Amazing Faces of Zhulong

My talented friend Maddy designed this lovely necklace featuring a crystal zhulong as a centrepiece. She allowed me to take this picture to post on my blog for all zhulong admirers/fans. We put our heads together but still could not figure out the exact vintage of this particular piece. We just know that its a little old but definitely NOT as old as Hongshan. The supporting beads of turquoise, amber and coral give this necklace a Tibetan cast as these are the stone colors most often seen on Tibetan jewellery.

Here's a closeup :

With so much zhulongmania around, I too have finally gotten hold of a FAKE crystal zhulong, shown below. Wa, it sure looks ferocious and wild compared to Maddy's more genteel piece. I have a very bad eye that always sees wrong things, here I am about to make another strange sighting. Surely the zhulong shown here is looking like someone's grandma !! It brings to mind the famous exclamation, "... goodness, what big eyes you have grandma ?".... Hmmm, so is this a pig, a dragon or a grandma :)))

Apologies to the true and original zhulong which is a rare work of art. What I am really hoping, is that one day I will have the chance to hold it in the palms of my hands.

Sa Huynth Earrings

This funny shaped three pronged stone (maybe nephrite ) ornament was purchased from South Vietnam. I think it belongs to the the nephrite earrings (sometimes called lingling-o) from the Sa Huynh Culture of Vietnam (1000 BC to 200 AD), a late prehistoric metal age society on the central coast of Viet Nam.

However my specimen may not be genuine Sa Huynh. I somehow got the feeling that it is a replica. The seller being uneasy himself, had said that it is from the Champa Kingdom, a later civilization and that could bring it as far down as 1800.

The curled up C-shaped ornament also reminds me of the Chinese Hongshan (3500 to 2000BC) zhulong(pig dragon.) The zulong is descended from the jue(slit ring) and the jue-form is also used in Vietnam although later than the Chinese period. So from this chain of reasoning my impression that the lingling-o and zhulong are distant cousins, relatives or whatever, may not be too far fetched ! Though I must admit that my assumptions are completely unscientific !

Are my eyes or mind playing tricks on me ? Seems like the more I look at it the more I see the zhulong pose (minus the prongs) in the earring ornament. Here are two views:

The picture on the left is a lingling-o looking view (the earring view) usually shown in books and other sources. The picture on the right shows a different view. Does it not resemble the curled up zhulong ? Wish I could post a picture of a zhulong for comparison. Unfortunately, I do not own one not even a replica. However jade collectors would be familiar with this legendary artifact and the Net would also have many images of this illustrous mythical animal.
So is this a fake lingling-o that looks like a zhulong ? Well I must say this is one tricky piece and the faker must be having a good chuckle baffling hapless collectors like me. :)

Here is another C-shaped, lingling-o/zhulong lookalike ornament made from glass also purchased in Vietnam.

Vintage unknown.