Why Religious Statues Matter

Because of practical limitations in the UK, I was unable to obtain a full religious statue for my worship practice. At first, I tried to pray without relying on any physical object. Yet during the ritual, I gradually felt a sense of unease, as if something essential was missing. Without a concrete focus for devotion, it became harder to concentrate, and the ritual felt incomplete.

To address this absence, I began using a small amulet bearing the image of Guan Yu. My mother had given it to me before I left home, and it had been consecrated at a temple. Although modest in scale, the amulet functioned as a material anchor, allowing the ritual to regain stability and focus. Through this experience, I became more aware of how religious objects do not simply represent belief, but actively support and shape devotional practice.

In Chinese religious and folk traditions, statues exist to make invisible deities present in the human world. Worship directed toward these objects helps establish a reciprocal relationship between devotees and deities, one grounded in protection, trust, and continuity. For this reason, newly made statues or sacred objects usually undergo a consecration ritual (kaiguang开光), through which the deity is formally invited to inhabit the object. This process distinguishes the sacred from the ordinary and gives the object religious legitimacy.

Religious statues also play an important role beyond private worship. In Quanzhou, rituals such as You Shen (god processions) bring statues out of the temple and into the streets, allowing deities to symbolically 巡游 through the community and receive offerings from the public. These processions are not only religious events but also collective expressions of faith and social belonging. The Mazu procession, in particular, is known for its scale and significance.

Through migration, these practices have travelled far beyond Quanzhou. As Minnan communities settled in Taiwan and Southeast Asia, Mazu worship took root in new regions. Many temple statues maintain a ritual connection to ancestral temples in Quanzhou or Putian through the practice of fenling, a process that links new statues to an original source of spiritual authority. This connection is regularly renewed through pilgrimage, especially on Mazu’s birthday, when temples return to the ancestral site to offer incense.

Seen in this light, religious statues are not static objects. They function as points of connection, linking personal devotion, communal ritual, and transregional networks of belief. Even in situations of distance or absence, they provide a material way for faith to remain grounded and sustained.