Cultural Heritage Department of Taichung City

Juang Fo Art is a commonly practiced carving of Buddha and traditional deities. It features a combination of many techniques and, due to the fact that this creation process has religious influences, it has slowly come to be considered a traditional form of handicraft art.

Taiwanese deity carving styles and groups can be divided into the Fuzhou and Quanzhou categories, each with unique elements. The base of Quanzhou deities and the deities themselves are assembled together after each work is separately created. The appearance of these deities is far from natural and humanlike with more dramatics features, undersized heads by comparison to necks and waists, and rounded abdomens. The general character of these statues is a fierce expression.

The Quanzhou style uses delicate paint line “wrapping” and “stacking” techniques to create beautiful patterns on the statues’ clothing. The detailed paint line method makes the deities seem more vivid and lively, one of the biggest trademarks of this style.

Fuzhou-style deity carving is created directly from a piece of wood, using a method known as “tuo tai”. This refers to a “kanshitsu” dry lacquer technique to outline the statue, before wood is used to sculpt the shape of the statue. Furthermore, the painting of the last layer uses a lacquer technique which, because of its time-consuming nature, is now rarely seen.