wuhn (Bowl)

Such bowls were used by individual family members to hold rice while eating. For Hakka people, they were also used in the ceremony held to install the soul of a deceased family in the tablet representing ancestors in the lineage ancestral hall. If the deceased family member was more than sixty years of age, the bowls used in this ceremony were considered to carry good fortune and were used thereafter as rice bowls for the children in the family. This bowl may have been made in the well-known kilns in Wun Yu, Tai Po, Hong Kong.

If a bowl of this type had been used in the ceremony to install the soul of a deceased family member, who had died at more than sixty years of age, into the tablet in the lineage ancestral hall, they represented long life and were called 100 years of life bowls.

Steep-sided bowl with raised foot ring. Decoration is in blue on beige ground. Interior has a small dot at the centre and two rings around bottom of sides; exterior has a flower and leaf design over a 180 degree area and then one ring and one Chinese character in the rest of the space.