Tabot
As Tabot ( Altäthiopisch ታቦት Tabot ) is called in the Ethiopian rite common and specially consecrated altarpiece (portable altar). The tabot usually rests on a small, ornate table called the manbara tābot (altar throne); a wooden tabot can be firmly attached to this table. Tabot with saucer serve as an altar for the celebration of the Eucharist.
Locals consider these altar panels as copies of the tablets of the law and are particularly venerated in the Ethiopian Orthodox and Eritrean Orthodox Churches and are protected from the eyes of the curious by covering them up. The ark with the tablets of the Ten Commandments that Moses from Mount Sinai brought down, still is after Ethiopian belief in Ethiopia and is reportedly in Aksum kept.
Every church has at least one tabot. On these tablets, however, it is not the commandments, but crosses and other religious symbols that are engraved. As a rule, the 15 cm² tabot tablets, also known as tsellat (Ge'ez: ጽላት ṣellāt ), are made of alabaster , marble or wood. They are each dedicated to either the Trinity , angels or saints . The church is consecrated to the corresponding religious secret and celebrates a kind of patronage festival every month . During the monthly feast days (see Ethiopian calendar ), the tablets, which are always covered, are carried in front of the church. A particularly solemn procession with the tabot from all the churches in a town or district takes place at the Timket festival (the feast of the baptism of the Lord ).
literature
- Richard Pankhurst: Some Brief Notes on the Ethiopian "Tabot" and "Mänbärä Tabot" . In: Quaderni di Studi Etiopici . 8/9, 1987/1988, ZDB -ID 13424-7 , pp. 28-32.
- Claire Bosc-Tiessé: Catalog des autels et meubles d'autel en bois (tābot et manbara tābot) des églises de Lălibală. Jalons pour une histoire des objets et des motifs . In: Annales d'Ethiopie 25 (2010) 55-101;
- Claire Bosc-Tiessé: Catalog des autels et meubles d'autel en bois (tābot et manbara tābot) de Ṭerāsfarē Esṭifānos. Jalons pour une histoire des objets et des motifs (II) . In: Annales d'Ethiopie 26 (2011) 249-267.
