Litter (vehicle)

• 1. Global Historical Evolution

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  A ceramic fragment from Western Mexico, dated between 200 BCE and 500 CE, depicts a figure seated inside a litter. This ancient image confirms that human-powered wheelless transport existed across continents long before the modern era. In pharaonic Egypt, rulers and divinities traveled in litters during public processions or religious festivals. The Third Council of Braga issued an order in 675 AD stating that bishops must walk to churches rather than be carried by deacons clothed in white. Popes later adopted a similar tradition using the sedia gestatoria until it was replaced by the popemobile. The Ark of the Covenant in the Book of Exodus resembles a litter used for sacred objects. Ancient Rome utilized specific types of litters called lecticae to carry imperial family members and wealthy elites who were not riding horses. These early forms established the foundation for centuries of development.

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• 2. Asian Cultural Variations

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  In India, a palanquin is a covered litter usually carried by four bearers on their shoulders. Ibn Batutta described these vehicles being transported by eight men divided into two lots of four who rest and carry in turn. The word derives from the Sanskrit palyanka meaning bed or couch. Smallest versions called dolis are simple frames suspended by bamboo poles borne by two people. Larger rectangular wooden boxes measure eight feet long, four feet wide, and four feet high with curtains screening openings on either side. The Court of Directors of the East India Company prohibited junior clerks from purchasing palanquins in 1758 due to concerns about neglecting business. By the beginning of the 20th century, rickshaws introduced in the 1930s supplanted them for trips around town. In China, commoners used wooden or bamboo civil litters while mandarin classes used official litters enclosed in silk curtains. A traditional bride travels to her wedding ceremony inside a shoulder carriage lacquered in red and gilded with rich ornaments. Before Hong Kong's Peak Tram began service in 1888, wealthy residents were carried up steep paths by porters including Sir Richard MacDonnell's summer home.

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• 3. European Sedan Chair Era

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  Henry VIII of England reigned from 1509 to 1547 and was carried around in a sedan chair requiring four strong chairmen toward the end of his life. The expression sedan chair did not appear in print until 1615 despite earlier usage. London had chairs available for hire starting in 1634 assigned numbers and licensed under a monopoly held by a courtier of King Charles I. A trip within a city cost six pence while a day rental required four shillings. Pedestrians hearing chairmen call out By your leave knew to flatten themselves against walls as they hustled through streets. Bath Chronicle reported on the 2nd of December 2002 that sedan chairs ride again after being revived briefly in the 1970s by entrepreneur John Cuningham. In Glasgow licensing records show twenty-seven sedan chairs existed in 1800 dropping to eighteen in 1817 and ten in 1828. During that same period registered hackney carriages rose to one hundred and fifty. Link-boys carrying torches accompanied passengers at night escorting them to their lodgings. Several houses in Bath still display link extinguishers shaped like outsized candle snuffers.

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• 4. African Royal Traditions

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  In Southern Ghana, Akan and Ga-Dangme people carry chiefs and kings in palanquins during state durbars. Chiefs of the Ga use figurative palanquins built after a chief's family symbol or totem. These items became very popular among the Ga in the last 50 years following an exhibition called Les magicians de la terre held in Paris in 1989. From at least the 15th century until the 19th century, litters known as tipoye were used in the Kingdom of Kongo for elite transportation. Seat-style litters with a single pole along the back carried two men usually slaves topped with an umbrella. Lounge-style litters shaped like beds moved one to two people with a porter at each corner. Missionary accounts claimed litter transporters could move at speeds as fast as post horses at the gallop. Human portage remained the only mode of transportation because horses could not survive long once introduced by Portuguese navigators.

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• 5. Colonial Adaptations In The Americas

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  Benjamin Franklin traveled to meetings of the United States Constitutional Convention in 1787 inside a sedan chair carried by four prisoners. He was 81 years old suffering from gout and generally declining health at that time. A similar but simpler palanquin called silla was used by elites in parts of Latin America during the 18th and 19th centuries. This style consisted of a wooden chair attached to a tumpline supported by a single porter's head facing backwards. Travellers employed multiple porters who alternated carrying the occupant. These porters were known as silleros or silleteros sometimes translated as saddle-men. Steep terrain and rough narrow roads unsuitable for European-style sedan chairs likely influenced this design. One mountain where silla is still used today is the Huangshan Mountains of Anhui province in Eastern China ferrying older tourists up paths inaccessible by other means.

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• 6. Emergency And Medical Applications

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  Simple litters consist of a sling attached along its length to poles stretched inside a frame. Such simple litters are common on battlefields and emergency situations where terrain prohibits wheeled vehicles from carrying away dead and wounded. Improvised sling-type litters appeared on the Bataan Death March in the Philippines in 1942. Doli service in Sabarimala served as military ambulances used to carry wounded soldiers from the battlefield. Sedan chairs even functioned as an ambulance in Scotland's Royal Infirmary. Lashing poles to a chair creates such litters consisting of a simple cane chair sometimes with an umbrella to ward off elements. These devices remain found in Chinese mountain resorts like the Huangshan Mountains to carry tourists along scenic paths and viewing positions inaccessible by other transport methods.

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