For lovers of garden gnomes...and any China-freaks out there

This interesting story was forwarded to me from China…sorry if it’s a little long

Garden Gnome Mystery Solved: Originally Chinese?

By Jia Baoyu, BeijingWireNews, Beijing, April 1, 2007

Count garden gnomes, along with paper, printing, gunpowder, and the compass among China’s enduring contributions to Western culture.

So says Dr. Bu Congming, professor of archeology and finance at the Urumqi Institute of Desert Exploration and Real Estate Development.

It is clear, he told Beijingwirenews in an exclusive telephone interview, that those pesky little critters with their red conical hats, beards and stunted stature, are models of Central Asian dwarves that were kept as house pets by wealthy families during China’s glorious Tang Dynasty over 1000 years ago.

“Keeping dwarves was quite fashionable even after the Tang”, Dr. Bu said.

Their pointy peaked caps, beards, belted tunics, large green or blue eyes and long noses were considered cute. The fad lasted all the way through the Mongol period, centuries later.

Professor Bu says he came to that realization when Dr. Xuan Zang, one of his colleagues at the Institute, found fragments of a letter written in Sogdian, an extinct Central Asia language, in a garbage pit at Dunhuang, the famous Silk Road oasis town in western China.

The author of the letter, apparently one of the dwarves, praised the household that kept him for providing delicious scraps of food.

But the dwarf complained that his masters laughed at his hat and beard, as well as his tiny legs. Sometimes he was so upset that he could not perform all of the circus stunts he had to perform for his keepers.

Dr. Bu says that the letter, along with many terracotta figures from the Tang Dynasty depicting such dwarves and other foreign peoples who came along the Silk Road, confirms the origin of the gnomic figures.

But how did the figures go west?

It is commonly thought that garden gnome figurines were first made in Germany in the 1800s as representations of trolls and other denizens of the demon-infested European woodlands to satisfy the vast Western demand for kitsch.

However, Dr. Bu suggests an alternative theory: the Mongols.

The great armies of the Khans liberated most of Eurasia during the so-called Dark Middle Ages in Europe.

Unfortunately they were unable to complete their “mission civilatrice” of spreading Asian values when they were suddenly recalled to their homeland following the death of one of the great Khans.

They had to leave their dwarves behind in the forests. Over time, the superstitious Europeans incorporated the abandoned creatures into their folklore.

Could there be diplomatic repercussions from Professor Bu’s discovery?

Officials in Beijing, while pleased about confirmation of yet another example of the reach of Chinese culture, have raised questions.

“It is beyond dispute”, charges Madam Sun Wukong of the cultural department of the Chinese foreign ministry, “that the images were stolen by the agents of imperialism!”

Mme. Sun threatens to take the matter up with the World Trade Organization as a “flagrant violation” of China’s intellectual property rights.

“The feelings of the entire Chinese people have been seriously abused and aroused by this blatant theft”, she declared. “Even if these dwarves were not of the Han race, we should acknowledge their minor accomplishments. The letter shows that even in feudal times their human rights were respected. As they would be today.”

Calls requesting comment to the Mongolian Department of Cultural Enlightenment in Ulan Bator, the World Trade Organization in Geneva and the German Embassy in Beijing were not returned.