Friday 4 January 2013

Tiger, Dog, Monkey and Dragon








Joel Kontinen

Thousands of Chinese sailed to southern Australia in the 1850s, hoping to find gold. Some succeeded, others did not and earned their living as merchants or shopkeepers.

At Ararat in the state of Victoria there is a museum describing the ordeals of these brave Chinese. In addition to artifacts reminding us of these early gold diggers, the museum also has other kinds of items, such as a Chinese horoscope. It features 12 animals, of which 11 are still among us today. The twelft is the dragon.

The tiger, dog, pg, horse and monkey are real animals. Many would say that the dragon is the odd one out, but is it so? Soft tissue in dinosaur bone would suggest that dinos are not that old.