Hero Pig of Sichuan

The tremendous Sichuan earthquake has hit both humans and animals in the region hard. Chinese comic artist Coco Wang has taken some of the sad and amazing stories from Sichuan and made English-language comics of them.

A story that Coco Wang has not (yet) made into a comic is the story of the hero pig who survived 36 days underneath rubble, eating only charcoal and drinking rain water.

When the earthquake hit on the 12th of May, in the village Lunmengshang [ru. Лунмэньшань] near the city Pengzhou, a certain pigsty also collapsed. As soldiers came to clean up the rubble on June 17th, they discovered that one pig was still alive.



The story of the pig was spread all over the country in the media, and the brave pig became a symbol of will. "Millions of people" prayed that the "hero pig" would escape the butcher for the rest of its life.

Fan Jianchuan, curator of the Jianchuan Museum nearby, finally bought the pig and assures that it will get to live in peace and die of old age. The museum has named the pig "Zhu Jianqiang", "Strong Pig".

The farmer couple recall: "The moment the pig was rescued from the ruins, we used a board to protect his eyes from the glaring sunshine. And we saw the animal shed tears when we fed him later. We are too poor to feed him, so we had to sell him."

Sources:
russian.xinhuanet.com
china.org.cn

There is more pig-shaped food!

I've been generally discouraged by the state of affairs for pigs in the world, so I haven't posted anything here for a while. However, the Russian pig lovers' LiveJournal community ru_piggy recently featured a collection of photos of pig-shaped food that I want to share ... Follow this link.

Censored pig cookie bum

Flickr user Carol Browne bought a Chinese pig cookie for New Year's 2007 from a local Asian shop in Vancouver, Canada. Guess where the bakers chose to insert the red bean paste ...

See more pictures of the pig cookie!



Censored pig bum
Originally uploaded by Carol Browne

Pig cake, Shanghai

A probably very yummy cake in the shape of a black piggy - with a ribbon! I wonder what it says on its back ...
Photographed by meckleychina on Flickr.


Pig of the Day - Jun 09, 2007 - Shanghai
Originally uploaded by meckleychina

Pigs in the Pergamon Museum

Today I visited the Pergamon Museum here in Berlin. Of course, I scanned all the exhibits searching for pig motifs, and I indeed found a few.

I apologise for the bad quality of some (most) of the photos. Bad lighting conditions, no flash, handheld camera, crappy white balance, and all that.



Above: Double vessel in the form of two little pigs, Assyria, 8th/7th century BCE. They are likely to be domestic pigs, which makes them quite interesting - pigs didn't seem to be all that common in Assyrian arts and crafts. And is there some particular meaning behind the double shape?



Above and below: Boar's head, Babylon, 1st century BCE/year 12 of Nebukadnezar II. It's hard to tell what exact meaning the boar might have in this case.



Below: This piece was described only collectively as one of a number of "riders and animal figures", but it can hardly be anything but a boar. 2nd-1st century BCE, Babylon. The hairiness of the pig suggests that it's likely to be a wild boar.





Below: An object from Luristan, a province in western Iran inhabited by nomadic tribes. These objects are usually offerings from graves. Somewhere between 8th/7th - mid-3rd century BCE. I'm not sure about its function. The similar piece with a deer above it and the nomadic culture of its makers suggest a hunting theme.



Below: A wall relief plate with a jumping boar, Iraq (Ktesiphon area), 7th-6th century. From the intrados of a house in Umm az-Za'âtir. I'm guessing this piece is related to hunting, as well.



Below: Hunting bowl with a Sassanid great king attacked by a boar, Iran, 7th century. Silver, partly gilded. The wild boar as a dangerous adversary. Of course, the king will be victorious in the end ...



Below: A seal stone (to the left) with a wild boar and Pahlavi inscription, Iran, 5th-6th century. To the right is an enlarged image of its impression. I wish I knew what the incription says.

Buta no bento!

Some Japanese wives and mums (probably also husbands and dads) with too much free time put a lot of effort and creativity in preparing the lunch boxes - bento in Japanese - for their family members. There are people (nowadays not only in Japan) who have it as a real hobby, and create amazing works of art in those lunch boxes. One of them is the author of the blog Bento Corner.

Here is a pig-themed bento she made for her daughter:



"Bu-ta-chan onigiri bento with gyoza, tamagoyaki, salad, and grapes.
My daughter is quirky sometimes. She took a look at the pig onigiri and said, 'No, I don't want this bento. The pig is scary. Please make me a new bento.'
But. The pig. Is. Smiling."

But then, mum suggested they could put a little ribbon on the piggy, and that made it less scary, and thus edible.

Here is a pig-themed bento of the wild variation:



It's from e-obento.com, which is filled with the most incredible food pr0n I've seen in quite a while ... (Click on the date links in the top frame here to browse all the great wonders.)

These bentos give a whole new dimension to the rule used by some vegetarians and vegans - "I don't eat anything that has eyes."

Boar tattoos

I have a tattoo of a boar in some kind of fake-medieval Russian style. I got it because the wild boar is something like my totem animal. To me, wild boars have always been brave, strong, straightforward and - not least - feared and hated. As with wolves, European hunters in the previous centuries would orchestrate mass slaughters of wild boars, telling themselves that the boars were embodiments of Satan. Hunters generally fear boars, because they are very dangerous to hunt due to their strength and intelligence.

I've so far only once had the privilege of encountering boars in the wild. I was camping with my boyfriend at the time in the very sparsely populated hills of Macini in eastern Romania. The low forests on the hillsides were full of boar's paths. In the night, we heard a fairly large herd of wild boars walk by in the forest near our tent. They were grunting and uffing and clearly discussing our presence ...

I'm certainly not the only one with a boar tattoo. This is how tattoobody.org gives a (very basic) explanation of the symbolism behind boar tattoos:

"Unlike the PIG, the boar has been a companion to the warrior. In the wild, the boar is an aggressive animal and unrelenting in its attack. Norse warriors would use the image of the boar for decorative purposes as well as its actual teeth for various forms of adornment. In ancient Japan the war god himself was sometimes depicted as a boar. It was a sacred animal for the Celts for whom it symbolized military strength and goodness."

Illustrations from top to bottom:
1. My tattoo, inked by Pete at Exotic Tattoo in Lund, Sweden, in 2001. I modified the design myself from an illustration in a Russian children's book on history, and Pete added the gray shades.
2. Osaya's tattoo. Follow the link and you'll see a photo collage on how it was made.
3. Jay's pictish boar tattoo. Jay says: "I think it goes well with my kilt."
4. An Asian-inspired tattoo design with a moon, an owl, a gingko tree and a Chinese sage riding a boar, by Josh Roelink from Tatudharma in Sydney. Via DesignHub.

More:

mpiette83 has a cool tattoo of a warthog on his chest.

WeAreTheEnglish.com entertain Anglo-Saxon nationalism, and also traditional tattoo designs, including boars. They write: "Of all the animal symbols that were revered by the Anglo-Saxons it is quite possibly the Boar that was revered above all others. It was used as a symbol of protection and because of this it can often be found on Saxon War Helmets. In the old English epic poem Beowulf you can read about warriors going into battle with Boar crested helmets and many have been found buried at English archeology sites. It was believed that the image of the boar would bring protection to its wearer at times of war and they would be infused by its strength, power and ferocity. The boar was also closely connected to the Anglo-Saxon god Ingui. As well as the protection offered by the image of the boar, at times of battle those wearing this symbol believed that Ingui would watch over and protect them above all others."

Okay, I saved the best for last. Or, rather, I only came across it a couple of days later, by chance. On the left are reproductions of tattoos of Russian criminals, found on vne3akona.narod.ru. Fig. 47 is a boar, and the caption goes like this:

"A wild boar or its head - a tattoo used by female criminals, who have spent a prolonged time in prison and engage in lesbian love. The wild boar is a symbol of power and masculinity, and a woman with this tattoo has taken on the role of the man."

In other words, I have a classic butch tattoo.

Spider Pig!

After watching The Simpsons Movie, I was at first disappointed that we didn't get to know what happened to Homer's new friend Spider Pig, or Harry Plopper. I assumed he had perished, like a sinful seducer who finds redemption in the last minute and can die and go to heaven, after all ... But then I read that he will make an appearance in the first episode of the new Simpsons season, which changed the symbolism of his role a bit.

Scythian boar imagery

Today I was at the recently opened exhibition "Under the Sign of the Golden Griffin - The Royal Tombs of the Scythians" in the Martin-Gropius-Bau. I somehow imagined that photographing would not be permitted, so there I was with my drawing pad while everyone else was taking tons of pictures of the exhibits with their digicams and phones. Oh well, maybe I'll go there another time with my camera.

Most of the exhibits were extremely elaborate metal works that had been well preserved in graves and other sites. A lot of the designs had animal motifs: most commonly horses, which were essential in the Scythian lifestyle, and deer, which probably were the most common and/or popular prey of Scythian hunters, but there were also motifs of other animals, like moose, tigers, fish, wolves, eagles, roosters, etc., depending a bit on the fauna of the region of their origin. Of course, I kept an eye out for images of boars.

The two first sketches are adornments on horse bridles, two boars among dozens of deer, ibex, moose, tigers and other animals, from the 5th century BCE.

Though images of deer and horses clearly dominated, there were also a few boars. Most of them were depicted in hunting scenes or perhaps as food offerings, often along with deer.
The two boars on the left are from a petroglyph from the kurgan in Arzhan, Tuva. They are part of a design with three boars and four ibex sheep. The boars below are from another petroglyph at the same site. Towards the left, the design continues with deer figures. The boars in this images appear to be lying down on their side, and are thus most likely depictions of offerings.


This golden pectoral found in Ordzhonikidze was also among the exhibits. Its design incorporates various scenes, among them a lion attacking a wild boar.
Here is a photo with some of the golden adornments worn by a noble couple found in a grave in Arzhan. Among them are "thousands of little panthers and boars from the cloaks of the couple".



Above to the left is a sketch of one of several dozens of little golden boar figures that used to adorn a quiver (Arzhan, Tuva, late 7th century BCE). The sketch on the right might give an impression of how the little boars were arranged. (Each dimple = a little golden boar figure).
Maybe they were supposed to give good luck in hunting, or be symbols for all the boars that the owner of the quiver had slain.

On the left is a dagger with a knob in the shape of a boar from Arzhan, Tuva. There was only a schematic drawing of it in the exhibition.

There were also boar's teeth on display (9th-8th century BCE), which had been worn as a necklace, perhaps as hunting trophies.

In excavations of ancient fortifications in Stânceşti, Moldova, something quite interesting had been found: a fish with the head of a boar and, probably, the tail of a bird. It stems from the 5th or 4th century BCE, and was most likely part of a headdress for a horse, worn on the side of the horse's face. It was about 30 cm long and made of gold.


One interpretation is that the figure symbolizes the three elements earth (boar), water (fish) and air (bird). "Similar motifs have been found among both Thrakian an Scythian remains", it said.

The scythian noblemen had fiercely kick-ass tattoos, but unfortunately none of the tattoos shown in this exhibition (in drawings, a mummified man and the preserved skin from another man's arm) had any boar motifs.