鶯歌交趾陶 (Yingge jiao zhi tao)
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 guardian lions at gates. Jiaozhi tao uses a low-fire lead glaze (fired at approximately 900C) in a palette of bright yellow, green, blue, red, and white — the same palette and technique as Tang sancai but with a distinctly Taiwanese narrative vocabulary. The defining technical knowledge is the wet-on-wet glaze separation: different glaze colors are applied to adjacent areas of the unfired piece while both glazes are still wet — and must be separated by a thin raised line (shuixian) pressed into the clay that acts as a barrier preventing glaze migration during firing. If the shuixian line is not deep enough, adjacent glazes bleed into each other; if too deep, it creates an unacceptable visible ridge.
Risk level: Critically Endangered · Taiwan national ICH list
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