566 illumination: Asia and the Pacific moon The festivities in Ch’ang-an were wonderful to watch, with the emperor, aristocrats, and the wealthy competing with each other to display the best lamps The lamps were decorated with silk, jade, and gold In 713 one emperor had a 200-foot-tall wheel of lamps set up outside Ch’ang-an It contained 50,000 lamps Another display was an 80-foothigh tree blanketed with lamps Lanterns were painted with images of landscapes, bamboo, flowers, birds, animals, and people and were outside homes and shops Religious institutions made extensive use of lamps and candles Buddhist monasteries burned devotional lamps and candles night and day in their shrines For instance, in Tibet monks placed candles made from yak butter before images of the Buddha Pilgrims would give yak butter to the monks for making candles The flames of the candles represented the spirit of light in a person as well as the driving of darkness out of one’s heart Buddhists would bring flowers and burn incense as well, with the aromas serving as reminders that the light is nurtured by moral behavior During prayer the candlelight, flowers, and incense served to help focus the worshipper’s mind on the verses to be recited In Chinese homes lamps would be lighted in front of tablets bearing the names of deceased family members as a way of honoring the dead This practice was especially important during festivals in which the dead were celebrated Korea seems to have followed the illumination practices of China, but Japan went its own way Candles were uncommon in Japan in medieval times They were usually made of pine resin, which did not burn well or give off much light The Japanese did not use wax, not even beeswax, for their candles Much preferred in medieval Japan were oil lamps, which shone more brightly than candles These typically were plain pans for oil with a rush wick hanging over the edge or a cotton wick floating in the oil Camellia seed oil and sesame seed oil were most often used for the fuel in the lamps, although other vegetable oil was sometimes used Oil sellers were like traveling salesmen, hauling their oil in cylindrical tubs An oil seller would carefully measure out the volume of the oil and then pour it into a kettle or another container for a purchaser Medieval Japanese lanterns had wooden frames covered with paper, which could be coated with lacquer The lanterns displayed during festivals were decorated with images of temples Lanterns with wooden frames could be folded up for storage The Japanese made another sort of lantern out of stone Stonemasons manufactured these lanterns in their workshops for use in temples, monasteries, and gardens For nighttime processions, torches were used for light For large gatherings of people for festivals, bonfires were used to provide light Shintoists believed that a bonfire during a festival could be inhabited by a spirit Many Japanese could not afford candles, lamps, or lanterns and therefore did without artificial light at night In general, Japanese houses were built to take advantage of daylight They not only had windows but also walls that could slide open, allowing both light and air into a home Shops were often outdoors to take advantage of sunlight These would have overhanging roofs held up by posts, with workers underneath In contrast, medieval Indian housing was designed to keep out sunlight An ordinary home in a country village would have only one window or no windows at all The window, when there was one, tended to be narrow, with latticework making the light cast into the house shadowy City houses were usually more than one story tall The top floor typically had windows under the eaves or gabled windows called kapotapalika, meaning “pigeon cote,” a reference to pigeons’ habit of roosting in the windows These windows had frames that were painted bright colors The windows were covered by wooden latticework, curtains with bright patterns, or mats They typically had solid shutters The light of the windows illuminated a space where the family kept its valuables and food reserves Most houses had niches in the walls for the placing of oil lamps The lamps tended to be small, with wicks dipped in ghee placed in them Ghee was clarified buffalo butter Sometimes lamps were from the ceiling in metal frames This practice seems to have been more common in large areas, such as halls in monasteries or palaces, than in ordinary small homes Interior lighting was also supplied by torches Used mostly at night, the torches were held by servants in the households of the wealthy Few palaces survive from medieval times because they were made of wood, but some stone fortresses survive, and the importance of torchlight for them can be seen by examining them The outer walls and the walls of interior buildings were very high, with windows dozens of feet above the ground; the lower reaches would have been very dark without torchlight Lamps and torches were used to illuminate city streets The light cast from some city palaces was sometimes said to be dazzling Lamps were important to the spiritual lives of Indians An Indian would typically awaken before sunrise and would ignite a lamp in a niche in the bedroom If he was a man allowed to read the Vedas, he would sit cross-legged before the lamp and rest in his lap a copy of the Vedas, from which he would read passages Lamps themselves could carry symbolic power For instance, some bronze lamps had bulges in the middle representing male and female sexual organs The light of such a lamp represented the life force Small, circular lamps called diyas, which were made of terra-cotta, had cotton wicks and were shaped to be cupped in a hand Diyas