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marble elephant |
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The
origins of the lucky
Elephant
charm can be found in the Hindu
religion of India. There, the god
Ganesha, the elephant-headed son of
Siva and Parvati, is worshipped as
an opener of the way and luck-god.
Ganesha has his own iconography in
India, and his best-known symbol is
the swastika, which was also popular
as a luck-symbol in America, at
least until the Nazis corrupted its
referential connotations. The
peoples of India and China share a
belief that Elephants are lucky
creatures. Placed on shelves or by
doorways they endure luck and
longevity. Some people believe that
stroking the trunk of a household
elephant statue ensures success in
business or on a journey. In China
elephant statues are often made of
jade, thought to have its own luck
providing powers. Elephants may have
garnered their reputation for magic
powers from a number of sources.
They are large and powerful,
intelligent, useful, and long-lived
and so have become a symbols of
strength, wisdom, happiness, and
longevity. They are religious
symbols in the Hindu faith. The
birth of Buddha was announced by a
white elephant and Ganesha is an
elephant-headed god of wisdom and
path-clearing. Chinese Buddhists
believe in a folklore being (Guan
Yin) who dresses in white and rides
an elephant. Guan Yin helps in time
of need and represents charity and
pity. The Chinese also have a saying
that equates to happiness: "To ride
an elephant." In Sri Lanka, crawling
under an elephant's belly protects
you from "bad planetary effects" and
the evil eye while driving away
fears. There is dispute about which
way a lucky elephant holds its
trunk, but there is a general belief
in many eastern cultures that an
elephant with the trunk pointed up
"stores" luck and one with the trunk
down "dispenses" it.
In Buddhism, the white elephant
symbolizes patience and wisdom while
the Chinese see the elephant as a
symbol of energy, strength, and
power. Even in the US, the elephant
can take on some unique symbolism as
the symbol for the Republican Party.
Elephant statues are often viewed as
a source of luck and good fortune
especially those with raised trunks.
American fascination with the lucky
elephant-god of India and the white
elephants of Thailand combined in
the form of the ubiquitous lucky
elephant knick-knack. In typical
American fashion, it was decreed
that only those elephant figurines
with their trunks upraised were
lucky. The rest were, as a friend of
mine put it, "just elephants."
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UP Trunk |
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Corporate gifts
and promotional
items, marble
handicrafts |
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Down Trunk |
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Corporate gifts and
promotional items,
marble handicrafts |
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