Guarding the guardians: a closer look at claystatues of guardian gods in Hong Kong temples : materials, techniquesand damages

Abstract

This dissertation addresses the characteristics and material properties of clay

statues of Guardian Gods in Hong Kong temples. Guardian God statues in Hong

Kong temples are usually represented as a pair, flanking the main deity and are

usually the approximate height of a person.

The statues under study in this dissertation may be categorized as Hong Kong’s

vernacular temple sculpture of the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and The

Republic of China Period (1911-1949), as most of the statues are approximately 50

to 150 years old.

This dissertation documents general information about the statutes and includes an

inventory of specific statues in Hong Kong SAR, in combination with a detailed

case study of a particular statue currently deposited in the Conservation Section of

Hong Kong Heritage Museum.

By describing and documenting the damages of the statues and discussing the

physical properties of the encountered materials, theories for the reasons of the

damages are made.

The research about the characteristics, materials and techniques and damages to

the statues serves in preparation to find an appropriate conservation concept for

the case study statue, and aims to provide information for possible future

conservation concepts for similar statues.