Tiger as an essential motif for Chinese rugs and carpets

The Chinese Tiger has for centuries been associated with the potent principles of courage, bravery, dignity, and sternness. The tiger was classed as the fourth in the military rank badge system of the Qing dynasty.

The tiger was a symbol of bravery and courage, often used as a sign of military prowess and a protector of objects and people.

Chinese paintings depicting a Tiger are often hung on a wall inside of a building, facing the entrance, determining them as creatures with apotropaic function.

Tigers were often used in rug and carpet compositions, decorating Tibetan domestic spaces and shrines on the raised Kang seating platforms or the floor of a throne room in royal residences. And likewise, these rugs and carpets were very popular for the same reasons in Chinese classical interiors, as proven in the examples in the imagery of the woven rugs from Tibet, Mongolia, and other provinces of China, dating back to the late-19th up to the mid- 20th centuries.