THE CHINESE LION 



the T'ang dynasty (A.D. 618-906) the headquarters of the 

 faith was moved from India, in which its power was fast 

 giving place to Hinduism, to China, which was then a world- 

 power, and as such was appealed to by many of the countries 

 of Central Asia for defence against the rising power of the 

 Arabs and Mohammed. There is no doubt that representa- 

 tions of the Buddhist lion, as well as of its living original, 

 became very common during the T'ang and Sung Dynasties 

 the golden period of Chinese art though few have come 

 down to us. 



Tibet was conquered by Genghis Khan about A.D. 1206, 

 and Kublai Khan was thus brought into contact with 

 Lamaism. He called the Grand Lama to his Court, and, 

 after consulting the representatives of Christianity and several 

 other faiths, he ultimately adopted as his State religion 

 Lamaism, which thus received a mighty accession of 

 strength.* 



The Lama priests of Tibet distinguished between " true 

 lions ' the spiritual beasts whose images are found in the 

 Buddhist sacred places and " dog-lions," the earthly beasts 

 known to the menagerie. They teach that the true lion is a 

 mountain spirit, having powers of instantaneous projection 

 through space, visible or invisible at will, and similarly 

 capable of infinite magnification or reduction of size. 



The Lamaist lion was no doubt produced in Tibet before 

 the seventh century A.D. by the grafting upon Buddhism of 

 the sun-worship of Egypt, the nature-worship of the races of 

 the Euphrates Valley, the Christian influence of the Nestorians 

 and superstitions of numerous cults persisting after the 

 break-up of the Babylonian and Assyrian empires. These 

 Were all subjected, for their visible representation, to Greek 

 influence, for Greek art was, during the first three centuries 



* " L. A. Waddell's " Lamaism." 



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