https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2857-241X
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ABSTRACT
This article focuses on the Flat Land Yao (Pingdi Yao,平地瑶) people’s ancestor worship reflected in the Meishan scroll paintings which were discovered in Shuibin village, Guanyin township, Gongcheng Yao Autonomous District, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China in 1984. The Yao people believed that Meishan was not only their ancestral habitation located in ancient central Hunan, but also the pure land for the ancestors’ souls. For the long migration duration and the unfavourable preservation environment, the existing number of Meishan scroll paintings of Flat Land Yao is small, and the two sets of scrolls in Gongcheng Yao Autonomous District are rare art works in the series. The dress style, decoration, generation names of the ancestors, and the skills of the painters reflected that the Flat Land Yao people had absorbed the culture of the surrounding nationalities, especially the Han culture. Confucianism also had an important influence on the Flat Land Yao.
Acknowledgments
Acknowledgements: The author would like to thank Mo, J. D., and Jiang, L. F. for their help in investigation in Gongcheng Yao Autonomous County. The author expresses further gratitude to Mo, J. D. for permission to use the pictures of scrolls he took. The pictures were collected in Meishan Scroll Paintings Annotation.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Mo, Meishan Scroll Paintings Annotation.
2. Ibid.
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Additional information
Notes on contributors
Fangrong Liao
Fangrong Liao is an ethnologist specializing in the history, culture and art of the ethnic minorities in southern China. She is currently working on the artworks’ research of the Flat Land Yaos.
Preechawut Apirating
Preechawut Apirating is an art historian specializing in the religious Iconology of Thailand. He is currently engaged in the study of Buddhist art in Northeast Thailand.
Pat Kotchapakdee
Pat Kotchapakdee is an art research expert specializing in culture and art of the ASEAN region. He is currently working on the culture and art in Northeast Thailand.
Homhuan Buarabha
Homhuan Buarabha is a religious scientist specializing in the languages, literatures and art of Southeast Asia. He is currently working on Buddhist art in Thailand.