Some material on this page, including images, also appear in and were taken from Chapter 629 of the Orange Book of the Kristang people.
In addition to its actual historical origin as a makara or sacred gate guardian long before it became a Singapore Tourism Board symbol as documented in recent academic research, the merliang or merlion has been identified on multiple occasions by non-Kristang researchers as a prominent symbol of Kristang identity, and strongly indexes the paradoxical twinfire nature of the Kristang as Creole and Indigenous, somehow both organically-natural and intentionally revitalised at the same time, somehow both fully conscious of one’s unconsciousness and also unconsciously fully conscious, and as much a pesua tera kung matra or a person belonging to and having very strong connections to the tanah air or land and sea or Earthsea of the Riau archipelago, the Nusantara and the drowned subcontinent of Krisamar or Sundaland. The merlion also especially indexes Sundaland in Kristang culture because of the complex web of associations that people in Singapore and Malaya used to have of it as a result of its connection with artificiality and the Singapore Tourism Board, and which are now being creolised and transformed because of the Kristang people.
As an Indigenous Kristang cultural symbol, the merlion is therefore associated with creolisation and transformation, with recovery, restoration and revitalisation, with homecoming and/or with the protection of one’s home and loved ones, with divinity, numinosity and individuation, and with the psyche, the unconscious and the unknown in their most positive and least threatening forms.
The appearance of the merlion symbol signifies that one is close to or already in a Spektala or temenos: a trauma-processing space, rite-of-passage space or individuation space, and one protected and watched over by Gaia and the living universe. The merlion thus represents the trust and confidence of Gaia and the living universe in the person who is in the Spektala, and indicates that they should seek the strength, courage and resilience to proceed.
In terms of Kristang people, the merlion in general of any colour (indigo- or dark blue merlions occasionally have a particular additional meaning described below) strongly indexes the presence or influence of the 13th Kabesa, Tuan Raja Naga Kevin Martens Wong Zhi Qiang, who is the 4th and final Merlionsman and human magnamakara or psychoemotional gate guardian and protector of the Republic of Singapore, and his first novel Altered Straits, which is where the term Merlionsman originated and was dreamfished out of as a Kristang symbol starting from August 2022.
Merliang Anyil / Merliang Azuletra
Merliang anyil, merliang azuletra, indigo-gold/orange-and-white or dark-blue-gold/orange-and-white merlions, and/or merlions with azuletra patterns such as the one above, tend to further index the influence or presence of the 14th Kabesa of the Kristang, Tuan Benji Benjamin Harris, who as a Ka-Kabesa magnamakara is otherwise primarily represented by a blue liang or lion. Benjamin is the first person ever to want to and successfully assimilate into Kristang purely for academic and intellectual reasons and primarily out of respect for Kristang metaphysics and philosophy, permanently restoring tremendous levels of self-worth and respect to the Kristang community in the process, and initiating the excavation of the Ultramar or Immortal leadership role out of the Dreaming Ocean.
