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Work Of Stonemasons Displayed In Stonemasonry Yard Includes Stone Elephants And Chinese Lions
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The stonemasonry yard we visited was on the return journey from the Shaolin Temple, where we had seen stonemasons at work during the redevelopment of parts of the Temple Grounds. We had seen the stonemasons work in the stonemasonry yard as we were travelling to the Temple, but we were running behind time so stopping was not an option. We made sure that time was not a problem when we returned.
When we drove into the stonemasonry yard we were not sure whether our request to take photos of the stone animals would be granted, but there was no problem. Amongst the many finished items of the stonemasons work, were stone elephants with raised trunks, Chinese lions on plinths, and Foo Dogs, also on plinths. |
The Foo Dogs were in pairs, with one Foo Dog having a ball under its paw, and the female Foo Dog having its paw resting gently on a puppy dog.
During our visit to the stonemasonry yard, work was still going on producing other animal models. One of the stonemasons was using a hand held power grinder, creating a lot of white dust much of which settled on his clothes. Other stonemasons were using tools of mallet and chisel type, which may have been similar to the tools used by stonemasons in the past. Amongst the animals on the yard was a model of Bixi, the eldest son of the Chinese Dragon, often mistaken for a tortoise! The models of Bixi at the Shaolin Temple all carried upright stone slabs inscribed with Chinese characters |
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*** Elephants are large land mammals of the order Proboscidea and the family Elephantidae. There are three living species: the African Bush Elephant, the African Forest Elephant and the Asian Elephant (also known as the Indian Elephant). Other species have become extinct since the last ice age, the Mammoths, dwarf forms of which may have survived as late as 2,000 BC, being the best-known of these. They were once classified along with other thick skinned animals in a now invalid order, Pachydermata. Src:Wikipedia.Org ***
***Medieval stonemasons' skills were in high demand, and members of the guild, gave rise to three classes of stonemasons: apprentices, journeymen, and master masons. Apprentices were indentured to their masters as the price for their training, journeymen had a higher level of skill and could go on journeys to assist their masters, and master masons were considered freemen who could travel as they wished to work on the projects of the patrons. During the Renaissance, the stonemason's guild admitted members who were not stonemasons, and eventually evolved into the Society of Freemasonry; fraternal groups which observe the traditional culture of stonemasons, but are not typically involved in modern construction projects. Src:Wikipedia.Org ***
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