A Taiwanese Palanquin in the Bai Win Collection
At first glance, this extraordinary object might appear to be elaborately carved furniture. It was something very different: a palanquin, built to carry the image of a temple god in religious processions. When the deity left the temple, the palanquin became a small temple on the move.
The Bai Win example is carved from camphor wood, with a painted metal roof restored and repainted by Bai Win. It came from a temple in Tainan and has traditionally been identified as a Mazu (媽祖) palanquin dating to the early 19th century.
The palanquin offers an unusual opportunity to see how Taiwanese craftsmen created a sacred environment around a deity.
An Auspicious World in Wood
Almost every available surface is carved with flowers, birds, books, scrolls, vessels, dragons, phoenixes, qilin, bats, mythical creatures and human figures. The abundance initially seems overwhelming, but closer examination shows that the decoration is organized.
The upper sections combine books, scrolls, a gourd, lingzhi and other precious or scholarly objects from the broad Chinese vocabulary of auspicious imagery. Below them, flowers and birds alternate with arrangements of cultivated objects known as 博古圖 (bógǔ tú), suggesting learning, longevity, cultivation and good fortune.
On both sides, the same broad rhythm appears:
Nature — Cultivated Objects — Nature
The individual carvings differ, but their positions correspond. The craftsman was balancing ideas rather than merely repeating designs.
The Eight Immortals
Among the most remarkable carvings are the Eight Immortals (八仙). Four travel along each side through landscapes of clouds, rocks and vegetation. Some can be identified by familiar attributes; others are less certain because their identifying objects have been simplified or obscured. As an ensemble, however, their identity is clear.
Their presence turns the palanquin into a supernatural landscape: the deity travelled surrounded by familiar figures of Chinese popular religion.
Guardians at the Threshold
Lower on the structure, scholarly objects give way to supernatural animals. On each side a qilin (麒麟) occupies the center, framed by two elongated chihu (螭虎).
Chihu — Qilin — Chihu
The arrangement is repeated on the opposite side.
At the rear, a phoenix-and-flower composition is flanked by highly stylized dragons. The placement is deliberate: qilin (麒麟), dragons, phoenixes and chihu (螭虎) occupy different parts of the sacred structure rather than being scattered wherever space was available.
The palanquin’s function is written into its architecture. Four large apertures received the poles by which bearers lifted it in procession. Each is formed as the open mouth of a stylized lion mask, turning an essential structural feature into protective imagery. The poles that set the sacred structure in motion passed literally through the mouths of lions.
One of the Four Base Chihu Supports
At the four corners of the base, fantastic creatures emerge from the wooden rail while enormous paws support the palanquin. Comparison with documented Taiwanese deity palanquins suggests these are 螭虎吞腳 (chīhǔ tūn jiǎo), forms in which the protective chihu (螭虎) and the architectural support become one.
The chihu (螭虎) therefore does more than decorate the palanquin: it guards its boundaries and physically supports the sacred structure.
The Sacred Front
The front gathers the decorative program around the deity’s entrance. Flowers and birds flank the opening, precious objects appear beside them, and small qilin and other supernatural creatures guard the lower approach.
Above the entrance, two dragons turn toward a flaming pearl, marking the principal façade and the approach to the deity’s chamber. Around the other three windows, four bats occupy the corners. Because the Chinese word for bat, fú (蝠), sounds like fú (福), meaning blessing or good fortune, the bats quite literally surround the deity with blessings.
Reading the Whole
Taken individually, the motifs are familiar. Together, they suggest a loose progression from cultivated and auspicious objects, through flowers and birds and the Eight Immortals, to phoenixes, qilin and protective creatures, ending with chihu physically supporting the structure.
Treasures and cultivated objects → Nature → Eight Immortals → Protective creatures → Chihu supports
What We Know — and What We Don’t
The palanquin’s known history places it in a temple in Tainan. Tradition identifies it with Mazu, Taiwan’s great maritime goddess, and associates it with a date of about 1820. Both should remain provisional.
Nothing in the carvings is uniquely associated with Mazu. The Eight Immortals, dragons, phoenixes, qilin (麒麟), chihu (螭虎), bats, flowers and auspicious objects belong to the broader visual language of Taiwanese popular religion, and the carvings alone cannot establish an exact date.
What they can establish is more revealing: this was not conceived merely as a chair, but as portable sacred architecture.
A Temple Without Its God
Today the deity that once occupied the center is gone, but the sacred world built around it remains. The Eight Immortals travel along its sides; dragons and phoenixes inhabit the rear; qilin (麒麟) and chihu (螭虎) guard the lower structure; bats surround the windows; lions receive the carrying poles; and above the entrance two dragons still face the flaming pearl.
The identity of the deity may remain uncertain, but the craftsman’s intention is becoming clearer. He created more than an elaborate wooden vehicle.
He created a small sacred world—and made it move.
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