Lion City

Something has been bothering me for a while. It's a statement made by a friend who said that lions did not exist in the wild in Southeast Asia and China.

It is postulated that the ancient Chinese may never have seen a live lion, and they may only have heard reports of lions from travelers in India and further west. This explains why their portrayal of a lion (sculpture and lion dance) is so unrealistic.

However, lions did exist in west Asia and India, but not in Southeast Asia.

What is the possibility that some lions may have accidentally strayed from India into Southeast Asia? Possible because there is a continuous land mass connecting India to Southeast Asia. All very well until you reach the Straits of Johore which separates Malaysia from Singapore.

Could a lion have swum the three quarters of a mile from Johore to Singapore Island? Probably not. While lions have been observed to swim, they are not regular swimmers. However, under certain circumstances they can swim for short distances.

All in all, it is highly unlikely that there ever were lions in Singapore. Tigers, on the other hand, are indigenous to Southeast Asia, and the last wild tiger was observed in Singapore as late as the 13th August 1902.

Sang Nila Utama, the discover of Singapore in the 13th century, is reputed to have spotted a lion, and named the island "Singa pura" or "Lion City".

But if no lions ever came to Singapore, what might be the explanation? Could he have seen a tiger, and not a lion?

According to Ng Kiat Han "Sang Nila Utama likely saw no lion.  He may have been misrepresented by history, misinformed by his courtiers or just plainly mistaken. At that time, there were other lion cities in the Majapahit empire and Indian states.  There may have been political forces behind this baptism by the crownless Prince of Palembang."

He goes on to say, "But with respect to the Malay Annals and legends of this region, all this indicates that the older ages of the world had perpicacious storytellers with fertile imaginations, never mind the biogeographic disagreements.  Some of this ability spills over to modern life.  Witness the made-in-Singapore fairy tale of the Merlion.  The older Sentosa version has laser beams shooting out of its eyes to kill its enemies, and the newer taller version comes complete with its own "myth" relayed through video on the TV screens."

Thus, it seems almost certain that the name given to our country, Singapura, the lion city, is based on an error of observation. And we have accepted this mistake for centuries.

"Interestingly, this shows that Singaporeans would rather believe in the veracity of a myth and forget the facts, the evidence, and the incongruences," says Ng Kiat Han. 

But how can any obsessional, self-respecting, self-righteous Singaporean allow such a major error to persist? We go to great lengths to sue anybody who makes even the slightest error about us. It's in our national genetic make-up.

What should we do? Should we create a mass movement to petition for rectification of this error?  Perhaps we could have a nationwide competition to rename Singapore?

Tiger City? Tigerpolis?

Oops, sorry, Malaysia has already laid claims to the tiger. How about naming it after our national cat, the kucinta? Or a wild boar... my theory is that Sang Nila Utama saw a wild boar, which, partially hidden by undergrowth, can resemble a lion.

We will have to re-label all our maps, rewrite all our history books, and (I would like to be the first to volunteer) compose a new national anthem!

Ken