Tea Pets/Tea Mascots

[twinofmunin]

I have a terrible, terrible crush on Geekgirl's Pixiu... enough that I'm doodling sad little Pixiu-inspired doodles at work!

[Geekgirl]

LOL! I have TWO! one for home and one for work!

[twinofmunin]

Goodness! Lucky girl.
I think I have managed, with help, to track down and acquire one for myself; pending the alignment of reality to my desires...

[IPT]

Here is another addition to my rat tea pet collection. This rat is rather large and stands 15cm high. It is seperate from the pillow and the coins on the tail move. The zisha is rather nice, for a tea pet.

[tortoise]

I knew when I saw IPT as author of the recent post in this thread, we would see something interesting. That rat is an enterprising fellow. You can tell by his collection of coins. My sense is that if you don't feed him, he may dispossess you of your tea.

very nice pet.

[IPT]

Thank you. I worry more about my spare change disappearing. My daughter was born the year of the rat, and she has a HUGE collection of rat tea pets, although she does not know it yet.

[finddream2020]

In yixing, zisha pi xiu pets are very commen seen.

I have something to add with pi xiu and qi lin.

Except bringing money, pi xiu is a symbol to protect people from evil. Also, it's better to hold a couple of pi xiu in China.

Qi lin is as the horse of gods. Qin lin is one of these four spirits(qi lin, phoenix, tortoise and dragon). It is the metaphor of clever men and boy, sometimes they call little boys "lin er". It is also the symbol of happiness.

The main difference I think between pi xiu and qi lin is that qi lin has the scale like a fish while pi xiu doesn't.

It's a very interesting topic. : )

[twinofmunin]

So after spending quite a while romping unsuccessfully around the internet in search of a Pixiu like GeekGirl's, I found that http://www.chinese-tea-culture.com/ offered to try to source things (presumably tea-related) if one couldn't find what one wanted. I sent an e-mail to IPT asking if he had any leads on similar Pixius.

I kept looking myself, but didn't find exactly the right one (though I found quite a few other lovely Pixiu tea pets along the way, and if I hadn't had my heart so set, I may have been swayed); eventually, I was whining about it on TC Instant Messenger, and a one Bob_McBob easily located one for me... on a website in a language I have no ability to work with (Chinese).

At this point, my goal was frustratingly within reach; after IPT responded that he didn't immediately know of any on hand that were identical, but had some other options, I asked if he could help me with the link that Bob_McBob had found... and voila!

One long, long trip through the postal services later, I have my very own Pixiu to join my little phoenix. He has had rather a drenching after his long, dry trip (for now, I only have a cell photo... apologies):


TeaChat totally came together to help me out, here. Thanks a lot, guys!

[IPT]

He looks so happy in his new home! Great setup!

It looks like your venus flytrap is curious about the new member of your tea family and sent a flower to investigate.

[Chip]

Sweet, any sans wings?

TreasureHunt 4 Clue 2 "Warsaw" (clue 1 was "Electric Slide ... not quite")

[IPT]

Then how would they fly?

[Chip]

TreasureHunt 5 Clue 2 "... overriding desire to be surprised by the outcome, as though I wasn’t present during the process." I for one am glad he/she has not been "present." (clue 1 was Coffee Cup)

Then how would they fly?

I prefer "swimmers." Most of the non teapet Chinese dragons I collected over the years are wingless, water dragons. They look a lot like this guy without wings. Unfortunately, I do not think they would be too keen to having hot water poured over them.

[Geekgirl]

YAY!

[IPT]

It is a Pixiu though, not a dragon.

[Chip]

It is a Pixiu though, not a dragon.

OK, just want a Chinese dragon teapet, but guess it is not happening ...........................