Sedia gestatoria armoured. Sedia gestatoria The gestatorial chair ("sedia gestatoria" in Italian, lit. "chair for carrying") was a ceremonial throne on which Popes were carried on shoulders until 1978, and later replaced outdoors in part with the Popemobile. It consists of a richly adorned, silk-covered armchair, fastened on a "suppedaneum", on each side of which are two gilded rings; through these rings pass the long rods with which twelve footmen ("palafrenieri"), in red uniforms, carry the throne on their shoulders. On prior occasions, as in the case of Pope Stephen III, popes were carried on the shoulders of men. The "sedia gestatoria"
Religion in China term refers to ordained priests of the religion. Traditionally, the Chinese language has not included a term for a lay follower of Taoism, since the concept of being "Taoist" in this sense is a new word that derives from the Western concept of "religion" as membership in a church institution. Analysing Chinese traditional religions is further complicated by discrepancies between the terminologies used in Chinese and Western languages. While in the English current usage "folk religion" means broadly all forms of common cults of gods and ancestors, in Chinese usage and in academia these cults have not had an overarching