Originally, the statue was located about twenty meters from its current location, at Esplanade Bridge. Now the statuette stands adjacent to One Fullerton. The monument was completed in the year 1972 and measures twenty six feet in height and weighs forty tonnes. Five other replicas of the statue are noted in Singapore, a cub statue of two meters high which stands behind the original statue, the thirty-seven meter statues at the Mouth Gallery Viewing Deck and The Merlion Shop on Sentosa Island, a glazed poly-marble statue which is placed at the Tourism Court and another three-meter tall poly-marble statue which has been placed on Mount Faber’s Faber Point.
The symbol was conceptualized by Kwan Sai Kheong who was then the vice-chancellor of the National University of Singapore. Mr Lim Nang Seng was the sculptor of the statuette and completed the task in August 1972. It weighs seventy tonnes and its body is made of cement, with eyes that are small red teacups. The skin has been specially made from porcelain plates.
Stretching over the Singapore River is a viewing deck that can hold approximately three hundred visitors at a time. Travellers can pose for photographs with the city skyline in the backdrop. The statue spurts water from its mouth and faces east, a direction that has been advised as auspicious. Singaporeans overseas have influenced, sculpted and designed replicas of the Merlion to be placed in the countries where they currently reside, and variations of this statue can be found in the United States of America, China and Japan.
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