Do Buddhists burn joss paper? When one person in the family says “that isn’t Buddhist”

A word before we start: we run a joss paper burning service. Parts of this page are not good for our business. We think you should read them anyway, and we would rather you read them here than stumble on them later.

Why this comes up in families

You may have grown up seeing both: a grandmother who chanted to Amitabha Buddha and also burned paper money at Qingming. Nobody at the time treated that as a contradiction.

Then one day someone says it out loud: “Buddhists don’t do that.” Or you type the question into a search bar yourself, and the first thing you find says the practice is pointless.

The disagreement is not new, and it is not your family’s invention. It goes back to written Buddhist teaching, which is where we will start.

What did Sheng Yen write?

Sheng Yen (聖嚴, 1931–2009) was a Chan monk based in Taiwan and the founder of Dharma Drum Mountain. His book Orthodox Chinese Buddhism (正信的佛教) answers common questions about Buddhism, and one entry asks directly whether Buddhism advocates burning paper money.

His answer is clear:

Two things in this passage are worth slowing down for.

First, he does not assume the dead become ghosts. In the Buddhist picture of six realms of rebirth, the ghost realm is only one. Much Chinese folk practice starts from a different assumption: that the dead are “over there” and may need things.

Second, he recommends something specific. Giving (布施), offerings to the Buddha (供佛), feeding monks and nuns (齋僧), and then dedicating that merit to the person who has died (迴向).

We have quoted the last sentence in full, because leaving it out would misrepresent him. He was a highly respected teacher, and this is a considered position, clearly written.

If your family burns, reading “useless superstition” may sting. It is a judgement about doctrine, made in the name of Buddhism as he understood it. It is not a verdict on your grandmother, or on why she did it. As the next section shows, not every Buddhist teacher or temple puts it the same way.

Do all Buddhists agree?

No. Buddhism is not one voice, and on this question the disagreement is public and in writing.

For example, Puji Chan Temple (Taiwan Putuoshan), in Miaoli (台灣普陀山普濟禪寺), published an article in 2019 arguing the other side. The article says burning paper has a basis in Buddhist ritual texts, citing the Water-Land ritual (水陸), and describes it as a form of material giving for beings who cannot yet benefit from teaching alone. The temple itself offers ritual services, including rites for ancestors.

Source: 〈佛教燒不燒紙錢呢？〉, Puji Chan Temple, 2019. We are reporting the temple’s position; we have not checked its reading of the ritual texts it cites.

You will also find claims online that other well-known masters took a gentler line. We looked, and could not find an original passage we were able to verify, so we will not put words in anyone’s mouth.

What we can say: some Buddhist teachers reject burning joss paper, some Buddhist temples defend it, and individual Buddhists make their own choices between the two. None of these positions is ours to rule on.

Why do Buddhist families burn joss paper anyway?

Because Chinese religion has rarely worked as “pick one and join”.

The sociologist C. K. Yang (楊慶堃) described much of it as diffused religion: woven into family life and custom rather than held apart as a separate membership (Religion in Chinese Society, University of California Press, 1961).

So a grandmother who chanted to Amitabha and burned paper at Qingming was not necessarily confused. She was doing what the people around her did, in the way it was handed to her.

And a relative who has since read Sheng Yen and stopped is not being disloyal to the family. They have followed one strand of that same tradition further.

If your family is split

We are not family counsellors, and every family is different. But a few things may take some heat out of it.

• Nobody has to convert anybody. Both sides can point to real teachers and real practice. Neither is making it up.
• Ask what the objection actually is. Doctrine, waste of money, smoke and ash, or simply not wanting it done at home are different worries, with different answers.
• The practices Sheng Yen recommends are open to anyone. Giving to a good cause in someone’s name does not require giving up anything else.
• If the burning is the sticking point, it does not have to happen in the home of the person who objects.

We make no claim about what any of these does for the person who has died. We do not know, and we will not pretend to.

Where we stand