**13. For the Heavens**

Next, on the altar located in the house's interior—the inside altar—were food offerings to the gods and for "the heavens". The function of this altar and ritual was to invite and please the gods and convey the family's wishes (Figure 12).

**Figure 12.** Badai Tian making food offerings for the gods at the inside altar. (Photo: Thomas Riccio).

The inside altar was a low table with several bowls, one filled with rice for the female god, the other filled with millet for the male god. A third bowl was filled with peach water. Twenty-one bowls surrounded these three centrally placed bowls. Three each were filled with the harvest of the season, buckwheat, ramie, soy, maize, wheat, sorghum, and oats, each a crop the gods enjoy. Each crop filled three bowls and, when multiplied by seven, equaled twenty-one, which was numerologically auspicious for receiving the gods from heaven (Tian 2018b).

Tian chanted invitations in the Miao language, which was punctuated with the ringing of a bell. Only badaixiong use the bell. The chants ask the gods to "come peacefully and don't worry about anything. We will serve you as you like" (Tian 2018b).
