Carving: Pindola Lohan, Base

This is a the base of a Chinese lacquer carving of the Lohan (Arhat) Pindola resting a hand on a tiger. This image is a reference to Pindola's accomplishment of taming a tiger and is how he received the title Tamer of the Tiger. Lohans have learned the teachings of the Shaka (historical Buddha) and earned the title of Mugaku (nothing else to learn).

Lacquerware was typically produced in government-sponsored workshops, though this was not always the case. In times of economic prosperity, the commercial workshops of southern China, particularly the southeastern provinces of the Song and Yuan periods (13th-14th century) and the late Ming era (1368-1644), were innovative in their approaches to creating lacquer items. Lacquer items from the Qing palace workshops were, at first, carved by craftsmen capable of overcoming the difficulties of lacquer carving due to their experience carving bamboo and ivory. However, the rapid political and economic decline of the Qing Dynasty following the reign of Qianlong (1735-1796) resulted in the closing down of many palace workshops, and the lacquer items made afterwards were fewer and had diminished in quality.

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