Deity robes and nailed-gold embroidery
The robe a god wears when carried through the streets is the most laborious branch of Chaozhou embroidery. It has to be seen by a whole village, and it has to read in daylight.
What it is一、是什麼
A deity robe is the embroidered garment worn by a god’s image on procession and at sacrifice. The cut follows the size of the image and the rank of the god; robe, armour and cape are the common forms. The embroidery is concentrated on the chest, the back and the front opening — the face that turns toward the crowd as the image goes along.
Why nailed-gold embroidery二、為什麼用釘金繡
Nailed-gold embroidery works mainly in gold and silver thread with silk floss as the auxiliary; gold thread throws back a strong light in the sun and is seen from a distance. A procession is outdoors and the audience stands tens of paces away: the fineness of the stitching is invisible, the brightness of the gold is not. The choice of technique obeys the viewing distance, and that is a very solid reason.
Among the stitches of nailed-gold work, the ‘two-needle dragon scale’ is peculiar to Chaozhou embroidery: gold thread is nailed in a spiral to make a round plate, the plates overlapped, and the lower edge of each scale left free to move. The dragon patterns on deity robes mostly use it.
Patterns and occasions三、紋樣與場合
Dragon and phoenix, the qilin, sea and cliff, and cloud scrolls are the common subjects. The rank of a pattern goes with the rank of the god and cannot be used at will — this layer is local convention, differing somewhat from county to county, and has to be checked temple by temple.
Related關聯
For the technique, Chaozhou embroidery; for the occasion, ying lao ye; for the religious background, the Three Mountain Kings.
Sources來源
National Intellectual Property Administration announcement no. 651, Requirements for the Protection of the Geographical Indication Product Chaozhou Embroidery (on nailed-gold stitching and the two-needle dragon scale); relevant categories in the Chaoshan folk custom multimedia database; field collection on this site pending.
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Last revised: 5 November 2026