Thailand · Surface Design / Gilding
การปิดทอง (Kan Pit Thong) / ปางทอง (Pang Thong)
Thai gold leaf application — known as pit thong (applying gold) or in its craft context pang thong — is the traditional technique of applying pure gold leaf to Buddha images, temple architecture, ceremonial objects, and devotional items. As a devotional act, applying gold leaf to a Buddha image is one of the most common merit-making practices in Thai Buddhism — millions of gold leaf sheets applied daily across Thailand's 40,000+ temples. As a craft, the controlled architectural gilding of temple structures — gables, spires (prang and chedi), carved wooden elements — requires a specialist technique (chang pit thong) distinct from the devotional self-application practice. The architectural gilding tradition uses oil-sized lacquer grounds, specific brush techniques, and an understanding of how gold leaf behaves on curved three-dimensional temple surfaces in Thailand's humid tropical climate.
Risk level: Endangered · Not inscribed
Warp or weft ikat silk weaving where threads are bound and dyed before weaving, producing characteristic soft-edged geometric patterns.
Geometric supplementary weft pattern weaving on cotton.
Complex supplementary weft brocade silk weaving producing interlocking geometric and floral patterns on a plain silk ground.
Plain tabby weave of Thai mulberry silk on a treadle loom, producing lustrous cloth with subtle slub texture from Thai silkworm reeling.
Weaving of extremely fine fibers from the Lipao climbing fern (Lygodium flexuosum) found only in southern Thailand rainforests, producing lace-like basketry objects of exceptional refinement.
Hand-painted wax-resist fabric technique of southern Thailand, distinguishable from Javanese batik by its emphasis on hand-painting (rather than canting drawing alone) and a distinct pattern vocabulary of marine life, tropical flora, and…
The painting and carving of the carretto siciliano — the decorated Sicilian cart — covering every surface with narrative scenes from the Carolingian cycle, Norman history, and religious subjects in vivid primary colors (red, yellow, blue,…
The tracing of one-stroke geometric figures on smoothed sand or ash by the Lunda Cokwe (Chokwe) and neighboring peoples of eastern Angola, using a matrix of dots pressed into the surface as fixed anchor points around which the drawing's…
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…
The Czech kraslice (decorated Easter egg) tradition — the making of the distinctive Czech decorated Easter eggs using multiple techniques including wax resist (batika), scratching (rytí), wire wrapping, and natural dyeing.
Paitkar (also Jadu Patua) is the oldest known scroll painting tradition in India, practiced by the Chitrakar (painter) caste among the Santali and Ho tribal communities of Jharkhand and West Bengal border districts.
Sohrai and Kohbar are two distinct but related ritual wall-painting traditions of the Jharkhand tribal communities (Kurmi, Munda, Oraon) of Hazaribagh district, both executed by women on mud-plastered house walls using fingers and natural…