Mexico · Lacquerware / Decorative Painting
Maque (from zumaque, Spanish for the sumac tree used in Asian lacquer production)
A layered lacquer technique with origins entirely independent of and predating contact with Asian lacquerware, in which fat rendered from a scale insect (aje) is combined with plant oil and powdered dolomite or lime-rich earth to build a protective, decorative coating on gourds and carved wood, later enriched after the Spanish conquest by Manila Galleon-borne Asian aesthetic influence — carved motifs, gold leaf, mother-of-pearl inlay — layered onto a technique whose core materials and process remained fundamentally pre-Columbian.
Risk level: Endangered · Not currently inscribed on a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list; Mexico is a State Party to the UNESCO 2003 Convention (ratified 14 December 2005) and could nominate this technique in the future.
The individual hand-placement of tiny glass seed beads (chaquira) into a beeswax-and-pine-resin adhesive coating carved wood figures, masks, votive gourd bowls, and other three-dimensional forms into dense, mosaic-like surfaces of sacred…
A hand-embroidery tradition of the Otomí (Hñähñu) people of the Mezquital Valley and Sierra Madre Oriental highlands, rendering large-scale, densely populated scenes of stylized animals, plants, and mythological creatures on plain cotton…
A nearly 2,000-year-old bark-paper making technique in which inner tree bark is boiled with lime and ash, then hand-pounded on a wooden board with a flat stone into a single continuous sheet, preserved after the Spanish colonial…
A pre-Hispanic Guerrero lacquer tradition centered on the rayado ("scratched" or incised) technique, in which a design is carved through a top layer of colored lacquer to reveal a contrasting layer beneath, then further embellished with…
A nearly 500-year-old woodworking tradition in a Purépecha pine-forest town assigned to stringed-instrument making by Michoacán's first bishop, Vasco de Quiroga, in the 16th century, sustaining a town where an estimated 90 percent of the…
A double-weave coiled and twined basketry tradition of the Rárámuri (Tarahumara) people of Chihuahua's Copper Canyon, using needles from the Apache pine tree and split leaves of the sotol plant to produce durable bowls, plates, and…
Sơn mài is the Vietnamese lacquer tradition — distinct from Korean ottchil (CRAFT-0020) and Japanese urushi in its multi-layer color technique and grinding-back process.
Mon lacquerware (မွန်ယွန်း mon yun) is the lacquer tradition of the Mon people of Mon State and the Bago Region — a tradition older than Bagan yun (CRAFT-0422) since the Mon civilization preceded the Bamar in the lower Irrawaddy.
The sadaik (စာဒိုင်း) is the lacquered wooden chest used to store Buddhist palm-leaf manuscripts (parabaik) and paper manuscripts in Burmese Buddhist monasteries — one of the most functionally and aesthetically significant craft objects in…
Two related but visually and historically distinct lacquer-miniature painting traditions, both descended, like Palekh (CRAFT-1871), from icon-painting centers whose masters turned to secular papier-mâché box painting after the 1917…
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).
Shan lacquerware (ရှမ်းယွန်း shan yun) is the regional lacquer tradition of Shan State — distinct from Bagan yun (CRAFT-0422) in its use of a thicker bamboo coil base (less flexible than Bagan), a different engraving vocabulary (Shan…