CHAPTER VI 



SYMBOLISM OF THE BUDDHIST AND 

 LAMAIST LION 



IN Christian ecclesiastical art the lion is sometimes used 

 to represent the devil, who goes about " like a roaring 

 lion," but more frequently symbolizes the Redeemer 

 himself on account of its royalty, courage, watchfulness, 

 strength, and alleged mercy to the fallen. At the church 

 door lions symbolized the watchfulness of God over His 

 people, noting their going out and their coming in, and 

 spying out all their ways, watching also for their protection 

 and to guard the sanctuary.* 



The significance of the lion in Buddhism is altogether 

 different. " Buddha placed the lions before his temple that 

 his priests might remember to subject their passions." The 

 Lamaist idea is that Buddha on entering his temple has 

 ordered the two lions which have accompanied him to seat 

 themselves upon the altar-cloth-covered tables set at the 

 door, and that by awaiting his return in motionless obedience 

 they serve as a reminder of the subjection of the passions by 

 the Holy Creed. 



It appears likely that the Tibetans owe the form of their 

 lion monuments to Greek travelling artists, and much of 

 their lion lore to the Egyptians. In Egypt the lion was a 

 hieroglyphic or sacred character before the Chinese began to 

 write and long before Tibet or the lion became known to 



* " Sacristy," Herr B. Eckl. 

 112 



