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Mien, also called ‘Yao’, are one of the many semi-migratory
people living in the highlands of southern China, and the northern
regions of Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. They practice swidden, or
slash-and-burn, agriculture mainly for the growing of rice for their
own consumption and maize with which to feed their pigs and poultry.
During approximately three thousand years of contact with the Chinese,
they have acquired many elements of Chinese culture. They have merged
Chinese Taoism, including the Chinese Taoist painting tradition,
with their animist beliefs to form a unique tradition of Taoism.
Mien Taoist paintings are religious, not decorative. Each has a
ritual function and is considered the abode of the gods. During
the one to two months it takes to complete a set of paintings, the
artist must work in an atmosphere of religious devotion and ceremonial
purity. When the work is finished, the painter himself ‘opens the
eyes’ of each character according to the Chinese custom for consecrating
Taoist icons. The Mien Taoist tradition goes further and also requires
a priest to perform a ceremony that introduces the gods to the paintings.
Priests then display the set of paintings in a certain order to
play a part in ceremonies. At other times, they are rolled and stored
up in a box hanging near the domestic altar. When a set of paintings
is judged worn out, the owner may decide to replace it.
Priests in front of an altar
A priest will then perform a ceremony in which he politely invites
the gods to depart from the paintings and “go visit somewhere else”.
It is these de-consecrated paintings which are usually sold.
This set of paintings is dated to 1670, based on a date inscription
on the back of the painting of Yuanshi Tianzun, The Celestial Worthy
of Primordial Beginning. The set was purchased with funds provided
by the Haffenreffer Special Fund. The scroll paintings are paint
on bamboo paper, with small touches of applied gold leaf and a fine
bamboo rod at the top and bottom. In this exhibition the paintings
are arranged by themes; they are not organized as they would have
been by Mien priests. |
Detail from Altar Panel #1,
Tai Wai
See the Paintings:
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| Taoism
is the foremost indigenous religion of China. Taoism teaches
that one must accept change (transformation) as the absolute
reality. The word Tao means a road and is often translated as
“the way” According to Chinese tradition, the Tao existed before
the world was born out of the primordial chaos. It is conceived
as the void out of which all reality emerges. The Tao brought
forth the world, and all Being naturally belongs to the Tao.
Instead of a supreme being, there is the Tao itself, underlying
and permeating reality. However, Chinese and Mien religious
Taoism evolved many gods as the religion grew. The gods of Taoism
depicted in these paintings exist to put a recognizable face
on the Tao. |
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