Note: This is a painting produced in the last fifty years by an artist who is presumably still alive. I do not have copyright in any way over this artist’s work. I’m reproducing it here because (a) frankly, whoever it is seems unlikely to sue me, (b) these images are of ethnographic interest, and (c) I’d hope that shining more light on contemporary mural and scroll painters will ultimately be good for their trade. To that last point: It’s possible to commission these scrolls very easily in the villages around Wutai County. If you’re interested, email me and I’d be happy to give you the contact information of several painters we met.
Structure Type: Grandfathers’ House pantheon scroll 爺爺家百神卷軸畫, now set into a structure marked “The Gods’ Box” 神棚, a special seating place for deities across from a village opera stage.
Location: Springs-Rock Village, Wutai County, Shanxi Province 山西省五台縣泉岩
Period: Late 20th or early 21st century.
Artist: I made two visits to this village in the hopes of finding the artist, but was not successful; we spoke to other painters in the neighboring villages but nobody seemed to know the origin of this particular image.
Mural Contents: Unusually among the post-Revolution Grandfathers’ Houses I saw, this image is dedicated to a single group of deities, the central Mother of Waters 水母 and her sons, the Five Dragon Kings 五海龍王. Helpfully, all the deities here are labeled, although most of them are blocked by the statues. In the main row we see the Kings labelled one through five, plus the Master of Rain 雨師; below them are a Court Official 朝官, the Thunder Lord 雷公, the Lightning Mother 閃電母, and Goddess of Wind 風娘娘. I would have loved to try to see more such single-deity group Grandfathers’ Houses, but unfortunately my time in Wutai County was limited.
Other Notes: There’s an interesting stele in the other room of the temple, giving the schedule by which the different villages and altar associations 社會 in the region were to pay for the yearly opera performances held on the stage across the way.
Full Gallery
