Buddhist candle Ghee Wax Candle Lotus Lantern Butter Lamp for Temple Use

**Spiritual Significance & Symbolism:**

1. **Dispelling Darkness:** The lamp's core symbolism is the **victory of wisdom (prajna) over ignorance (avidya)**. Just as physical light banishes darkness, the lamp represents the light of Buddha's teachings dispelling the darkness of delusion in the mind.
2. **Offering (Puja):** Lighting butter lamps is a primary form of **material offering** (*guna puja*) to the Buddha, Bodhisattvas, deities, and the Triple Gem (Buddha, Dharma, Sangha). It signifies devotion, gratitude, and the offering of one's own inner clarity.
3. **Wisdom & Clarity:** The clear, bright flame represents the luminous, unobstructed nature of enlightened awareness and wisdom.
4. **Positive Karma & Merit:** The act of offering light is believed to generate vast merit (*punya*), purify obscurations, and create auspicious conditions for the practitioner and all beings. It is a common practice for dedicating prayers for the deceased, the sick, or world peace.
5. **Impermanence:** The flickering flame serves as a reminder of the transient nature of all phenomena.

**Form & Practice:**
* Lamps are typically simple metal (brass, copper) or ceramic cups filled with ghee, featuring a cotton wick. Elaborate versions, especially for altars, are often shaped like **lotus flowers**, symbolizing purity and spiritual unfolding.
* They are placed on shrines, temple altars, and in front of sacred statues and texts. Maintaining lamps continuously burning, especially on significant days (like full moons or Buddha's birthday), is highly meritorious. Extinguishing them carelessly is generally avoided.

**Cultural Context:**
Most deeply rooted in Tibetan Buddhism, rows of hundreds or thousands of flickering butter lamps are a defining, awe-inspiring sight in monasteries like those in Lhasa or Kathmandu. The collective light creates an atmosphere of profound sacredness and devotion.

In essence, the butter lamp is far more than illumination; it is a **tangible expression of devotion, a metaphor for wisdom conquering ignorance, and a powerful means of accumulating merit** within the Buddhist path, fueled by the sacred simplicity of ghee.