Yao Ritual Scroll

Description

This long, painted scroll would only have been used in one ceremony. When a fully-fledged Yao priest died, the scroll was suspended between the top of the front door frame and the floor in the middle of the room, forming a “bridge” between earth and the heavens. The deceased Yao priest was believed to travel to his heavenly abode via this bridge. On the far left of the image,
a group of Yao priests welcomes a procession of deities headed by the recently deceased being carried on a palanquin. To the far right—the point nearest the heavens—are the Three Pure Ones, the deities that head the heavenly hierarchy in Yao Taoism.