Look, a 2000-year-old “cat” on the roof

It is a common scene that the 2,000-year-old "cats" sits on the roof of houses in Dali City, southwest China's Yunnan province. They actually called "tile cats", representing god of doorways.

In local traditions of Dali, the tile cat is the protector of the family. The yawning cat represents gathering of wealth; People place the cat facing outside, meaning that it will "eat up" all evil spirits...

The origin of the cat comes from an ancient myth. It is said that in the old times, five evil spirits of mouse harmed humans. Then the god of the universe and the god of the earth invited the god of cat to catch them. But unfortunately, one evil spirit of the mouse escaped. Therefore, the god of the earth made a clay "cat", which continued to clean the evil spirits in the world. 

As time goes by, it has become a tradition for every household to put “tile cats” on their house roofs to keep the family members away from evil things. Today, the tile cat has evolved into different forms.   

Photos/ Xinhua; Editor: Wang Shixue