Matt Griffin - Guardian lion

The "Guardian Lion" was used for many different reasons in China. They were created in A.D 680 - 681 by China man workers. The lion was made out of complete stone. The stone was found in the caves of Longmen, Luoyang and the Henan Province. The stone lion was created as a guardian lion, it was said to scare off the demons that the Chinese people feared so greatly. Also the intruders or terrorists who tried to invade their towns or kingdoms were supposed to be scared off by these stone guardian lions. These were very common in the ancient times because many of the Chinese people believed in demons and bad spirits. This stone design still very common but not used for the same reasons, for example, the "Guardian Lion" was used as a guardian back then, now it is used as a decoration by many people. This artifact must have been quite heavy, it is made out of one hundred percent stone but has a design carved into it. That's like picking up a boulder, very heavy. I think this is a very pretty design, espeacially for something that was created of such long time ago.