Buddha Clothing Shawl of Nasich
3 min readThis is a shawl worn by Buddhist monk in major ceremonies, which is made of gold-woven brocade. In the Yuan Dynasty, gold-woven brocade was called as Nasich in Mongolian language. Shawl features high collar, straight Ju (big lapel) and the overall shape like a butterflfl y. Collar sees two green ribbons, and a Pan (button wrapper made of cloth) is decorated before the chest. Red silk Pan is on the right, and coral round buckle is on the left. This Buddha shawl enjoys even and thin gold thread and shining pattern, which is a rare masterpiece of Nasich fabric in the Yuan Dynasty.
Ribbon is made in exquisite and refifi ned manner, which is sewn with four-color gold-woven brocade at different layers. The black gold-woven brocade is woven with pattern of auspicious birds, blue gold-woven brocade is woven with pattern of auspicious cloud, red goldwoven brocade is woven with pattern of dragon and phoenix, and green gold-woven brocade is woven with pattern of curly grass.
China is a country in favor of dragon. In our country, dragon has a special meaning. Dragon is such a magical creature that consists of antler of deer, head of cattle, body of python, scales of fifi sh and claw of eagle, which is regarded as a symbol of ancient Chinese civilization. Since ancient times, dragon is an ancient Chinese auspicious god. It is highly regarded as the totem of the Chinese Nation, and enjoys the supreme status. Dragon pattern is widely used in the Chinese arts and crafts. Processed and evolved by artists through the ages, dragon changes from fifi ctitious image to more and more specififi c image.
Gold-woven Brocade
“Brocade” is general term for multicolor jacquard weave fabric, which needs demanding production technology. Goldwoven brocade was the most famous brocade in the Yuan Dynasty, which was originated in Persia. It is characterized by gold thread as design and gold thread pattern as decoration backbone of the fabric. So background color of the fabric and gold thread add luster to each other, thereby demonstrating brilliant, resplendent and magnififi cent appreciation effect.
Arts and Crafts of the Yuan Dynasty
Arts and crafts of the Yuan Dynasty developed in extremely lopsided way. Some varieties ushered in abnormal prosperity, and luxury crafts used by the nobles were exquisite. But some varieties went downhill. The achievements of arts and crafts of the Yuan Dynasty were mainly reflected by ceramics craft, dyeing craft, metal craft, lacquerware craft and so on. Among them, dyeing craft held the highlight. Among the fabric, gold-woven brocade was the most famous. Wool fabric and embroidery were relatively well developed, which showed ornate style.
Zhijin Technology of the Yuan Dynasty
The technology of “Zhijin” refers to weaving patterns and designs with gold thread on the fabric so that the fabric shows off metallic luster. The development of Zhijin Technology took place after the Mongolian minority ruled China. The Mongolian minority originally lived in the northern grassland areas. Due to influence of the living environment, the Mongolian minority always favored shining gold-woven artworks. In the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongolian rulers grasped a large quantity of gold in the seized Eurasian area, and converged textile artisans together to start the mass production of gold-woven brocade. According to The Adventures of Marco Polo , in the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongolian nobles not only wore purple and red gems and gorgeous “Nasich”, but also used curtain, bedding, stairs, pads and other daily necessities made of “Nasich”. Even the tents of barracks were made of “Nasich”, which extended for miles and looked very spectacular.
