Merlion History
74How it all started
There was a request about the meaning/significance of the Merlion, so I did some poking around. Here's what I found out (thanks to wiki and answers sites). Turns out that it hasn't been around all that long.
A gentleman by the name of Fraser Brunner came up with the design in 1964 for the Singapore Tourism Board. It looks just like you would expect it to, a cross between a Lion's head and a Mermaid's body (Fish). It appears on souvenirs that have been approved by the Tourism Board. There are only 5 'official' Merlion statues in Singapore.
What is interesting is the story behind the design. Mr. Brunner based the design on the story of how Singapore was founded.
Singapore was founded by a Malay Prince by the name of Sang Nila Utama. He wanted to find somewhere to build a new City and set out to have a look at some islands off the coast of Sumatra. While hunting deer on one of the islands, he saw a neighboring island that had beaches "like white cloth". He was told that the island was called Temasek. He decided to go there, during the trip a bad storm blew up and the ship took on water and began to sink. They were forced to throw many things overboard. Still the ship took on water. The Prince finally threw his heavy crown overboard and the storm passed. After making it safely to the island, he went inland to do some hunting and saw a strange creature with a red body, black head and white breast. It moved with great speed and grace. He was told that it was a Lion. (though later studies of the area show that Lions were never present there and what he saw was probably a Tiger) He felt it was a very good omen and decided to build his city there. He called the city Singapura, (Singa means Lion and pura means City.) which he ruled over for close to 50 years.
Interestingly enough there is a Merlion on the 8th Marine Regiment of the US Marine Corps crest.
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Thanks for the Welcome. And glad I could help you out.
Ah yes, I might have guessed correctly about the origin of the first part -Singa , but the part that follows would have left me confused.Thanks for sharing the history of Singapore.Wonder if such a creature might have existed at some point.Today, I was watching a program on mountain dragons on animal planet that said-Fantasy made into reality , but towards the climax ,they showed the fossils of the dragons and their attackers.So I am still kindof jostling with whether or not they really existed and now I will dream about the lion mermaid as well,lol.Thanks for sharing this interesting history!
Your research is impeccable! Great digging--Jenevieve
singapore sux
thanks haha needed it for school work
thanks that just helped me with my S.S. homework we had to go to histrical places in singapore and take pics of them put i could not find any thing about the merlion!
omg thanks so much. i am doin a project on singapore and needed to learn about this and look here it is. this is everything i need. bless the child who did this
hey whoever the singapore boi is, singapore doesnt suck. that is rude. i am from singapore, and thats affensive
thanks to this person,my teacher said that my facts about the singapore merlion was interesting.i really,really thank this person.
oh wow, thanks for all of these info! I was searching all over for info like this for my dnt project:) THANKS SO MUCH!
yeah thank you!!my dnt was completed just on the deadline itself!btw yiyin u frm tkss too???:D
Both of u are also from TK too?I just finished my DNT project which is to be handed to Mr Kang on Wednesday. Thx a lot for the great info!
this is interesting.whoever is that singapore boi is super rude.singapore does not suck.
ugly
Now my question is, why does the 8th Marines use a merlion on their crest?
this webside is useful for my s.s project
that story is very not true i am a pure singaporean and base on our book the main reason is like that but not about the crown they drown and the merlion saved his life with a hidden friend they always become friends
Thanks! So gonna use this for history homework
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luvnlyf 4 years ago
Wow thanks mskim! That was a lot of great info--didn't think I'd have the stamina to research it myself! Very interesting story--now I can share it with my friend thanks to you! Welcome to Hubpages by the way:)