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The Great Britain Guide

Public art & sculpture · London

Guardian Lion

Guardian Lion — a public art in england-london, United Kingdom.

Campanile - geograph.org.uk - 5865816

N Chadwick — CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons licence

Plan your visit

Typical visit
1 h–2 h

About

Guardian Lion is a public art located in england-london, United Kingdom. Sourced from OpenStreetMap (ODbL licence); see local listings for visitor information, opening hours and admission details.

Photo gallery

From the Wikipedia article

Chinese guardian lions, or imperial guardian lions, are a traditional Chinese architectural ornament. 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, foo dogs, or fu dogs. The concept, which originated and became popular in Chinese Buddhism, features a pair of Asiatic lions — often one male with a ball that represents the material elements and one female with a cub that 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), Okinawa, Korea, Mongolia, the Philippines, Tibet, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, and Malaysia.

Excerpt from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0. See the source article linked in Sources below.

Coordinates
51.4789, -0.2912
Official site
www.kew.org

Sources

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Frequently asked questions

Where is Guardian Lion?
Guardian Lion is in London, in the United Kingdom — coordinates 51.4789°, -0.2912°.