Made by Tang Chunfu, an arts master in China, Nine-dragon screen is in Zhongnanhai collection in Beijing. [Photo/sjk.tzwhg.net]

Lacquering and spreading ramie are special techniques for decorating and protecting the appearance of all kinds of products. With 48 steps in the production process, it is mainly used in producing Buddhist statues, decorating palaces and temples, and protecting and manufacturing local equipment. The key feature of these products is that they are durable, lustrous, uncracked and undeformed. During the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420), the techniques of lacquering and spreading ramie were applied in Tiantai and introduced to Japan. Since the late 1980s, works produced by Buddhist Town in Tiantai Mountain with these techniques have been collected by museums of national treasures and ministries of religion in 49 countries and regions in East Asia, Europe and the United States. In May 2006, the techniques of lacquering and spreading ramie in Tiantai Mountain were included in China's first representative list intangible cultural heritage.