Jade Dragon Batiks

Custom-Designed Batik from China from Jade Dragon Online

Dancing Women

Multi-colored, fringed border
100 cm x 100 cm
Retail: $38
(plus shipping and handling; quantity discounts available)
Order Number: JDW1

The Chinese culture is one of colorful celebration and joyful living. These dancing women depict this attitude of celebrating life.

Dragons & Phoenix
Meet the Sun

Dragon & Phoenix Design No. 1
Multi-colored, fringed border
100 cm x 100 cm
Retail: $38
(plus shipping and handling; quantity discounts available)
Order Number: JDB1

Dragon and Phoenix Batik

Dragon & Phoenix Design No. 2
Multi-colored, fringed border
100 cm x 100 cm
Retail: $38
(plus shipping and handling; quantity discounts available)
Order Number: JDB2

Phoenix: The phoenix is one of the divine animals of the four cardinal points, representing the South and summer. This mythical bird, considered the ruler of feathery animals, is a strange and beautiful mixture of parts of other birds, and seems most related to the peacock and the pheasant, the total effect being that of a giant bird of paradise. Its appearance was said to mark auspicious events, such as the birth or rule of a virtuous emperor or the advent of a great philosopher (so would a great birthday present!). In pairs, swirling phoenixes represent the feng and huang, the male and female of the mythical phoenix species, symbolizing harmonious marriages.

Dragons: The dragon is one of the divine animals of the four cardinal points. Associated with water, the dragon is the rain deity, possessing the power to bring refreshing showers for abundant harvests as well as devastating storms and floods. It also represents the principle of heaven, the East, adaptability, the emperor, light, activity, the maleness in the yin/yang of Chinese cosmology, and is considered the ruler of scaly animals.

Dragons (Red)

Multi-colored, fringed border
100 cm x 100 cm
Retail: $38
(plus shipping and handling; quantity discounts available)
Order Number: JDD1

Dragons are also associated with the cosmic forces, for at the spring equinox it rises into the heavens among clouds, thunder and lightning, and at the autumn equinox descends into the sea with the "Tide-ruling Jewels" of ebb and flood.

Dragons are often seen in pursuit of a jewel, fighting for its possession, or grasping it with their claws. The mystic jewel or "tama" was adopted by the Buddhist religion as symbolizing omnipotence through ascetism, and so being able to grant all wishes – originally flaming, it liquifies and then crystallizes into a beautiful luminous sphere, a symbol of the origin of our planet, Earth.

The Ba Gua (Eight Trigrams) Batik

Ba Gua, Dragons
& Phoenix Communion

Multi-colored, fringed border
100 cm x 100 cm
Retail: $38
(plus shipping and handling; quantity discounts available)
Order Number: JDC1

The Ba Gua (Eight Trigrams): 5,000 years ago the Chinese emperor Fu Hsi was meditating near the Lo River. As he slowly opened his eyes, he saw before him a beautiful yellow turtle. To Fu Hsi, turtles symbolized deep meditation and long life, so Fu felt that the turtle's appearance was a blessing from the gods. As he observed the turtle, Fu noticed some unusual geometric markings of black and white dots on the turtle's shell. Fu closed his eyes and returned to deep meditation. When he opened his eyes the turtle had returned to the river.

Fu-Hsi believed that the pattern of geometric markings was a unique formula revealed to him by the gods. The patterns, according to this legend, later became know as the Eight Trigrams or Ba Gua.

Each trigram is made up of a three-tier combination of yin and yang units. These trigrams came to be used as symbols to represent the natural forces which affect man. The first of the Eight Trigrams is qin (heaven or sky), then come kun (earth), chen (thunder), sun (wind), kan (water), li (fire), ken (mountains), and finally tui (water).

Today, people use the Ba Gua in their homes and offices as a symbol to ward off evil spirits and bring good fortune.

The dragon and phoenix are powerful symbols in ancient Chinese traditions.

Jade Dragon Batiks

Though luxurious silk is often associated with China, for the farmer working in the fields, this material was impractical and unaffordable. Thus for centuries the people wore cotton clothing, later using dyes to turn these simple fabrics into wonderful works of art. After years of development and with the expansion of the economy, the dye-resist method of adorning cotton became the main type of decoration in may rural areas by the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Until the beginning of this century, clothes, quilt covers, scarves, curtains, and cloth wrappers were embellished with various indigo blue and white designs, giving rural homes a distinctive color scheme. The dye-resist method, often called batik in the West (a Malay word) and common throughout Southeast Asia and Africa, is the process by which a water-repellent substance -- such as wax, lime, bean or flour paste, is applied to a piece of cloth in a preconceived design. After the fabric is dyed, the substance is removed, either by boiling or washing, leaving white those areas that the dye could not penetrate. The fabric that emerges presents a bold contrast of creamy white and robust indigo. The minority women in China's south and southwest are especially noted for their bold batik pictures.

Though the use of bright red, brown, and a variety of other dyes later became more fashionable among the upper classes, today indigo, as one of the most durable and beautiful colors, still reigns supreme.

Like folk art all over the world, Chinese-folk textiles vary greatly in decoration and technique. Each village developed its own local style, which was further refined from family to family and daughter to daughter. In addition, each of China's minority nationalities, especially Zhuang, Yao, Maio, and Yi, has a particular decorative style and heritage which have increased the rich diversity of folk textile forms. These batik were custom-designed by Jade Dragon and created by one such minority group from the province of Guizhou, near Szechuan.

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