demoulin-Bernard, Masques . . . exposs dans l'annexe du Muse Guimet en dcembre 1959 (1965); for Judaism, see James Hastings, A Dictionary of the Bible, rev. ed. (1963); for Christianity, Historia Religionum, vol. 1, Religions of the Past (1969); and Oscar Cullmann, Urchristentum und Gottesdienst, 2nd ed. (1950; Eng. trans., Early Christian Worship, 1953); for Hinduism, The Cultural Heritage of India, vol. 1, Vedic Rituals, rev. ed. (1958); and Paul E. Dumont, L'Asvamedha: descriptions du sacrifice solennel du cheval dans le culte vdique (1927); for Buddhism, Hbgirin: dictionnaire encyclopdique du Bouddhisme . . . , 4 vol. to date (193767); and George P. Malalasekera (ed.), Encyclopaedia of Buddhism (1961 ), appearing in fascicles; for the Indian world, Jan Gonda, Die Religionen Indiens, 3 vol. (196064); for Indonesia, Waldemar Stoehr and Piet Zoetmulder, Die Religionen Indonesiens (1965); for the Islamic world, the Encyclopaedia of Islam, 5 vol. (190838; new ed., 1960 ); for Tibet, Robert B. Ekvall, Religious Observances in Tibet (1964); Helmut Hoffmann, Symbolik der tibetischen Religionen und des Schamanismus (1967); Rolf A. Stein, La Civilisation tibtaine (1962); and Turrell Wylie, Apropos of Tibetan Religious Observances, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 86:3945 (1966); and for Japan, William G. Ashton, Shinto (1905).