Guardian Lions

I apologize for all the photographs recently! There will be more traditional things soon—in fact I took these as potential material to do my pointillism or scratch board assignment on! While I liked my other photographs, just in case I had photos too similar to other students I'll have something different on hand. If these statues look familiar, it's probably because you saw them outside of a Chinese Restaurant.

The Nurturer, photo taken with my phone, edited in Photoshop.

The Protector, photo taken with my phone, edited in Photoshop.

"The guardian lions  are always presented in pairs, a manifestation of yin and yang, the female representing yin and the male yang. The male lion has its right front paw on an embroidered ball called a "xiù qiú" (绣球), which is sometimes carved with a geometric pattern resembling the figure called "Flower of Life" in the New Age movement. The female is essentially identical, but has a cub under the closer (left) paw to the male, representing the cycle of life. Symbolically, the female fu lion protects those dwelling inside, while the male guards the structure. Sometimes the female has her mouth closed, and the male open. This symbolizes the enunciation of the sacred word "om". However, Japanese adaptions state that the male is inhaling, representing life, while the female exhales, representing death."

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