"Lion dog" redirects here. For other uses, see Lion dog (disambiguation)."Fu Dog" and "Foo Dog" redirect here. For other uses, see Fu Dog (disambiguation).
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Chinese guardian lions
A Ming-era guardian lion in the Forbidden City
A Qing-era guardian lion pair in the Forbidden City. Note the different appearance of the face and details in the decorative items, compared to the earlier Ming version.
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese
獅(子)
Simplified Chinese
狮(子)
Literal meaning
lion
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin
shī(zi)
Wade–Giles
shi(-tzu)
Alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese
石獅(子)
Simplified Chinese
石狮(子)
Literal meaning
stone lion
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin
shíshī(zi)
Wade–Giles
shih-shih(-tzu)
Khmer name
Khmer
សឹង្ហ singha
Thai name
Thai
สิงห์ sǐng
Sinhala name
Sinhala
සිංහ siṁha
Sanskrit name
Sanskrit
सिंहः sinha
Burmese name
Burmese
ခြင်္သေ့ chinthe
Tibetan name
Tibetan
གངས་སེང་གེ gangs-seng-ge
This article contains Indic text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks or boxes, misplaced vowels or missing conjuncts instead of Indic text.
Chinese guardian lions, or imperial guardian lions, are a traditional Chinese architectural ornament, but the origins lie deep in much older Indian Buddhist traditions.[citation needed] Typically made of stone, they are also known as stone lions or shishi (石獅; shíshī). They are known in colloquial English as lion dogs or foo dogs / fu dogs. The concept, which originated and became popular in Chinese Buddhism, features a pair of highly stylized lions—often one male with a ball which represents the material elements and one female with a cub which represents the element of spirit— that were thought to protect the building from harmful spiritual influences and harmful people that might be a threat. Used in imperial Chinese palaces and tombs, the lions subsequently spread to other parts of Asia including Japan (see komainu), Korea, the Philippines, Tibet, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Cambodia, Laos, and Malaysia.
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