Da sha, breaking the sand
Also called po sha or po di yu: sand is spread before the altar and drawn as hell, and the master of the altar breaks it open section by section with his staff.
Pronunciation dǎ shā｜Rites of life｜One entry in the Chaoshan glossary
What it means
Sand is spread on open ground before the altar, and the head of the staff draws walls, gates and a bridge in it. Only when the drawing is done does the breaking begin. The master of the altar goes first and the mourners follow; a section is broken and a section chanted, the chant naming what that part of hell is called.
When the gate is reached the sand is swept away and no mark is left on the ground. What matters is the act of breaking: once it is broken the dead are held to have left that place.
When you see it
Added or dropped with the troupe and the family’s means; it belongs with the pardon and the carrying of scriptures among the passages that can be left out. The sand is swept the moment the breaking ends and the altar ground is used as before, with no separate site set up.
Words easily confused
What is broken is a hell drawn in sand, not a real thing. It divides the work with the pardon: one breaks hell open, the other remits offences, and where the troupe is thin often only one of them is kept.
Custom in Chaoshan funerals; this page describes only, and neither endorses superstition nor urges anyone to follow it.
Read next: Funeral custom: from reporting the death to the raising of the tablet.
See also: Rites of life: the five thresholds side by side, merit-making: whose feast is it.
Same group: the reading of the pardon, merit-making.
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Last revised: 4 November 2026