Dragon robe

Dragon Robe
The robe is a representation of the universe surrounding the Chinese empire. The bottom part of the robe represents the ocean and the rivers and we can see some mountains as well. We areable to find two dragons on this part of the robe. There are two celestial houses that are protected by another 2 rising dragons. From there on we can see the celestial realm represented by theclouds. One of the most appearing symbols on the robe is the bat. The bat is related to happiness and longevity. “Bats play an important part in Chinese legendary lore […] in the caverns of the hills arefound bats a thousand years old, and white as silver, which are believed to feed on stalactites, and if eaten will ensure longevity and good sight.”(Williams, 34) The bat was not seen as something badas is seen in the west. On the contrary, the word bat is pronounced much closed to happy in Chinese and is related to it as well. Another symbol that we find on the robe is the Swastika. We can findit on the sleeve with two different meanings. The two that appears in red, one on each sleeve, represents the strength of the person wearing it and is even represented more by the red color of energy.The many that appear on the black band going around the sleeve represents longevity.
“In China, the dragon is credited with having great powers that allowed it to make rain and control floods bystriking the river with its mighty tail, for example” (ChinaCulture.org). During the Qing Dynasty the dragon became the figure for the empire because it formed part of the flag. Dragons symbolized manythings in ancient China. It shows that the one wearing it are sons of heaven since many tales say that the first emperors of China were closely related to “Long” which means dragon in Chinese. Thedragons on the robe have 5 claws. This indicates that the robe is from China and it belonged to an emperor or to a member of the emperor’s family. If the robe has the same amount of dragons in both...