China's AMAZING tomb guardian beasts!

墳墓獸, Fénmù shòu, "tomb beast."

I haven't found a reliable written source about these, outside of art-historical documents which seem to have less concern with magic, belief, and, like, monster-magic, than they do with sociohistorical issues.

These statues were buried with dead men to protect them.  Visually I find them magnificent. 














More after the jump....








It's like a lion-frog, only with extra spikes!



Different angle of a similar figure, looking more lizardy.


Sort of like the frontquarters of a horse, with a man's face, a lion's teeth, a pig's snout, shoulder armor, a frog's throat, and some wildebeestie horns.



Looks almost sphinxlike, with its equine front legs, possible boobs, human face, squatting on what looks here like canine hindquarters.



Leonine! Love it.






Somehow this makes me think of kaiju.


Similar, but different, with its vertical curlicue hairstyle and geometric protrusion behind it.  Almost looks like it's laughing.

Amazing, human-like face with a nose that looks like Cyrano de Bergerac gene-spliced with Richard Nixon.  Elephant's ears, winding horns, an asparagus-tip mohawk, and, oh lord, wings.



Fantastic.  It looks like it could be contemporary artwork, with its effortless blending of the natural and the forged.  But it's from the fourth or third century BCE.  Looks like a fanged human face with a protruding tongue, with a pedestal for a body and tremendous antlers.



Anyone know if there's a term for those spikes on its back?



Man, dig that crazy headgear!  Anyone know if there's a term for the cactus-shaped protrusion on its back?



The pairs tend to have one human-ish face and one animal face.

I need to stop now before the awesomeness kills me.