Chinese Dragon Tattoo Head Dance Symbol Drawing Pictures Parade Costume Mask Images: Ancient Chinese Dragons Chinese Dragon Tattoo Head Dance Symbol Drawing Pictures Parade Costume Mask Images

Monday 7 April 2014

Ancient Chinese Dragons Chinese Dragon Tattoo Head Dance Symbol Drawing Pictures Parade Costume Mask Images

Ancient Chinese Dragons Biography

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In ancient days the dragon was regarded as a most sacred animal, and used to be the imperial emblem of Chinese emperors. It is the first of the four Divine Creatures to Chinese-the others being the unicorn, the phoenix and the tortoise. Unlike the evil dragon the West, the Chinese Dragon is a beneficent and gracious creature and is worshipped as the divine ruler of Lakes, Rivers and Seas. It is the powerful yet gentle ‘Loong" that brings rain to the earth, hasten the crops and cools the toiling framer. It is one of the most popular of Chinese art motifs, being sculptured on stone pillars of Chinese temples and embroidered on beautiful gold and silk tapestries.

As imagined by the Chinese, the dragon has the head of a camel, the horns of a deer, fiery eyes and a long beard. Its ears are like those of a cow, its paws like the tiger’s and its claws sharp like an eagle’s. Its neck is serpentine; it has the belly of a frog and the scales of a carp. The Dragon first appeared in the sky, legend tells us, while an heir to the throne was born, and the country was blessed with peace and prosperity for many generation thereafter. Thus, the Dragon also served as a symbol of good fortune.

In parade appearance, the dragon performs its gyrations in pursuits of a costumed figure who holds aloft a pole with a ball on the end called the "Precious Pearl." The creature’s movement and tempo are controlled by this leader who manipulated the "pearl" according to plan, accompanied by drums and gongs.

According to the Chinese calendar, the dragon is the animal for those who were born this year and every 12 years before or afterwards. The year you were born is believed to influence your personality. Thus, for the dragons, they are soft-hearted, healthy, respected, energetic, and eccentric.

“The dragons of legend are strangely like actual creatures that have lived in the past. They are much like the great reptiles which inhabited the earth long before man is supposed to have appeared on earth. Dragons were generally evil and destructive. Every country had them in its mythology.” (Knox, Wilson, “Dragon,” The World Book Encyclopedia, vol. 5, 1973, p. 265.) The article on dragons in the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1949 edition) noted that dinosaurs were “astonishingly dragonlike,” even though its author assumed that those ancients who believed in dragons did so “without the slightest knowledge” of dinosaurs. The truth is that the fathers of modern paleontology used the terms “dinosaur” and “dragon” interchangeably for quite some time.

ivanlagoon dragonStories of dragons have been handed down for generations in many civilizations. No doubt many of these stories have been exaggerated through the years. But that does not mean they had no original basis in fact. Even some living lizards look like dragons and it is easy to see how a larger variety of such an animal could frighten a community. Have you ever seen an old dinosaur film where they used an iguana in a miniature town set to create the illusion of a great dragon?

In 2004 a fascinating dinosaur skull was donated to the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis by three Sioux City, Iowa, residents who found it during a trip to the Hell Creek Formation in South Dakota. The trio are still excavating the site, looking for more of the dinosaur’s bones. Because of its dragon-like head, horns and teeth, the new species was dubbed Dracorex hogwartsia. This name honors the Harry Potter fictional works, which features the Hogwarts School and recently popularized dragons. The dinosaur’s skull mixes spiky horns, bumps and a long muzzle. But unlike other members of the pachycephalosaur family, which have domed foreheads, this one is flat-headed. Consider some of the ancient stories of dragons, some fictional and some that might be authentic history of dinosaurs.