Galleries : Undying Tales 2021 : UT 21 - Yangtze Giant Softshell Turtle
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YANGTZE SOFTSHELL TURTLE - 6.5x6.5 inches $225.00 sold
Dragon King - 4.5x6.5 inches $200.00 sold
Rafetus swinhoei Status: Critically Endangered. Once widespread in the freshwaters of China and Vietnam, they are near extinction due to loss of habitat and hunting. There only only a few individuals left. Vietnamese legend: In the fifteenth century, Lê Lợi became emperor of Vietnam by rising against the Ming Dynasty and driving them out of the country. Breaking the chains of that thousand-year-rule was the beginning of the establishment of his own Lê Dynasty. Legend says that the deity, the Dragon King, provided Lê Lợi assistance in the form of a magical sword called Heavens’ Will. Upon Lê Lợi’s victory, the Dragon King sent an emissary, the Great Turtle God, called Kim Qui, to retrieve the sword. Lê Lợi gratefully handed over the divine weapon to Kim Qui, and the spot where this exchange occurred became called “The Lake of the Returned Sword”. To this day, some of the last survivors of a critically diminishing population of softshell turtles inhabit that lake, and they are seen as being the mortal incarnations of the Great Turtle God.
Size: 7 x 7 inches Detail closeups:
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