Across Asia
The 1931 Thai Himmapan Register: 34 Creatures and Their Colours
Bangkok register published in 1931
In 1931 H. G. Quaritch Wales published an appendix adapted from a recent Bangkok register with drawings. Its thirty-four entries range from lions, horses, elephants, and swans to water, bird, reptile, and multi-animal composites. The register is unusually concrete about conventional colour: vermilion, indigo, violet, dark blue, purple, green, yellow, black, white, and natural animal colour all appear.
The subject in detail
- 34
- Named creature forms
- 1931
- Year of publication
- 12+
- Animal families recombined
- 34
- Rows with conventional colour
The complete 1931 Bangkok register
| Printed name | Form description | Conventional colour |
|---|---|---|
| Sīṅha kinlen | kind of lion | dark blue and purple |
| Sīṅha rāmāṅkara | dragon-lion | vermilion |
| To debāśtara | lion-horse | green; red fins and tail |
| Mā drañ krū’āñ | caparisoned horse | natural colour |
| Jāṅ phū’ak | white elephant | light red (natural colour) |
| Varī kuñjara | water elephant | purple; green fins and tail |
| Karinda pākṣī | elephant-bird | black; green wings and tail |
| Siṅto cin | Chinese lion | yellow |
| Kihmī | kind of lion | yellow |
| Bayāgverṭai | tiger-garuḍa | yellow; green wings and tail |
| Reṭjāṅ | rhinoceros | reddish purple |
| Kraiṣara nāddhī | water lion | blue |
| Kilen pik | winged lion | blue |
| Duraṅga kraiśīha | lion-horse | vermilion |
| Āśtara herā | horned lion-horse | violet |
| Bayāga kraiśīha | tiger-lion | dark yellow |
| Sakuṇa kraiṣara | bird-lion | light yellow |
| Sakuṇa herā | crocodile-bird | light yellow |
| Haṅsa | swan | dark yellow |
| Haṅsa cin | Chinese swan | vermilion |
| Kai tāṅkia | Tonquin cock | light yellow |
| Nāga pākṣiṇa | nāga-bird | vermilion |
| Nak deśa | kind of bird | vermilion |
| Nak hāsatin | elephant-bird | white; yellow wings and tail |
| Nak indrī | eagle | green wings; yellow tail |
| Kraiṣara gāvī | cow-lion | black and white |
| Duraṅga pākṣiṇa | horse-bird | natural colour of horse |
| Nāy sai | caparisoned lion | indigo |
| Māṅkra sakuṇī | dragon-bird | grey; yellow wings and tail |
| Kai sechvan | Szechuan cock | yellow |
| Sindhu pākṣī | water bird | dark blue |
| Kumbhī nimitra | fairy-crocodile | white; purple tail |
| Kai hakkian | Hokkien cock | vermilion |
| Hemarāja | swan-lion | vermilion |
A single page containing thirty-four bodies
The 1931 appendix compresses an extraordinary creature world into a practical register. Each row gives a printed name, a short description, and a conventional colour. A lion may acquire a dragon, horse, tiger, bird, cow, horn, wing, fin, or ceremonial caparison; an elephant may enter water or join a bird.
The compactness feels closer to an artist’s prompt than to a storybook biography. It tells a maker what families meet and how colour should help the meeting read.
Water changes anatomy and colour
The aquatic group is especially clear. Varī kuñjara is a purple water elephant with green fins and tail. Kraiṣara nāddhī is a blue water lion. Sindhu pākṣī is a dark-blue water bird. Kumbhī nimitra is a white fairy-crocodile with a purple tail.
Water is not represented by one universal fish body. It is signaled through names, fins, tails, and a cool palette that can be recombined with elephant, lion, bird, or crocodile form.
Birds are the register’s great joining mechanism
The page combines bird form with tiger and Garuḍa, elephant, nāga, horse, dragon, lion, and crocodile. Contrasting wings and tails often make the avian share immediately visible: green against black, yellow against white or grey.
It also includes Haṅsa and a vermilion Chinese swan, an eagle, and cocks associated with Tonquin, Szechuan, and Hokkien. The register looks outward as well as inward, folding geographic labels into its avian repertoire.
Why the old spelling remains visible
Quaritch Wales’s romanization can look unfamiliar beside modern Thai spellings. Preserving it allows every website row to be checked against the printed appendix and keeps later naming conventions from silently rewriting the page.
The reward is precision. Hemarāja is vermilion and described as a swan–lion here; Duraṅga pākṣiṇa is a horse–bird in the natural colour of a horse. Those statements belong securely to this one dated record.
Look closer
Twelve patterns inside thirty-four compact designs
The register becomes more revealing when read across rows: certain animal families attract combination, colour often marks anatomy, and geographic labels enter a Bangkok repertoire.
Rows QW001–018 and QW026–028
Lions absorb almost every partner
Dragon, horse, water, wing, tiger, bird, cow, horn, and caparison all enter lion-related designs, making leonine form the register’s most flexible scaffold.
QW006, QW012, QW031, QW032
Water is a family of transformations
Water elephant, water lion, water bird, and fairy-crocodile use different bodies and palettes rather than conforming to one aquatic template.
QW007 and QW024
Two elephant-birds are kept distinct
Karinda pākṣī is black with green wings and tail; Nak hāsatin is white with yellow wings and tail, giving related formulas separate identities.
QW010, QW017–018, QW022–025, QW027, QW029
The bird is a universal connector
Bird elements join tiger-Garuḍa, lion, crocodile, nāga, elephant, horse, dragon, and eagle vocabularies across the printed register’s many hybrid designs.
QW021, QW030, QW033
Three cocks carry geographic labels
Tonquin, Szechuan, and Hokkien cocks enter the Bangkok list with distinct light yellow, yellow, and vermilion colour assignments.
QW019, QW020, QW034
Two swans, then a swan-lion
A dark-yellow Haṅsa and vermilion Chinese swan precede the final vermilion Hemarāja, whose body formula combines swan and lion.
QW003 and QW006
Fins can override the base animal
The green lion-horse receives red fins and tail, while the purple water elephant receives green fins and tail, using colour to expose aquatic anatomy.
QW004, QW005, QW027
Natural colour is itself a convention
The caparisoned horse, white elephant, and horse-bird are assigned natural animal colour rather than a saturated court palette.
Seven register rows
Vermilion crosses families
Dragon-lion, lion-horse, Chinese swan, nāga-bird, an unnamed bird kind, Hokkien cock, and swan-lion all share the register’s vivid vermilion convention.
QW011 and the former procession
A rhinoceros survives in two histories
The register colours Reṭjāṅ reddish purple, while a separate ritual account remembers a rhinoceros carrying sacred fire ahead of the wheeled company.
How to read the formulas
A component name is not a whole body
“Tiger-lion” or “dragon-bird” identifies contributing animal families but leaves the exact seam, pose, ornament, and proportion to visual realization.
Quaritch Wales, 1931
The page records transmission as well as creatures
An English-language publication adapts a recent Bangkok register and preserves its romanized names, drawings, descriptions, and colours within a colonial-era scholarly format.
Notes and further readingPassages, pages, objects, and books for anyone who wants to go deeper
In the sources
Details you can look up
These short notes lead directly to the texts and objects used in the guide.
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Scholarly transcription of a dated registerView source
Thirty-four entries
The appendix contains thirty-four visually reconciled rows pairing a printed creature name with a short description and conventional colour.
Where to find it: Quaritch Wales 1931, printed p. 168 / PDF p. 221
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Scholarly transcription of a dated registerView source
Composite design language
The register includes lion, horse, elephant, bird, nāga, crocodile, tiger, dragon, cow, swan, eagle, and aquatic combinations.
Where to find it: H9-QW001–034
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Scholarly transcription of a dated registerView source
Conventional colours
The register assigns colours to all thirty-four rows, sometimes separating body colour from wings, fins, or tail.
Where to find it: H9-QW001–034
Further reading
Books, texts, objects, and studies
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Scholarly transcription of a dated register1931 publication
Quaritch Wales appendix: thirty-four Bangkok creature forms
Quaritch Wales 1931, printed p. 168 / PDF p. 221; H9-QW001–034
Thirty-four source-printed names are paired with short form descriptions and conventional colours, visually reconciled to the page control.
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