China has a rich history steeped in shamanic practices. Buddhism assimilated many of these as it has in other historically shamanic cultures such as Japan with Shinto & Tibet with Bon & Nepal etc. Many of the worlds religions are embedded with hidden shamanic knowledge. Much of what attracts people to Buddhism is in fact those very shamanic ways & practices. 

Here shown are the four core animals of the Feng Shui landscape. Deeply embedded shamanic principles of the living conscious landscape. Mother Tortoise the element of earth holds and space the dragon & tiger protect our periphery, vitality of the fire Phoenix or red bird inspires and draws forth. These 4 landscape beings also relates to ancient honouring & calling forth of the 4 elementals & 4 directions of North, South ,East, West. Giving the directions & landscape spirit animals character helps us understand it’s alive & has vital energy that we can tap into & each animal or aspect of landscape has a particular character that is associated with these animals. 

The dragon is assigned the centre as in the dragomans air where the landscape energy rests and pools in balance