Temple Sculpture
In nearly forty temples of Macao and there are more than ten thousand images of Gods, which are important artistic sculptures.
There are also some structural decorations, such as the tops of walls, ridge tiles, brick sculptures, stone sculptures and etc. Besides, there are wood sculptures, such as the incense burner table.
According to the quality of sculpture, the sculptures can be classified into seven categories: stone sculptures, such as idols, beam columns, column-posts, auspicious animals, boats for drink and others; wood sculptures, such as idols, incense burner tables, standing tablets, powerful articles, and etc; paper picture, such as idols of gods; linen picture, such as idols of gods; ceramics, such as ridge tiles in forms of animals, idols, turtles ridges, and etc; bronze, such as images of the Buddha, powerful articles, candlesticks, and etc; clay sculpture, such as idols of gods.
Many artistic sculptures of the temples of Macao have an important historical value, like for example, the wood sculpture of Kwan Tai and the image of Empress of the Temple of Lotus were the works of Jiaqing Reign, which Lin Zexu once offered incenses.
Taking the sculptures of Empress of Golden Flowers of the Temple of Lin Kai (the Book of Lotus) for another example, though every sculpture is no more than forty centimetres in height and made of clay, they are elegantly dressed and their little toes are shown under the lightly carved rope of phoenix and unicorn, full of secular delight.
The third example, the Wall of Five Dragons and The Phoenix Looks towards the Sun in the Temple of Lotus are large in scale, with tens of square meters in length, which can be regarded as symbolic works of sculptures of the temple.
(Excertps from: Macau Temples by Chan, Lei and Chendra published by IACM SAR 2002). Back to Macau Temples
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