Water Pigs and Pig-Dragons



Han Dynasty Jade Pig-Dragon or Makara

While I was on the same photosearch that turned up the "Little Jade Yeti" earlier, I also turned up a common type of unidentified jade artefact from the same cultutre:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_dragon

A pig dragon or zhulong (Chinese 猪龍) is a type of jade artifact from neolithic China. Zhulong are zoomorphic forms with a pig-like head and elongated limbless body coiled around to the head and described as "suggestively fetal". ^[1] Early pig dragons are thick and stubby; later examples have more graceful, snakelike bodies.
Pig dragons were produced by the Hongshan culture, and often featured as grave goods.^[2] For example see [1]. Pig bones have been found interred alongside humans at Hongshan burial sites, suggesting that the animal had some ritual significance.
There is some speculation that the pig dragon is the first representation of the Chinese dragon. The character for "dragon" in the earliest Chinese writing has a similar coiled form, as do later jade dragon amulets from the Shang period.^[3]

References

1. ^ Childs-Johnson, Elizabeth (1991). "Jades of the Hongshan culture: the dragon and fertility cult worship". Arts asiatiques 46: 82–95. http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/arasi_0004-3958_1991_num_46_1_1303. Retrieved 14 July 2011. 
2. ^ Howard, Angela Falco, et al. (2006). Chinese Sculpture, pp. 21-22. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300100655.
3. ^ Salviati, Filippo (2002). The Language of Adornment: Chinese Ornaments of Jade, Crystal, Amber and Glass, Fig. 17. Ten Speed Press. ISBN 1580085873.

"Ouroboros has Origins With Hongshan"

1. http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t218030.html



 
Some Commentators have remarked that the most obvious forerunner for the Pig-Dragon is the foetal pig, something which would be a well-known object in a pig-slaughtering society, and probably with some superstitious import.

A Shang Dynasty Closed Pig-Dragon loop, with continuous backfin.

The more fully developed "C-Dragon" is more common later and I have previously compared the design to the Celtic Horse-eels. I am not really certain of that because there is a flip up at the base of the mane which could easily indicate where a Longneck's foreflipper would be. However, I prefer to deal with Longnecked-WaterMonster-Oriental Dragons separately (there is another blog following this one to deal with the subject)

However, other jade objects from the same culture and showing a similar creature in a different posture tell a different story. The stumpy-ended, big-headed Pig Dragons turn out to correspond to a legendary creature known throught the Orient as a Water Pig, and which is more than likely a kind of seal. Some of the water-monsters still being reported in Northern China are apparently seals, and there are comparable land-locked freshwater seals in bothnearby Siberia and Central Asia, and in Alaska as well.. This small jade for sale on ebay is not only seal-shaped but also seems to even have whiskers on its snout.

Seals and sea lions are infrequently seen off of Japan and China and described in the same tone as if they were legendary monsters (Yokai). This is from the Pink Tentacle site:

Bizarre creature at Kanezaki Inlet

Many Edo-period scrolls featured illustrations of unfamiliar creatures -- animals that actually existed but were rarely seen in Japan (such as fur seals and sea lions), along with creatures generally regarded as imaginary (mermaids and kappa). This illustration shows a 3-meter-long seal that was captured in the early 19th century at Kanezaki Inlet. [from ‘Kaikidan Ekotoba’ monster scroll posted on 07 Apr 2010]
http://pinktentacle.com/2010/04/kaikidan-ekotoba-monster-scroll/



Young Male Elephant Seal



at three meters (9-10 feet) long, this could be a very large medium-sized seal or a subadult elephant seal. I think Elephant seal is more likely because of the very long belly area: the foreflippers would not be correct in any seal and I presume they are drawn that long to emphasize that they are dangerous. The size and the shape of the head depicted makes me think it was a female (like the ones here and below)Elephant seals from California do occasionally wind up on the shores of Japan, on the opposite side of the Pacific ocean. there are also the rare reports of the 3-toed monster tracks on Japanese beaches but these are generally thought to have been hoaxes.

Elephant seal showing trackway: at extreme magnification, the foreflipper tracks can be seen to look as if they were 3-toed. This is just as general information since there are no really good allegations of 3-toed "Monster" tracks found off of Japan. When the sand is packed very hard, the body drag marks in the center tend to disappear.

More to the point, the first (later) Chinese jade Zhoulong from Wikipedia has also been compared to the Makara of Southern India and Indonesia, and there are also the occasional reports of seals as "Water Pigs" in the Indian Ocean far from the more arctic realms where they would be more usually expected.

Lake Tianchi Creature as possibly a Freshwater Seal:

http://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.com/2010/02/heavenly-lake-monster-seal-or-something.html



Water Pig


At the Frontiers of Zoology Yahoo group we are aware of very rare sightings and captures of (Harbour) seals in Vietnam and Hong Kong(We also have photos of the same). Ivan Sanderson spoke of an as-yet-unclassified species on Monk Seal that inhabited the Indian Ocean, in particular the Maldive and Lacadive islands and the South of India. It seems these were also called Water Pigs or Water Boars.Literature on any of these things is very sparse and no sources other than Sanderson even seem aware there was supposed to be such a thing as a seal native to the Indian Ocean.

Chinese Makara



Makara Head From Java


However, comparing artwork from Southern India and Indonesia to photographs of the living animal, it is fairly easy to believe that the stories of Makaras were originally inspired by sightings of Antarctic elephant seals strayed far to the North of their usual territories.

Male Elephant Seal



Best Wishes, Dale D.

Lough Dubh Monster, The Irish Hogzilla?

Map of Ireland Above. Lough Dubh Below


Lough Dubh or Black Lake is a popular fishing venue by the River Suck in the Upper Shannon River Drainage, and which was the scene of a possible monster sighting in the early 1960s. A creature was hooked by Mr Mullaney (a schoolmaster) and his son while out fishing. Described as having "short thick legs with small ears and a white pointed horn on the snout. It was dark grey in colour, and covered with bristles or short hair, like a pig." It was said to be the size of a cow or an ass and to be aggressive. This sighting was mentioned in Peter Costello’s In Search of Lake Monsters (1974) and has been a point of contention ever since. Other creatures like it were said to have been seen later on, and some others like it in other areas said to run back to 1912.

Lough Dubh Monster

After some wrangling over the point and in response to an anonymous posting at one
of Karl Shuker's blog postings (suggesting a hippopotamus as a possible culprit), the easiest and most economic solution would seem to be that it was a feral boar hog, probably mixed feral domestic and wild boar hog. For one thing, whenever there is mention of a white or ivory horn on the snout it means a tusk, since ivory is what teeth are made out of and horns are made out of something else. This point turns up also in discussions of the "congo dragons" said to have "ivory horns", which must also be regarded as references to tusks. The anonymous commentator suggested that if it was only one tusk that was seen instead of a horn, then it could have been a hippopotamus as well as a rhinoceros. And I replied then that a hog would be closely related to a hippo and more likely to turn up in Ireland. It could have been a feral pig wallowing on the mud bank that took the bait when a tasty morsel presented itself. Swine are also opportunistic omnivores, which none of the other candidates would be. None of the other candidates would have taken the bait.


Wild Hog Wallowing

It would have been an enormous, ugly hog but that is not out of the range of possibility. The schoolteacher's reference to size was ambiguous, saying as big as a cow or an ass: an ass is a much smaller animal than a cow. And there are similar reports of "water pigs" in parts of the Midwestern USA where there are definitely feral hogs running loose in the area. Some wild pigs are good swimmers and many like to wallow in the water to cool off.


400 pound wild boar/feral cross hog at Gopher Plantations, a hunting reserve. The record hogs at the Plantation are almost three times this size.

Hunter with killed hog at Gopher Plantations, showing off the tusks.


Wild Boar Wading in muddy waters.