TOURIST SITE
JANUARY 8, 2022
The Legendary Singapore Merlion Statue
The legendary Singapore Merlion statue is one of the must-see place in Singapore, a well-known mascot for the tourism.
Singapore is a small country but has great popularity in the world. Business and tourist grow rapidly in this nation in a small island. The mascot of Singapore is the Merlion. What is it and what’s the history behind ?
The Merlion is depicted as a mythical creature with the head of a lion and the body of a fish. The name itself is a combination of the words “mer” meaning the sea and “lion”. The legend of Merlion is taken from mythical beginnings.
It is said that the Merlion reflects the legend of Sang Nila Utama, a Malay prince that sailed across the seas and discovered a fishing island called Temasek (meaning “fish town” in Javanese) thus the fish body represents Singapore’s origin as a fishing village. The lion head is the Singapore’s original name, Singapura, or the “lion city”. According to the Malay Annals the Kingdom of Singapura was founded on the island by Sang Nila Utama in 1299.
This imaginary animal was designed by British zoologist Alec Fraser-Brunner in 1964. It was first used as the logo for the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board, now the Singapore Tourism Board (STB). The logo was used from March 26, 1964 to 1997.
Fraser-Brunner was famously behind the curator of Van Kleef Aquarium and a member of the souvenir committee. At the time Singaporeans were in the process of trying to rediscover their national identity and they need a symbol to remind them of who they were and who they aspired to become.
Currently there are seven official Merlion statues approved by STB in Singapore. The most well-known is an 8 meter tall statue designed by Kwan Sai Kheong and sculpted by Lim Nang Seng (1907-1087). The location of this most popular Merlion symbolizes some aspects for Singapore prosperity.
It is located at the New Merlion Park, at the Marina Bay waterfront. This statue faces to east direction. This is done accordingly to the feng shui masters to preserve good luck. The water that spit from Merlion’s mouth is seen as the endless spitting of money into deep ocean of money, the Singapore River.
This statue was built of concrete over a steel frame in 1972 weighs some 80 tons. Half-lion, half-fish standing on its tail fin. On September 15, 1972 Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew officiated the installation ceremony of this statue in Merlion Park. The project cost S$ 165.000. In 2002, the statue was relocated 120 meters to the current Merlion Park, in front of The Fullerton Hotel.
The Merlion in Sentosa island is tallest one in Singapore. It has four teeth, it represents Singapore’s ethnic groups : Chinese, Malays, Indians and Eurasians living in harmonious prosperity for all Singaporeans. Built in 1995, the animal statue can be found over Imbiah Station, with 37 meters high it’s the tallest of all Merlions.
But recent plans has it that this statue will be demolished to make way for the new Sentosa Sensoryscape, a new pedestrian thoroughfare.
To tell whether a Merlion is male or female you can see from the water spray. The female Merlions spray water and the males do not.
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