Here’s something no one expected — someone set up two Chinese guardian lion statues in the middle of the Mojave Desert off Route 66 near Amboy, California.
Charyl Armstrong posted this video this week of her traveling companion going out to check the statue. And, as Armstrong notes, “in the middle of nowhere.”
I didn’t hear about these until now, but Internet reports of these statues first started popping up in September 2013.
A few months after that, Roadside America reported the guardian lions are about a quarter-mile from each other about 400 feet off Route 66 between Amboy and Kelbaker Road. The statues are reportedly 6 to 7 feet tall.
Someone even set up a Facebook page for the statues, but not their owner. Whoever put up the statues and why remains a mystery.
Visitors reportedly are leaving behind coins in the lions’ mouths.
Chinese guardian lion statuary dates back more than 2,000 years in China.
What exactly this statue is supposed to protect, I have no idea.
Much of Route 66 in that area remains closed because of flooding in September. It’s hoped county officials will reopen the road later in the month. Amboy still can be accessed via Kelbaker Road from Interstate 40.
UPDATE: Longtime California Route 66 advocate Kevin Hansel says the statues are dogs, not lions, and the one is male and another is female.
(Image of one of the Chinese guardian lions off Route 66 by eyetwist via Flickr)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Okura
This guy bought the town of Amboy in 2005. He’s a Japanese American. Since then the infamous “Shoe Tree” in amboy has died off and the lions took its place…
They are lions(eastern hem.) and they are dogs(western hem.). A quick wikipedia search for “foo dog” or “chinese guardian lion” will explain what they are. As for why… you would have to ask the person(s) that put them there. A quarter mile apart does bring some things to mind.
The Fu Dogs are statues put at the entry of imperial Winter Palace in Beijing to guard and protect the palace from malevolent entities, presumably sent by enemy wizards/shamans. The Fu Dogs state in front of the enemies that they posses the core Creation knowledge under their paw, meaning the sphere covered in Flower of Life patterns … The one who has the supreme knowledge has also the supreme power. The one who put them on Route 66 might have known something and wants to protect that area 🙂
I don’t know how they ended up in the middle of the Mojave, but I do know where they came from. These lions were at the rear door of the building at 701 North E Street in San Bernardino. I was looking at purchasing this building and did a very comprehensive inspection. I was quite enamored with the lions and would stop and inspect them each time I walked by. The building was owned my two Persian immigrants. I was not sure if they really wanted to sell as they were asking almost twice the property value and would not negotiate. This was about 8 or 9 years ago, I have lost track of time since I retired. About three years ago I was parking in the San Bernardino Police lot that has a rear view of the 701 building and noticed that they were gone. I wondered where they had disappeared to. To make sure, I went by the building yesterday and they were gone. In fact, the building looks deserted.
We stopped there about 3 weeks ago traveling from Barstow to Needles very interesting .