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Likely a Taoist official, this carving holds a cup holding an elixir that reputedly would confer to those commissioning the image it a long and healthful life. Discovering elixirs of life that might confer immortality was a motivating belief in Taoism and during Ming and Qing dynasties small images of Taoist officials and priests often…
Ancestor worship has been practiced throughout China using carved wood figures of deities, monks, priests and ancestor figures on home altars. In recent years there has been a resurgence of ancestor worship, especially in local Chinese communities practices by Buddhists, Taoists, and Popular Religion followers. Carvings of Taoist priests called daoshi often hold Taoist symbols…
The Queen Mother of the West (Xiwangmu) is the most significant of the female Taoist deities and is viewed as having magical powers to controls life, death, creation and destruction and determines the lifespan of every living being. She lives with her husband the Jade Emperor in Kunlun Mountain where she attends her famous garden…
For centuries, the Tuareg were nomadic tribal people who traversed the Sahel region and Saharan Africa Desert. Like most African peoples, they created arm and ankle bracelets to serve as symbols of wealth, status, wearable adornments, for ceremonies of births, coming of age, marriages and burials, trade for animals and agricultural goods and as a…
Historically nomadic tribal people who traversed the Sahel region and Saharan-Africa, the Tuareg in Mali and Niger, like many African peoples, created arm and ankle bracelets that were easy to transport and had many uses: wealth and status symbol, fashion adornments, for ceremonial use for births, coming of age, marriages, and burials, to trade for…
Two million Tuareg traditional herders were historically nomadic tribal peoples who traversed the Sahel region and the Sahara Desert in an area the size of Western Europe in the North African countries of Mali, Niger, Libya, Algeria, Chad and West African Burkina Faso. As followers of Islam, they are prohibited from creating figures or masks…
Historically nomadic tribal peoples who traversed the Sahel region and Saharan-Africa, for centuries the Tuareg created African metalwork and jewelry in the form of arm and ankle bracelets that were symbols of wealth and status, fashion adornments worn ceremonially for births, coming of age, marriages and burials, used to trade or barter for animals and…
Tuareg traditional herders were nomadic tribal peoples who traversed an area the size of Western Europe in the Sahel region and the Sahara Desert and in the North African countries of Mali, Niger, Libya, Algeria, Chad and West African Burkina Faso. Followers of Islam, they are prohibited from creating figures or masks and use their…
Since the Han Dynasty when the Silk Roads opened trade with the rest of the world and especially during the Tang Dynasty, pottery and carved wood images of foreigners were popular in China. The term Silk Roads refers to the network of routes used by traders for over 1,500 years starting when the Han dynasty…
In India, as other Asian countries, Hindu children were given votive objects and carvings as dolls representing murti (deities), legendary heroes, and myths to entertain, educate, and reinforce pride in their heritage and religion. This Indian folk-art carving is a Devi, the Sanskrit word for goddess meaning heavenly, divine, and a thing of excellence. Carved…
While major deities such as Guandi were officially sanctioned by government and religious authorities, many popular deities and historic figures were integrated into Popular Religion beliefs where they were assimilated and greatly modified with local traditions and iconographic depictions such as this. We assume this is Guandi, one of the most revered Chinese deities based…
While most families have had prints or paper-cuts of the Kitchen-God with or without his wife above their stove, carved wood images with a lacquer coating tended to be owned by wealthier families. The Kitchen God is syncretic as a Taoist, Popular Religion and Buddhist tutelary deity who protects the home and its inhabitants, observes…
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