Sacred images in Đạo Mẫu

IThe Three Palaces, the Four Palaces and the four colors

Followers of the Mother Goddesses picture the universe as divided into realms called phủ, or palaces, each governed by a Mother. Ngô Đức Thịnh writes that the Holy Mother is embodied in three or four Mother Goddesses who govern four realms: Thiên Phủ (heaven), Địa Phủ (earth), Thoải Phủ (water) and Nhạc Phủ (mountains and forests). Thoải Phủ is also called Thủy Phủ.

Each palace has its own color. That color appears on the robes of the statues, on the clothing of the medium in a hầu đồng ritual and even on the offerings. It is the key to telling which palace a deity belongs to when standing in front of an altar.

Đỗ Duy Hưng summarizes an article by Quốc Bảo, according to which Mother worship has three layers built on top of one another: the worship of goddesses, the worship of mother deities, and the worship of the Mothers of the Three and Four Palaces. This page covers only the third layer, the one with the clearest system of sacred images.

IIThe Three Holy Mothers and Mẫu Liễu Hạnh

At the highest and innermost point of a Mother Goddess temple sit three female statues side by side, known as Tam Tòa Thánh Mẫu, the Three Holy Mothers. Phạm Trọng Toàn writes that they are Mẫu Thượng Thiên, Mẫu Thoải and Mẫu Thượng Ngàn, and that popular practice later added Mẫu Địa while still calling the group the Three Holy Mothers.

A study by Laurel Kendall and two co-authors describes the three Mother statues of the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology: seated upright on pedestals, slender, with oval faces, straight noses and long earlobes, in the bearing of noblewomen. The three are alike, differing only slightly in their faces and in the color of their bodices: red, green, white. The carvers used jackfruit wood.

Mẫu Thượng Thiên

Mẫu Đệ Nhất, Mẫu ThiênHow to recognize: Red robe or bodice, seated in the middle

The Mother who governs the realm of heaven. All the sources read place Mẫu Thượng Thiên in the middle when the three statues sit side by side. Phạm Thị Thơm writes that she commands clouds, rain, thunder and lightning.

Source: Laurel Kendall, Vũ Thị Thanh Tâm, Nguyễn Thị Thu Hương, Three Goddesses in and out of Their Shrine, Asian Ethnology vol. 67 no. 2, 2008. Trần Lâm Biền, About the Mother Goddess Worshipping and Her Temple, Vietnam Social Sciences no. 6(164), 2014. Phạm Thị Thơm, Tứ phủ hóa trong các điện thờ nữ thần, mẫu: trường hợp Tứ vị Thánh Nương (The Four Palace influence on shrines of goddesses and mothers: the case of the Four Holy Ladies), Religious Studies Review no. 1, 2023.

Mẫu Thượng Ngàn

Mẫu Đệ Nhị, Mẫu Nhạc PhủHow to recognize: Green robe or bodice

The Mother of the mountains and forests. Phạm Thị Thơm records that she governs the 81 gates of the forest from south to north. Many temples have a Sơn Trang altar or grotto. A study in Huế describes the altar of the Thượng Ngàn realm as shaped like a cave, with mountains, forests, plants and animals such as elephants, horses, tigers, snakes and birds.

Source: Phạm Thị Thơm, Tứ phủ hóa trong các điện thờ nữ thần, mẫu: trường hợp Tứ vị Thánh Nương (The Four Palace influence on shrines of goddesses and mothers: the case of the Four Holy Ladies), Religious Studies Review no. 1, 2023. Nguyễn Hữu Phúc, Tín ngưỡng thờ Mẫu Tứ phủ ở Thừa Thiên Huế nhìn từ hệ thống thần linh của Thiên Tiên Thánh giáo (Four Palace Mother worship in Thừa Thiên Huế seen through the pantheon of Thiên Tiên Thánh giáo), Religious Studies Review no. 2, 2022.

Mẫu Thoải

Mẫu Đệ Tam, Mẫu ThủyHow to recognize: White robe or bodice

The Mother of the rivers and seas. The white of Thoải Phủ is also the color worn by the deities of this palace in the lower ranks, such as the Third Great Mandarin and Ông Hoàng Bơ.

Source: Phạm Thị Thơm, Tứ phủ hóa trong các điện thờ nữ thần, mẫu: trường hợp Tứ vị Thánh Nương (The Four Palace influence on shrines of goddesses and mothers: the case of the Four Holy Ladies), Religious Studies Review no. 1, 2023. Ngô Đức Thịnh, Len Dong: spirit journeys in contemporary urban Vietnam, International Journal of Intangible Heritage, 2009.

Mẫu Liễu Hạnh

Liễu Hạnh Công chúa, Vân Hương Thánh Mẫu, Chúa TiênHow to recognize: Usually worshipped as the First Mother, in red

UNESCO describes Liễu Hạnh as a nymph who descended to earth, lived as a human and became a Buddhist nun, and who is called the Mother of the World. Đỗ Duy Hưng, summarizing the book Đạo Mẫu Việt Nam by Ngô Đức Thịnh, records Mẫu Liễu Hạnh as the principal deity of Mother worship in northern Vietnam. Nguyễn Ngọc Mai holds that the worship of Mẫu Liễu Hạnh began in the 16th century. Which of the Three Holy Mothers she is remains a matter on which the sources disagree, see the box below.

Source: UNESCO, Practices related to the Viet beliefs in the Mother Goddesses of Three Realms (inscribed 2016). Đỗ Duy Hưng, Một số kết quả nghiên cứu nổi bật về thực hành tín ngưỡng thờ Mẫu Tam phủ, Tứ phủ ở vùng châu thổ Bắc Bộ hiện nay (Notable research findings on the practice of Mother worship of the Three and Four Palaces in the Red River Delta today), Religious Studies Review no. 11, 2021. Nguyễn Ngọc Mai, Biến đổi tôn giáo truyền thống (trường hợp thờ Mẫu ở miền Bắc và Bắc Trung Bộ Việt Nam) (Change in traditional religion: Mother worship in northern and north central Vietnam), Religious Studies Review no. 8, 2017.

IIIThe ranks below the Mothers: Mandarins, Ladies, Princes, Damsels, Boys

Below the Three Holy Mothers is a court of several ranks. Phạm Thị Thơm lists six basic ranks: the Three Holy Mothers, the Five Great Mandarins, the Ladies of the Four Palaces, the Ten Princes, the Twelve Holy Damsels and the Ten Holy Boys. Phạm Trọng Toàn lists nine ranks, with the Jade Emperor at the top and the Five Tigers and Ông Lốt at the bottom. The number of deities in each rank differs from source to source.

The Jade Emperor

Vua Cha Ngọc HoàngHow to recognize: A king seated on a throne holding a court tablet, placed highest of all

Ngô Đức Thịnh writes that the Holy Mother is the supreme deity, sometimes placed under the supervision of the Jade Emperor or of the Bodhisattva Quan Âm (Guanyin), but that the cult's ties to Taoism and Buddhism are loose. Trần Lâm Biền writes that the Jade Emperor of Chinese Taoism appears on the altar. Vietnamese Wikipedia records Quan Nam Tào and Quan Bắc Đẩu (the officials of the Southern and Northern Dippers) on either side of the Jade Emperor. The library has not yet found a research source that says more about these two figures in Mother Goddess temples.

Source: Ngô Đức Thịnh, Len Dong: spirit journeys in contemporary urban Vietnam, International Journal of Intangible Heritage, 2009. Trần Lâm Biền, About the Mother Goddess Worshipping and Her Temple, Vietnam Social Sciences no. 6(164), 2014. Phạm Trọng Toàn, Từ tín ngưỡng thờ Mẫu đến tín ngưỡng thờ Mẫu Tam phủ (From Mother worship to the worship of the Mothers of the Three Palaces), Journal of Arts Education no. 30, 2019. Vietnamese Wikipedia, Tín ngưỡng thờ Mẫu Việt Nam (Mother Goddess worship in Vietnam).

The Five Great Mandarins

Ngũ vị Tôn quan, Ngũ vị Quan lớnHow to recognize: Five bearded mandarins in winged hats, robed in the colors of their palaces

According to Ngô Đức Thịnh, there are ten Great Mandarins but only the first five are regularly worshipped and incarnated in mediums. The First Mandarin belongs to Thiên Phủ and wears red. The Second and the Fifth belong to the palace of mountains and forests and wear green. The Third Mandarin of Thoải Phủ wears white. Vietnamese Wikipedia adds the Fourth Mandarin Khâm Sai in yellow and the Fifth Mandarin Tuần Tranh in blue or dark purple. Trần Lâm Biền writes that the Fifth Mandarin was a general of the Trần dynasty.

Source: Ngô Đức Thịnh, Len Dong: spirit journeys in contemporary urban Vietnam, International Journal of Intangible Heritage, 2009. Vietnamese Wikipedia, Tín ngưỡng thờ Mẫu Việt Nam (Mother Goddess worship in Vietnam). Trần Lâm Biền, About the Mother Goddess Worshipping and Her Temple, Vietnam Social Sciences no. 6(164), 2014.

The Princes of the Four Palaces

Ông Hoàng, Quan HoàngHow to recognize: Young, beardless male deities robed in the colors of their palaces

There are ten Princes. The three most often incarnated are Ông Hoàng Bơ, Ông Hoàng Bảy and Ông Hoàng Mười. Ngô Đức Thịnh describes Ông Hoàng Bơ of Thoải Phủ in a white brocade tunic and a white turban. Ông Hoàng Bảy of Bảo Hà belongs to the palace of mountains and forests and wears green. Ông Hoàng Mười belongs to Địa Phủ and wears yellow. The statue of Ông Hoàng Bảy in the photo wears dark purple, which shows that statue colors do not follow one rule everywhere.

Source: Ngô Đức Thịnh, Len Dong: spirit journeys in contemporary urban Vietnam, International Journal of Intangible Heritage, 2009. Phạm Thị Thơm, Chầu Bát, Đông Nhung Đại tướng trong tín ngưỡng thờ Mẫu Tam, Tứ phủ (Chầu Bát, General Đông Nhung, in the worship of the Mothers of the Three and Four Palaces), Religious Studies Review (Nghiên cứu Tôn giáo) no. 5, 2022.

The Holy Damsels of the Four Palaces

How to recognize: Young women in many colors, often holding a fan, an oar or a tray of offerings

Twelve deities, from the First Damsel to the Youngest Damsel. Ngô Đức Thịnh writes that the Damsels are young and unmarried, so their incarnations are always merry, in colorful costumes, with dances using fans, oars, embroidery, small torches and scarves. Many Damsels are of ethnic minority origin, so their clothes follow highland styles.

Source: Ngô Đức Thịnh, Len Dong: spirit journeys in contemporary urban Vietnam, International Journal of Intangible Heritage, 2009. Phạm Thị Thơm, Chầu Bát, Đông Nhung Đại tướng trong tín ngưỡng thờ Mẫu Tam, Tứ phủ (Chầu Bát, General Đông Nhung, in the worship of the Mothers of the Three and Four Palaces), Religious Studies Review (Nghiên cứu Tôn giáo) no. 5, 2022.

The Holy Boys of the Four Palaces

How to recognize: Little boys with a tuft of hair or a topknot

Ten deities who attend the Princes. Ngô Đức Thịnh records the Boys as aged from one to nine and mischievous. Phạm Thị Thơm writes that the Boys are children who died young, under ten. Many temples have a separate shrine for the Boys or for Cậu Bé, the Youngest Boy.

Source: Ngô Đức Thịnh, Len Dong: spirit journeys in contemporary urban Vietnam, International Journal of Intangible Heritage, 2009. Phạm Thị Thơm, Chầu Bát, Đông Nhung Đại tướng trong tín ngưỡng thờ Mẫu Tam, Tứ phủ (Chầu Bát, General Đông Nhung, in the worship of the Mothers of the Three and Four Palaces), Religious Studies Review (Nghiên cứu Tôn giáo) no. 5, 2022.

IVThe Five Tigers and Ông Lốt

Beneath the main altar is a low altar called the hạ ban, the lower altar, where the Five Tigers are worshipped. The two authors Vũ Hồng Thuật and Trần Chiều Phụng surveyed temples and record that every place they visited had an altar to the tiger spirits on the lower altar of the Công Đồng hall and on the lower altar of the Sơn Trang altar. In a Mother Goddess temple, the tiger is the guardian deity of the whole assembly of Buddhas and deities.

Tiger statues are modeled from clay mixed with dó paper, sawdust, molasses and limewater, or made of stone, wood or ceramics. Some places worship a Hàng Trống painting of the Five Tigers instead of statues. According to the two authors, the offering to the tigers consists of five pieces of pork, five raw eggs, a dish of rice and salt, a jar of water and white rice spirit.

A 1916 color photo by Léon Busy shows an altar of this kind in a pagoda at Hàm Long, Hà Nội. The original French caption calls it the altar of the "Lord Tiger". On the altar there is only a framed tiger painting and an incense bowl set close to the floor.

Ông Lốt, the pair of serpents above the altar

Where the Five Tigers are down low, Ông Lốt is up high. Phạm Thị Thơm describes Tiên La Temple: on every crossbeam there are green and white Ông Lốt serpents together with the hats of the pantheon. The study of private Mother Goddess shrines in Hà Nội calls them Quan Thanh Xà and Bạch Xà, the Green Serpent and White Serpent Mandarins. Ngô Đức Thịnh includes Ông Lốt and the Five Tigers in the pantheon of Đạo Mẫu and records that they too are sometimes incarnated in mediums. Đặng Thế Đại sees snake worship as an ancient layer of belief taken into Đạo Mẫu.

VĐức Thánh Trần and the Trần Triều altar

Beside the four palaces of the Mothers, popular belief also recognizes one more, the Palace of the Trần Dynasty (Phủ Trần Triều), linked to the worship of Hưng Đạo Đại Vương Trần Quốc Tuấn, who defeated the Mongol Yuan armies in the 13th century. Ngô Đức Thịnh writes that some temples regard Đức Thánh Trần, the Holy Lord Trần, as the highest deity, equal to the Jade Emperor, and that when he and his attendants are incarnated they drive away evil spirits and cure disease.

The saying "In the eighth month the Father's memorial, in the third month the Mother's" joins the two cults: the Father is Đức Thánh Trần, the Mother is Mẫu Liễu Hạnh. Trần Lâm Biền records that in recent years the Mother Goddess area of worship has added an altar to Trần Hưng Đạo. In private shrines in Hà Nội, the Trần Triều altar and the Sơn Trang altar stand on either side of the Công Đồng altar.

This is a separate cult with its own temples and festivals. This page mentions it only where it meets the Mother Goddess temple.

VIA Mother Goddess temple from the inside out

There is no single layout shared by every palace, temple and shrine. The diagram below gathers the points that the surveys read by the library mention in common. The order runs from high to low and from the innermost part outward.

The diagram is the only drawing on this page. The sources do not say on which side the Trần Triều altar and the Sơn Trang altar stand, so the diagram does not say either.

Léon Busy's photo taken in October 1916 in Bắc Ninh shows an altar captioned as the altar of the "Holy Mother" standing inside a pagoda. Mother worship within the grounds of a Buddhist pagoda, in a separate hall, is still found in many places today, as in several altars photographed in 2022 on this page.

A large palace: four halls in a row

Trần Lâm Biền describes Phủ Tiên Hương at Phủ Dầy as having four halls, entered from the outside inward. The fourth hall holds the altar of the Four Palaces. The third hall displays the eight precious objects. The second hall has the altar of the four Ladies. The first hall, innermost, is where the Mother is worshipped. At Phủ Vân Cát, the statues of the Mothers are covered with ritual robes and the three are placed at the same level.

A new statue becomes a sacred statue only after a rite

Kendall records a rule of Mother Goddess followers: a freshly carved statue is not yet a sacred statue. A ritual master performs the rite of installation, placing in a cavity at the back of the statue a packet of charms, fragments of precious things and five-colored threads. The statue is covered with a red cloth pinned with charms until midnight on an auspicious day, when the master invites the Mother to enter the statue and opens its five senses. The article by the two authors Vũ Hồng Thuật and Trần Chiều Phụng names the rite for consecrating statues "hô thần nhập tượng", calling the deity into the statue. According to a ritual master interviewed by the two authors, ritual masters perform this rite for the statues of the Four Palace deities, the tigers and Ông Lốt alike.

VIIHàng Trống devotional paintings

Where there are no statues, paintings are worshipped. The Hàng Trống school of painting in Hà Nội produced many paintings for temples and palaces. Vietnamese Wikipedia lists the subjects: the pantheon of the Four Palaces, the Lady of the High Forests, Mẫu Thoải, the Five Tigers, Princes riding a fish, a horse or a snake, Ông Hoàng Mười, Đức Thánh Trần. The library has not yet checked this list against a scholarly monograph.

What sets Hàng Trống paintings apart from Đông Hồ paintings is the way they are made. Only the outlines are printed in quantity from carved woodblocks. The coloring is done by hand, one painting at a time, with the painter shading the colors from dark to light, a technique called "vờn". A 2006 newspaper article writes about the artisan Lê Đình Nghiên, the third generation of a painting family from Bình Vọng village, and his worry that the craft may die out.

The Five Tigers is one of the most popular Hàng Trống paintings. The five colors of the five tigers, white, yellow, black or gray, green and red, shape the composition of the painting. A museum in Budapest holds a White Tiger print made at Hàng Trống in 1956 to 1957 and records that the white tiger is one of the Five Tigers, both a guardian of the home and a picture hung at the New Year.

VIIIHầu đồng costumes: sacred images in living form

In the hầu đồng ritual, the deities descend one after another into the medium, the thanh đồng. Ngô Đức Thịnh writes that each deity has its own costume, which the medium puts on when that deity descends. The Vietnamese Women's Museum regards the costume as the sign that identifies each deity. For this reason, followers look at a giá, one episode of the ritual, much as they would look at a living statue: the color of the costume tells the palace, the cut of the costume and the object held tell the rank.

The most important object is the red veil called khăn phủ diện. Placed over the medium's head, it marks the moment a deity enters and the moment the deity leaves. When the three Mothers descend, the medium does not lift the veil: according to Ngô Đức Thịnh, the Mothers descend but are not incarnated, so the medium must keep the red veil over the face. The Princes carry on their shoulders a pair of hèo, sticks that stand for horses.

Offerings follow the colors too. The medium chooses offerings of the same color as the palace of the deity who is descending.

The two color photos above were taken by Léon Busy in Tonkin in mid 1916 for the archives of Albert Kahn. The original French caption calls the woman a "priestess of the cult of the Three Worlds", that is, the Three Palaces. Busy was a French officer in Indochina who took about two thousand color photos between 1914 and 1917. These are the earliest color photos of Mother Goddess followers that the library has found under an open licence.

The library does not use photos of mediums performing today, because they show living people. The white costume above is a museum exhibit displayed on a mannequin.

IXMother worship across the regions

The system of the Three and Four Palaces is clearest in the Red River Delta. In central and southern Vietnam, Mother worship meets local goddesses and takes different forms. One newspaper article sums up three representative figures: Chúa Tiên Liễu Hạnh in the north, Thiên Y A Na in the center and Linh Sơn Thánh Mẫu in the south.

Phủ Dầy, Nam Định

The center of the worship of Mẫu Liễu Hạnh, in Kim Thái commune, Vụ Bản district (place names as given in the source). The complex includes Phủ Tiên Hương and Phủ Vân Cát. The festival opens in the third lunar month, the season of the "Mother's memorial". UNESCO names the Phủ Dầy festival in the inscription of 2016.

Source: Văn Hóa newspaper, Lễ hội Phủ Dầy gắn với bảo tồn, phát huy tín ngưỡng thờ Mẫu (The Phủ Dầy festival and the safeguarding of Mother worship), 07/04/2019. Trần Lâm Biền, About the Mother Goddess Worshipping and Her Temple, Vietnam Social Sciences no. 6(164), 2014. UNESCO, Practices related to the Viet beliefs in the Mother Goddesses of Three Realms (inscribed 2016). Ngô Đức Thịnh, Len Dong: spirit journeys in contemporary urban Vietnam, International Journal of Intangible Heritage, 2009.

Phủ Tây Hồ, Hà Nội

The palace stands on a peninsula in West Lake and is dedicated to Mẫu Liễu Hạnh. Trần Lâm Biền lists Phủ Tây Hồ together with Lộ Temple, Sòng Temple and Phủ Giầy among the places where the Vietnamese worship the Mother in large buildings. Inside the palace is a Sơn Trang grotto.

Source: Trần Lâm Biền, About the Mother Goddess Worshipping and Her Temple, Vietnam Social Sciences no. 6(164), 2014. Wikimedia Commons, description of the file Phủ Tây Hồ.jpg by Bùi Thụy Đào Nguyên.

Hòn Chén Shrine, Huế

The shrine was originally dedicated to the Cham goddess Po Nagar, whom the Vietnamese call the Holy Mother Thiên Y A Na. King Minh Mạng had it repaired twice, in 1832 and in 1834. In 1886 King Đồng Khánh had it rebuilt and renamed it Huệ Nam Shrine. Since 1954 the shrine has also worshipped Vân Hương Thánh Mẫu, that is, Mẫu Liễu Hạnh. In Huế, the Sơn Nam association of Mother Goddess followers was renamed Thiên Tiên Thánh giáo in 1953. The four realms here are Thượng Thiên, Thượng Ngàn, Trung Thiên and Thủy Phủ, and the principal deity is Thiên Y A Na, in yellow rather than red.

Source: Hue Center of Information Technology (HueCIT), Khám phá Huế: Hon Chen Temple. Nguyễn Hữu Phúc, Role of Đồng Khánh King in the Expansion of the Four Palaces of Mother Goddesses Worship, Religious Studies (Nghiên cứu Tôn giáo) nos. 3 and 4, 2020. Nguyễn Hữu Phúc, Tín ngưỡng thờ Mẫu Tứ phủ ở Thừa Thiên Huế nhìn từ hệ thống thần linh của Thiên Tiên Thánh giáo (Four Palace Mother worship in Thừa Thiên Huế seen through the pantheon of Thiên Tiên Thánh giáo), Religious Studies Review no. 2, 2022. Phạm Thị Thơm, Tứ phủ hóa trong các điện thờ nữ thần, mẫu: trường hợp Tứ vị Thánh Nương (The Four Palace influence on shrines of goddesses and mothers: the case of the Four Holy Ladies), Religious Studies Review no. 1, 2023. Văn Hóa newspaper, Du khách khắp nơi về dự lễ hội điện Huệ Nam (Visitors from everywhere attend the Huệ Nam Shrine festival).

Po Nagar Tower, Nha Trang

In the main tower is a statue of Lady Po Nagar carved from black granite, 2.6 metres tall, seated on a lotus pedestal with her back against a stone slab shaped like a bodhi leaf. The Vietnamese worship her under the name Thiên Y A Na. The newspaper article records that the statue originally had no clothing and was later dressed in Buddhist attire. The article cites a stele inscription of 1857 by Phan Thanh Giản on how the goddess of the Cham became a goddess of the Vietnamese.

Source: Lào Cai newspaper, Linh hồn Chămpa (The soul of Champa, on Po Nagar Tower).

Bà Chúa Xứ of Sam Mountain, An Giang

The statue of the Lady is made of sandstone and is dressed in robes and adorned with jewellery. The Vía Bà festival runs from the 22nd to the 27th day of the fourth lunar month, with a procession of the statue and the Tắm Bà rite, when the statue's clothes and jewellery are changed. The Kinh, Khmer, Cham and Hoa communities take part together. UNESCO inscribed the festival in 2024 and calls her the Mother Earth goddess.

Source: UNESCO, Festival of Bà Chúa Xứ Goddess at Sam Mountain (inscribed 2024). Nhân Dân newspaper, article on the Vía Bà Chúa Xứ festival of Sam Mountain, 26/09/2024.

Linh Sơn Thánh Mẫu, Bà Đen Mountain, Tây Ninh

Bà Đen is worshipped under the title Linh Sơn Thánh Mẫu in the pagodas on the mountain. Her feast was entered on the national list of intangible cultural heritage by a decision dated 4 September 2018. The newspaper article calls it a typical symbol of Mother worship in southern Vietnam, with rites that blend Buddhist and folk practice. The photographer notes that the statue of the Lady is small, about 0.6 metres tall.

Source: Văn Hóa newspaper, Công bố Di sản văn hóa phi vật thể quốc gia "Lễ vía bà Linh Sơn Thánh Mẫu, núi Bà Đen" (Announcement of the national intangible cultural heritage "Feast of Linh Sơn Thánh Mẫu, Bà Đen Mountain"), 14/08/2019. Wikimedia Commons, description of the file Tượng thờ Bà Đen.jpg by Bùi Thụy Đào Nguyên.

The three figures of central and southern Vietnam each have their own legends, festivals and ways of worship. This page only introduces their sacred images and does not yet go into each cult in depth.

XWhat the library is not sure of

XIPhotos and licences

Every photo on this page comes from Wikimedia Commons, under Public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA licences. Authors and licences are given exactly as on the original file pages, read on 07/10/2026. The photos have only been reduced in size, with no change to their content. Click the name of a photo to go to its original file page. If you are an author and see an incorrect credit, please let the library know so it can be corrected.

XIISources

The pages above were read in October 2026. If a page has changed its address, please let the library know so it can be updated.

?Quick Questions

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