Five Tigers From Vietnam

Five Tigers: Black, Red, White, Green and Yellow, 1980s

Here’s a Ngu Ho (“Five Tigers”) woodblock print from northern Vietnam, outside my usual collection zone. But in fact northern Vietnam shares a border with China and was under Chinese rule for nearly a thousand years, and local culture inevitably retains some foreign characteristics.

 So, as in China, Vietnamese folk religion believes that the tiger – despite being dangerously troublesome to humans – is also a protective force against demons, especially those causing illness. Tiger images were pasted up on doorways to symbolically protect homes and temples, scaring away any evil influences which might try to enter.

For hundreds of years these Five Tigers prints were a speciality of workshops along Hang Trong street in Hanoi; production peaked in the late nineteenth century but had fizzled out completely by the 1990s. A set of stamps featuring them was issued in 1971 by what was then North Vietnam (until it unified with the south in 1975).

Only the black outline was printed, with the colours – vibrant pinks, blues and yellows – painted on by hand. The tigers’ splendidly abundant whiskers were finished in glittery metallic silver.

Following Chinese cosmography, each tiger represent a direction and an element: black for the north (water), red for the south (fire), white for the west (metal), green for the east (wind) and yellow in the centre (earth). When the elements and directions are correctly balanced against one another, all will be well; for example, in times of excessive rainfall the northern gates of cities might be closed, to block the “water” direction – and hopefully change the weather.

Woodblock for printing small version of the Five Tigers, with compass points marked (北,南,東,西)

The seven stars of the big dipper above the yellow tiger’s head represent the cosmos, governed by the Queen of Heaven. She balances the effects of the five directions, dispelling evil influences. This is echoed by the tablet protected by the yellow tiger, inscribed in red Chinese characters reading 法大威灵, “Powerful Guardian of (Heaven’s) Law”.

All in all then, an impressive good-luck talisman for the home.

Thanks to Jim Kemp

Reading

Müllerová, Petra: The Tiger: A Religious Motif of Tonkin Wooden Prints and Chinese Ink Drawings (Annals of the Náprstek Museum, Prague 1999)