The Depository · Browse · Asia-Pacific
The Depository documents 101 techniques in China; by risk level: 38 critically endangered, 58 endangered, 4 vulnerable, 1 thriving. Each record opens with a public summary; the full research record is free to view once registered.
Dong brocade (侗锦) is the supplementary weft silk brocade tradition of the Dong people of Guizhou, Guangxi, and Hunan provinces — produced on a horizontal body-tension loom using a specific pick-up stick technique that creates geometric…
Hangzhou silk gauze (杭罗 Háng Luó) is a unique twisted-warp weave tradition producing a silk fabric of exceptional translucency and structural openness — the characteristic mesh texture produced not by weaving but by twisting pairs of warp…
The Hangzhou silk umbrella (西湖绸伞) is a refined decorative and functional parasol combining split-bamboo rib engineering with hand-painted silk canopy — produced in Hangzhou since the 1930s as a cultural emblem of the West Lake aesthetic.
Kesi (缂丝 — 'cut silk') is the most technically demanding silk weaving tradition in China — a discontinuous weft tapestry technique where each color area is woven separately, with the weft threads turning back on themselves at each color…
The traditional textile techniques of the Li people of Hainan Island — encompassing the full chain of spinning, dyeing, weaving, and embroidering — were inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List in 2024 after first being recognized as…
Mongolian felt making (擀毡 gǎn zhān) is the nomadic textile tradition of the Mongolian people of Inner Mongolia — producing thick, durable, insulating felt from raw wool through a process of carding, layering, rolling, and wetting that…
Nanjing Yunjin (南京云锦 — 'cloud brocade') is the imperial silk weaving tradition of Nanjing, Jiangsu — inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List in 2009 — and considered the pinnacle of Chinese silk weaving.
Shu brocade (蜀锦) is the imperial silk weaving tradition of Chengdu, Sichuan — one of China's Three Great Brocades alongside Nanjing Yunjin and Song brocade, and the only one with an unbroken 2,000-year production history.
Song brocade (宋锦) is the third of China's Three Great Brocades — alongside Shu brocade (CRAFT-0363) and Nanjing Yunjin (CRAFT-0386) — produced in Suzhou, Jiangsu, and inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List in 2009.
Song brocade (宋锦) is one of China's three great brocades (alongside Nanjing Yunjin and Sichuan Shu brocade) — a silk brocade tradition from Suzhou, Jiangsu, producing structured geometric and floral patterns of great density using a…
Tibetan khaden (ཁ་དེན) carpets are among the most technically distinctive in the world because of the rod pile technique — unique to Tibet among all carpet-weaving traditions.
The Tibetan pabu (པ་བུ) are the traditional felt boots worn across the Tibetan plateau in conditions ranging from monastery courtyards to high-altitude herding — the primary footwear of the world's highest inhabited region (4,000-5,000m).
Thangka painting is the sacred Buddhist icon painting tradition of Tibet, executed in mineral and precious stone pigments on sized cotton or silk, mounted on silk brocade, and used as portable devotional objects in Buddhist practice.
Xilan katze (西兰卡普 — meaning 'beautiful flower cover' in Tujia language) is the traditional brocade of the Tujia people — an ethnic group of over 8 million concentrated in western Hunan and western Hubei provinces.
Zhuang brocade (壮锦) is the weaving tradition of the Zhuang people — China's largest ethnic minority with over 18 million people, concentrated in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Huimò (徽墨) — Huizhou ink stick — is one of the Four Treasures of the Chinese Scholar's Studio (文房四宝 wénfáng sìbǎo), produced in Shexian County, Anhui, for over 1,000 years.
Chinese paper cutting (剪纸) is the folk art of cutting intricate designs from a single sheet of paper using scissors or a knife, creating negative-space patterns that are applied to windows, walls, and ritual objects for festivals,…
Chinese paper-cutting (剪纸 jianzhi) — inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List in 2009 — is the most widely practiced folk craft in China, used to decorate windows for New Year and festivals, as wedding decorations, and as protective…
Huipai woodblock printing (徽派版画) is the refined illustration and text printing tradition developed in Huizhou (now southern Anhui province) during the Ming and Qing dynasties — and recognized as the apex of Chinese woodblock printing…
Huzhou writing brushes (湖笔) are China's pre-eminent calligraphy and painting brushes — one of the Four Treasures of the Scholar's Studio alongside ink (CRAFT-0349), inkstone, and paper — produced in Shanwuli Town, Huzhou, Zhejiang for over…
The hand-engraving and ink-printing of Buddhist scriptures onto knot-free pear wood blocks, practiced at the Jinling Sutra Printing House in Nanjing (historically called Jinling) since Buddhist revivalist Yang Renshan founded it in 1866 —…
The Luzhou oil paper umbrella (泸州油纸伞) is a fully functional waterproof umbrella constructed from bamboo ribs, hand-made xuan paper, and tung oil — without a single nail or screw, held together entirely by silk thread lashing and the…
Dongba paper is the handmade paper of the Naxi people of Lijiang, Yunnan — used exclusively for writing Dongba pictographic script, the only pictographic writing system still in active use in the world.
Naxi Dongba paper (东巴纸) is the ritual paper made by the Naxi people (纳西族 Nàxīzú) of Lijiang, Yunnan, specifically for the Dongba religious manuscripts — the pictographic scripture tradition of Naxi shamanism, inscribed on UNESCO's Memory…
Taohuawu nianhua (桃花坞年画) is the Suzhou school of Chinese New Year woodblock printing — historically the most commercially important print tradition in China, distributing millions of prints annually across the country during the Qing…
Teochew zhizha (纸扎) is the ritual craft of constructing elaborate three-dimensional paper effigies — houses, cars, servants, electronics, luxury goods — to be burned as offerings at funerals and ancestral rites in the Teochew (Chaoshan)…
Tibetan woodblock printing of texts by a two-person hand method: one person inks the carved block, the other applies the paper and rubs.
Yangliuqing nianhua (杨柳青年画) is the Chinese New Year woodblock print tradition of Yangliuqing town, Tianjin — one of the four canonical New Year print centers alongside Weifang, Foshan, and Taohuawu — and the tradition that most…
The Chinese dragon kiln (龙窑 long yao) — a long tunnel kiln built on a hillside slope, fired with wood from the bottom — is the technological foundation of Chinese ceramic excellence.
Cizhou ware (磁州窑) is the great northern Chinese folk ceramic tradition of Cixian County, Hebei — the most prolific and technically diverse of China's ceramic traditions, spanning from the 10th century to the present.
Dehua white porcelain (德化白瓷) is the translucent, ivory-white ceramic tradition of Dehua County, Fujian province — known in Europe as Blanc de Chine and exported globally from the 16th century onward.
Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province has been the porcelain capital of the world for over 1,700 years — producing the ceramics that gave China its English name and that defined the global understanding of fine ceramic for centuries.
Jun ware (钧瓷) is the imperial Song Dynasty ceramic tradition of Yuzhou, Henan — one of China's Five Great Kilns — distinguished by its opalescent glazes that shift unpredictably between blue, purple, red, and gray in a single firing.
Longquan celadon is a jade-green glazed stoneware tradition from Longquan city, Zhejiang province — inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List in 2009 and considered one of the supreme achievements in world ceramics.
Qinghua (青花) blue-and-white underglaze painting is arguably the most globally recognized Chinese ceramic technique — cobalt oxide painted directly onto the unfired clay body, then covered with transparent glaze and fired, producing the…
Ru ware (汝瓷) is considered the supreme achievement of Song Dynasty ceramics — and one of the rarest in the world: only 67 authenticated Song Ru pieces survive globally.
The Shaoxing sha gang (沙缸 — sand jar) is the traditional ceramic fermentation and storage vessel for Shaoxing huangjiu (绍兴黄酒 — yellow rice wine), one of China's oldest fermented beverages with a 2,500-year documented history.
The lhamo (ལྷ་མོ) is the specific clay vessel used in traditional Tibetan medicine (Sowa Rigpa) for preparing medicinal decoctions — the vessel form, clay composition, and firing method are all specified in Tibetan medical texts because…
Yaozhou celadon (耀州瓷) is the northern counterpart to Longquan's southern celadon — a distinctly different tradition from the same ceramic family, produced in Tongchuan (formerly Yaozhou), Shaanxi since the Tang Dynasty.
The Yixing zisha teapot is one of the most studied and collected craft objects in Chinese culture — a stoneware teapot made from the distinctive iron-rich zisha (purple-red clay) found only in the Huanglongshan mountain near Yixing,…
Yixing zisha (宜兴紫砂壶) is one of the most distinctive ceramic traditions in the world — producing unglazed stoneware teapots from a unique iron-rich purple-red clay found only in Yixing, Jiangsu, that absorbs tea oils over years of use to…
Beijing cloisonné (景泰蓝 Jǐngtài Lán — 'Jingtai Blue') is the imperial enamel tradition of Beijing — named after the Jingtai Emperor (1450–1457 CE) whose reign saw the technique's maturation.
Jingtailan (景泰蓝 — 'Jingtai blue') is Beijing's defining luxury craft — a metalwork technique combining copper or bronze base forming, fine copper wire (sihua — silk wire) bending to create cloisons (cells), enamel paste filling, repeated…
Cantonese silver filigree (广式花丝) is the fine metalwork tradition of Guangzhou producing intricately structured objects — boxes, flowers, figurines, architectural models — from twisted silver wire as fine as 0.2mm, soldered without visible…
Chengdu gold and silver inlay (错漆嵌金银丝) is an extraordinary hybrid technique combining Sichuan lacquerware and metalwork into a single object: fine gold and silver wires are pressed into channels cut in a lacquered wooden surface, then the…
The carving of personal, artistic, and official seals ("chops") into stone, jade, ivory, or metal, combining calligraphy, composition, and precise knife technique in a tradition tracing to the Shang dynasty (1600–1046 BCE), when seals…
Dong silver ornament making is the silversmithing tradition of the Dong ethnic minority (侗族 Dòngzú) of Guizhou, Hunan, and Guangxi — closely related to Miao silverwork but with a distinct aesthetic vocabulary.
Miao silver ornament making is one of the most spectacular metalwork traditions in China — and one of the most technically diverse, encompassing filigree, repoussé, granulation, casting, and engraving within a single ornament system.
Sertog (གསེར་གཏོགས — 'gold-touching') is the Tibetan tradition of casting Buddhist deity figures in bronze using the lost-wax process and then fire-gilding the surface with mercury amalgam — the same amalgam gilding documented in Nepal's…
The bumpa (བུམ་པ) is the ritual offering vessel used in virtually every Tibetan Buddhist ceremony — a vase-form copper or silver vessel filled with consecrated water and often capped with a peacock feather or precious stone stopper.
Traditional Chinese bronze casting using the lost-wax (失蜡 shī là) and piece-mold (范铸 fàn zhù) techniques is a tradition stretching 4,000 years — producing the ritual bronzes (礼器 lǐ qì) that are among the supreme achievements of world…
The Yi people — one of China's largest ethnic minorities with over 9 million, concentrated in Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan — produce an elaborate silver jewelry tradition that serves as the primary marker of Yi identity and social status.
Yi silver ornament making is the metalwork tradition of the Yi ethnic minority (彝族 Yízú) — one of China's largest ethnic minorities, concentrated in the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan and Chuxiong Prefecture of Yunnan.
Chaozhou embroidery (潮绣) is one of China's Four Famous Embroideries alongside Su, Xiang, and Shu — and the most technically extreme of the four.
Gu embroidery (顾绣) is the most painterly embroidery tradition in China — developed by the Gu family of Shanghai in the late Ming Dynasty and named after them.
Bian embroidery (汴绣) is the revival of the Song Dynasty court embroidery tradition of Kaifeng (historically Bianjing — the Northern Song capital), most famous for its reproduction of Song-period paintings in silk — in particular, the…
Miao embroidery (苗绣) is one of the most complex and historically rich embroidery traditions in the world — produced by the Miao people (known as Hmong in Southeast Asia) of Guizhou province and neighboring regions in southwest China.
Lu embroidery (鲁绣) is the Shandong provincial embroidery tradition — one of China's oldest documented embroidery schools, referenced in Han Dynasty texts as tribute fabric sent to the imperial court.
Shui horse-tail embroidery (水族马尾绣) is one of the most unusual material approaches in any embroidery tradition globally — the core thread is made by wrapping colored silk around actual strands of horse tail hair, producing a composite…
Su embroidery (苏绣) is the embroidery tradition of Suzhou, Jiangsu — considered the finest of China's four great embroidery schools (Su, Shu, Xiang, Yue).
Göku (གོས་སྐུ — 'cloth deity') is the Tibetan tradition of producing large-format Buddhist compositions in silk appliqué — cutting silk brocade and satin into figure shapes and assembling them on a fabric ground, rather than painting.
The Yao people — an ethnic group of over 3 million spread across Guangxi, Yunnan, Hunan, Guangdong, and beyond into Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand — maintain a distinctive textile tradition combining tie-dye (zha ran — stitch-resist indigo…
Chaozhou wood carving (潮州木雕) is one of China's most technically complex woodcarving traditions, renowned for its multi-plane openwork (通雕 tōng diāo) — carving that produces 4–7 overlapping spatial planes within a single panel, all visible…
The mortise-and-tenon joinery and dougong bracketing system underlying traditional Chinese timber-frame architecture, in which wooden components — a bearing block (dou) and a bow-shaped bracket (gong) — interlock without any glue or…
Muban nianhua (木版年画 — woodblock New Year print) is China's most widespread folk art print tradition — producing festive images for lunar New Year using hand-carved woodblocks and sequential color printing in regional styles including…
The Dong people of Guizhou, Guangxi, and Hunan produce the most architecturally ambitious timber structures in Chinese folk architecture — the gulou (drum tower) and the fengyu qiao (wind-rain bridge).
Dough figurine modeling (面人 miànrén) is the traditional Chinese folk craft of sculpting miniature figures from a cooked and colored dough compound using fingers, palms, and a small set of simple tools.
Lacquer thread sculpture (漆线雕) is a Quanzhou technique in which extremely fine threads of raw lacquer mixed with brick powder are hand-rolled into coils and filaments, then applied to the surface of wooden or ceramic figurines to create…
Guangdong ivory carving (广雕) represents one of the most technically extraordinary carving traditions in the world, distinguished by the concentric sphere (套球 tào qiú) — a single ivory tusk carved into a series of 20–40 freely rotating…
Tibetan butter sculpture (མར་གཟུགས — Mar Gyus, 'butter form') is the tradition of sculpting yak butter mixed with tsampa barley flour into elaborate ritual offering forms placed on monastery altars.
Gtor-ma (གཏོར་མ) are the geometric ritual dough forms placed on Tibetan Buddhist altars — distinct from the larger figurative butter sculptures (CRAFT-0615) in being smaller, more precisely geometric, and more directly tied to specific…
Cantonese opera headdress making (粤剧冠帽制作) is the specialist craft producing the elaborate wire-and-embellishment crowns, helmets, and headdresses worn in Yueju (粤剧 Cantonese opera) — inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List in 2009.
Chinese shadow puppetry (皮影戏 piyingxi) is one of the world's oldest theatrical art forms — with documented history of 2,000+ years — inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List in 2011.
Piyingxi (皮影戏) is the two-thousand-year-old Chinese tradition of crafting articulated translucent figures from processed donkey or ox hide, then animating them behind an illuminated screen for theatrical performance.
Nuo mask carving is the ritual woodcarving tradition serving the Nuo exorcism theater (傩戏 nuóxì) — one of China's oldest performance traditions, predating written history and still practiced in Guizhou, Jiangxi, Anhui, and Hunan provinces.
Peking opera costume making is the specialist theatrical garment tradition serving Jingju (京剧) — China's national opera form inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List in 2010.
Quanzhou puppet head carving (泉州木雕偶头) is the specialist woodcarving tradition producing the hollow heads for Fujian's glove puppet (布袋戏 Bùdài Xì) and iron-stick puppet (铁枝木偶 Tiě Zhī Mù Ǒu) theater traditions — both inscribed on UNESCO's…
Tibetan cham (འཆམ) masks are the ritual performance masks of Tibetan Buddhist monastery dance — related to but distinct from the Mongolian tsam (CRAFT-0612) in using a papier-mâché and lacquer construction rather than the Mongolian…
Wenzhou Ou opera lianpu (瓯剧脸谱) is the painted face-mask tradition of Ou opera (瓯剧) — one of China's oldest local opera forms, originating in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, with a documented history of 400 years.
Beijing carved lacquerware (雕漆 diaoqi) is the most technically demanding Chinese lacquer tradition — distinct from Vietnamese son mai (CRAFT-0278) and Korean ottchil (CRAFT-0020) in its approach.
Buyi batik (布依族蜡染) is the wax-resist dyeing tradition of the Buyi people of Guizhou province — one of the oldest continuously practiced batik traditions in the world, predating the more widely known Javanese batik (CRAFT-0133) in…
Dali Bai tie-dye (白族扎染) from Zhouzhen village near Dali, Yunnan is one of the most commercially successful ethnic minority crafts in China — and simultaneously one of the most technically nuanced.
Zharan (扎染) is the Bai ethnic minority tie-dye tradition centered in Zhouzhen village, Dali, Yunnan province — one of the few places in China where the complete traditional process survives, from hand-stitching resist patterns to natural…
Yunnan batik (蜡染 là rǎn) is the wax-resist dyeing tradition practiced by multiple ethnic minorities of Yunnan province — primarily the Buyi (布依族), Shui (水族), and Bai (白族) peoples — and constitutes a distinct tradition from the Dali tie-dye…
Chinese decorative knotting (中国结) is the ancient craft of creating elaborate three-dimensional decorative forms from a single continuous cord using a systematic vocabulary of approximately 30 named basic knots that can be combined into…
Sichuan bamboo weaving (四川竹编) encompasses both utilitarian basketry and an extraordinary fine-art tradition: weaving silk-thin bamboo strips over ceramic or glass forms to create a fitted bamboo skin so fine it is translucent — the ceramic…
Chinese jade carving — particularly of Hetian (Hotan) nephrite from Xinjiang — is the most continuous luxury craft tradition in human history, with documented production spanning 8,000 years.
Hetian jade carving (和田玉雕) is the pre-eminent Chinese jade tradition — using nephrite from the Kunlun Mountains of Xinjiang (considered the highest-quality jade in Chinese material culture, valued above all other stones for 8,000 years) —…
Beijing kite making (specifically the Sha Yan — swallow kite — tradition) is a 600-year-old structural craft combining split-bamboo frame engineering, silk or paper skin application, and miniature Chinese painting into an aerodynamically…
The Menri (མེན་རི) school is the canonical Lhasa court thangka painting tradition — the most systematized of Tibet's painting lineages, codified by Menthangpa Menla Dhondup in the 15th century and maintained as the official style of the…
Fuzhou bodiless lacquer (脱胎漆器) is one of the most technically remarkable lacquer traditions in the world: a vessel or object form is built up entirely from layers of raw lacquer and cloth — then the interior mold (clay or plaster) is…
Sichuan lacquerware (四川漆器) is one of China's oldest lacquer traditions, predating the Han Dynasty and documented in excavated burial objects from Chu Kingdom sites (4th–3rd century BCE).
The Hakka tulou (土楼) rammed earth construction technique is the procedural knowledge behind one of the world's most architecturally remarkable vernacular building traditions — the multi-story circular or rectangular communal fortresses of…
Suzhou garden rockery construction (叠山 dié shān — 'stacking mountains') is the craft of assembling Taihu Lake limestone rocks into miniature landscape compositions within the private scholar's gardens of Suzhou — inscribed on UNESCO's…
The Miao wooden drum (木鼓 mù gǔ) is a hollowed-log ceremonial drum central to the Miao Drum Festival (苗族鼓藏节 Miáozú Gǔ Cáng Jié) — held once every 13 years and inscribed on China's National ICH List.
The Uyghur dutar is a long-necked, two-string plucked lute central to the Uyghur musical tradition of Xinjiang — and its making is a distinct craft tradition combining gourd or mulberry wood bowl carving, neck shaping and fretting, and…
Tibetan pö sang (སྤོས་བསང) is the tradition of preparing the aromatic incense blends used in Buddhist ritual smoke offerings (sang), daily monastery burning, and traditional Tibetan medicine.
The manual processing of tea leaves into China's six great tea categories — green, yellow, dark, white, oolong, and black — through a shared vocabulary of core techniques including shaqing (enzyme inactivation), weidiao (withering),…
A Boshan (Zibo, Shandong) lampworked glass tradition producing spherical glass "flower balls" -- solid or hollow orbs encasing miniature flowers, insects, fish, or other motifs formed from colored glass rods and worked over an open flame.
The Fuchuan (福船) is the traditional ocean-going wooden vessel of Fujian province — the primary ship type of China's Maritime Silk Road trade for over a millennium, and the vessel type used by Zheng He's fleet in the 15th century.
The Hezhen people (赫哲族 Hèzhézú) of Heilongjiang province are one of China's smallest ethnic minorities — fewer than 5,000 people — and their fish-skin clothing tradition is one of the most singular material techniques in the database.