The Depository · Browse · Asia-Pacific
The Depository documents 26 techniques in Taiwan; by risk level: 17 critically endangered, 7 endangered, 2 vulnerable. Each record opens with a public summary; the full research record is free to view once registered.
Atayal backstrap loom weaving is the defining craft tradition of Taiwan's Atayal people — the largest indigenous group occupying the central mountain range — producing red-and-white geometric supplementary weft textiles historically worn…
Paiwan complementary weft weaving produces the ground textiles onto which bead embroidery (CRAFT-0567) is applied, but is also a significant tradition in its own right — producing the distinctive black-and-red woven textiles of southern…
The Saisiyat people of northern Taiwan produce a specific ritual textile used exclusively in the pasta'ay (矮靈祭) — the biennial spirit ceremony held every two years (and a grand ceremony every ten years) to propitiate the spirits of the…
The Tao people (also called Yami) of Orchid Island (Lanyu — southeast of Taiwan's main island) maintain a pandanus leaf weaving tradition producing sleeping mats, food trays, and the flat-woven panels used to line the interior of their…
The Truku and Seediq peoples — sub-groups related to the Atayal who gained separate official recognition in 2004 and 2008 — maintain a weaving tradition whose most sacred dimension is the gaya (customary law) governing who may weave which…
Ciporolan is the Amis people's hand-built pottery tradition — the largest indigenous group in Taiwan, occupying the eastern coastal plain (Huadong Valley).
The National Palace Museum in Taipei holds the world's finest collection of Song dynasty Ru ware — the most prized Chinese imperial celadon, produced for only 20 years under Emperor Huizong (1107-1127 CE) before the kiln was destroyed.
Jiaozhi tao (交趾陶) is Taiwan's signature low-fire polychrome ceramic tradition — producing the brilliantly colored sculptural figures that decorate Taiwanese temples everywhere: the dragons on roof ridges, the story figures on walls, the…
The Bunun people of central Taiwan's high mountain range (occupying the highest average elevation of any Taiwan indigenous group) produce rattan carrying baskets calibrated to the mountain terrain they navigate — specifically, the basket…
The Thao people of Sun Moon Lake (Nantou County) are Taiwan's smallest indigenous group by population — approximately 700 people — and maintain a unique lacustrine (lake-adapted) fishing basket tradition distinct from the river-fishing…
The splitting, stripping, and weaving of bamboo into functional and decorative objects, centered on Zhushan Township, Nantou County — historically Taiwan's principal bamboo craft and timber-processing hub, with bamboo covering as much as…
The Rukai people of southern Taiwan's mountain range build traditional houses from local dark schist stone slabs without mortar or binding material — slabs selected, shaped, and assembled so that gravity and interlocking geometry hold the…
Gong deng (宮燈 — 'palace lantern') is the Beijing court lantern tradition brought to Taiwan by mainland craftspeople in 1949 — now more actively practiced in Taiwan than the Beijing tradition it descended from.
The Tsou people of Alishan (Chiayi County) maintain the tradition of building and maintaining the kuba — the men's sacred ceremonial house at the center of each Tsou village — using specific ritual building materials and a construction…
Lukang (鹿港) in Changhua County is Taiwan's most concentrated traditional craft district — a town of 80,000 people that at its peak was Taiwan's second-largest port and the primary Fujianese cultural transplant center.
Sanyi Township (三義鄉) in Miaoli County is Taiwan's — and arguably Asia's — densest concentration of wood carving studios, with over 200 carving workshops producing sculpture, furniture, and architectural elements.
Budaixi (布袋戲 — 'cloth bag theater') is Taiwan's most beloved performing art — a glove puppet theater tradition brought from Fujian Province in the 19th century and developed into a distinctly Taiwanese art form.
Lanshan (藍衫 — 'blue garment') is the Hakka Chinese community's defining textile tradition in Taiwan — the deep indigo-dyed cotton or ramie cloth worn as the daily and ceremonial garment of Hakka women in Hsinchu, Miaoli, and Taoyuan…
The cutting, grinding, and carving of nephrite jade sourced from the Fengtian deposit in Hualien County, eastern Taiwan — a craft with an extraordinary and improbable modern origin story.
Taiqi (台漆 — 'Taiwan lacquer') is Taiwan's indigenous lacquer tradition — distinct from Japanese urushi (CRAFT-0460), Chinese mainland lacquer, and Burmese hman-zi (CRAFT-0425) — developed in Lukang from Fujianese lacquer techniques adapted…
Limaraw is the Paiwan people's tradition of glass bead embroidery — one of the most culturally stratified craft systems in any indigenous tradition globally.
Caicui (彩繪 — 'color painting') is Taiwan's tradition of decorative painting applied to temple and traditional architecture — covering beams, eaves, doorways, and walls with narrative scenes, auspicious symbols, and deity images.
Jingtai lan (景泰藍 — 'Jingtai blue') is the Beijing court cloisonné tradition brought to Taiwan by mainland craftspeople in 1949 — now more actively practiced in Taiwan than in Beijing, where the Cultural Revolution severely disrupted the…
Jianzhi (剪紙 — 'scissor paper') is the Chinese paper-cutting tradition maintained in Taiwan by Hokkien and Hakka communities — a tradition brought from Fujian Province and adapted to Taiwanese Buddhist, Taoist, and folk religious contexts.
Liuli (琉璃) is Taiwan's contemporary cast art glass, adapting the ancient pâte de verre (paste of glass) casting technique to Chinese Buddhist and Taoist iconography; it was established in 1987 by Loretta Yang and Chang Yi through their…
The Tao tatala is one of the most extraordinary craft objects in the Pacific — an outrigger fishing canoe assembled from 27 individually carved wooden planks joined without nails or caulking, held together only by wooden pins and the…