Proposal:Ablution

Ablution
Proposal status:	Draft (under way)
Proposed by:	Eliyahu Bowers
Applies to:
Definition:	A structure used for ritual washing
Rendered as:
Draft started:	2026-09-10

Problem Statement

There is currently no widely accepted tagging schema for ritual washing facilities. This proposal attempts to set out a wide ranging and useful tagging schema for all such facilities.

Proposal

This proposal is for the creation of a general amenity=ablution tag that contains all manner of ritual purifying structures. From ritual baths to hand washing fountains to historical sites. This can be used on areas or nodes depending on the size of the structure. These will further be categorized under which religious group uses them religion=* and what they are used to purify ablution:type=* . More detail and description can be seen down under Tagging.

Rationale

Other Tags/Proposals

• The Tag:amenity=mikveh has a very specific use case and is not cohesive with a wider tagging structure.

• Another Proposal:Ritual bath was created in 2015. The wording of the proposed tag is not ideal. In general most ablution facilities are not ones where the user is immersed in the liquid. As far as the proposer has looked there are few non natural ablution facilities which are not just mikvahs, so this intermediate (in generality) language of ritual_bath is not useful. However some of the text in this proposal has been taken from it.
• Under that same consideration of more generalized forms of ritual purification clearly Tag:amenity=public bath is also not relevant here as this tagging concerns a wider array of structures.

Other tags that mention ablution

• building=mosque
• guest_house=albergue

This proposal

We suggest using the tag amenity=ablution because of its clear meaning. We understand that this is not a common word but with common instances of such facilities on the page and with proper shortcuts in editors it should be both easy to use and find. The sub key ablution:type=* is used for differentiation of facilities within religious groups.

Tagging

Can be mapped as a node or area. Often is located within larger landuse=religious as with amenity=place_of_worship. This tag should not be used on bodies of water which are usable for any particular form of ablution unless there is a structure built there for the purpose that the tag can be tied to, since this information can be derived from other tags on the object.

Proposed Tagging

• amenity=ablution used on node or area of the facility.
• ablution:type=hand;body;vessel what the ablution water is used to cleanse. This can be used to further differentiate types of ablution within faiths.
  • Just the hands
  • The entire body
    • with a mikveh through immersion
    • with a spigot through wudu
    • with a font through baptism
  • Vessels

In conjunction

• historic=archaeological_site if the ablution facility is old enough to be considered an archeological site and is no longer in use.

• access
  • access=public for public or historical ablution facilities where you can visit and use it for free or visit without using for an entry fee.
  • access=customers for ablution facilities that you need to make an appointment and/or pay rent for usage.
  • access=private for ablution facilities not for public/community use; for example meant for members of an order, employees of a kosher slaughter etc.

• The keys gender_segregated=*, male=*, female=* and unisex=* can be used to give information about the usability by different genders.
• opening_hours=* if there is a designated time for access.
• operator=* who is supervising and/or maintaining this ablution facility.
• fee=yes/no if users need to pay a fee use with access=customers.
• historic=archaeological_site

Also may apply

• Where the water is supplied via a tap : man_made=tap + drinking_water=yes

Examples

Image	Tags	Description	OSM Object if applicable
Baptistry	amenity=ablutionablution:type=body religion=christian	Baptistry
World's oldest mikveh, at the Hasmonean royal winter palaces	amenity=ablutionablution:type=body religion=jewish historic=archaeological_site	Unused historical mikvah at the hasmonean winter palaces
Ritual washing	amenity=ablutionablution:type=body religion=muslim	Wudu (body washing) fountain at the temple mount	291836683 291836683
Tsukubai at Ryōan-ji temple, Kyoto	amenity=ablutionablution:type=hand religion=buddhist	Buddist Tsukubai (hand washing basin) at a temple in Kyoto
Chōzuya (purification fountain) at Ise Jingū Gekū	amenity=ablutionablution:type=hand religion=shintounisex=yesgender_segregated=no	Shinto Chōzuya (hand washing fountain) at the entrance to Ise Jingū Gekū
Ikenoue Misogi Matsuri, 2007	amenity=ablutionablution:type=body religion=shinto
Lavatorio in the cloister of Pamplona Cathedral	amenity=ablutionablution:type=hand religion=christian	Christian handwashing fountain at entrance to cathedral
Mikveh in Beit El	amenity=ablutionablution:type=body religion=jewish male=yes	Jewish mens mikveh (body immersion) in a stand-alone building
Hand washing at the Western Wall	amenity=ablutionablution:type=hand religion=jewish unisex=yesgender_segregated=no	jewish hand washing station	6177045582 6177045582

Impact on Data Consumers

There are currently no tags with enough usage for there to be data consumers that are affected by this proposal.

There is currently no rendering for these tags and we hope this codification will allow creation of new rendering icons.

Features/Pages affected

As there is no current structure for this type of structure, to the knowledge of the proposer there are no well accepted wiki pages that would need to be changed.

External discussions

Most recently on the Israel Forum: https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/topic/146945

Comments

Please comment on the discussion page.