Product Description

Antique Yao Priest’s Yen Chop 3

Material: Wood
Style: China or North Laos
Size: Height 5.5 cm, Width 5.5 cm
Order Number:  MHSAYPYC3

Many visitors to Northern Thailand will have seen Yao people. The women wear turbans and a flowing gown with a red woolly collar and hand embroidered trousers. They  carry their youngest child on their backs in a decorated cloth babycarrier. The men wear indigo jackets with silver buttons.

They are scattered in many parts of South China, Vietnam, Thailand and Laos and practise slash and burn agriculture, producing mainly rice for themselves and maize for their poultry and pigs. They also grow opium.

The Yao are a very ancient minority.  During the last 1,000 years they have migrated slowly from central China  to the southern provinces and from there to north Vietnam, northern Thailand and  northern Laos.

Reference to Yao was made first in a T’ang dynasty (618-906 AD) document – mo yao – meaning ‘not subject to compulsory service’. It probably indicates a settlement following a Yao rebellion. The mo was dropped during the Sung dynasty (960-1279 AD).

They broke up into several groups and sub-groups. They speak four main languages. The largest segment, about two-thirds of the Yao population, are the Mien and Mun language speakers.

They practise the Taoist religion. For their ceremonies the priests require a number of ritual objects, which are considered sacred and made by highly qualified people.

One of the these many items are wooden or bronze seals or chops (Yen) to expedite messages to the gods. They used a special red ink, mixing a red powder with water. The message on the base in Chinese characters reads, ‘By order of the Emperor, expedite promptly the message to the gods’.

Each priest would have his own stamp, presented to him at his ordination, with his priest’s certificate. His wife would have one too. The stamp and certificate would be burned when the priest died.

19th – early 20th century.

There are examples in The Yao, The Mien and Mun Yao in China, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand, Jess G. Pourret, River Books, 2002, page 206.

Please ask for the price (or make an offer).