Widespread in Africa and Asia, the elephant has the most symbolic significance in these areas of the world and, in fact, it can symbolize both India and Africa.
In these regions, the elephant represents many qualities including: strength, royal power, dignity, patience, wisdom, longevity and happiness, as well as being a symbol of good luck.
In some cultures, the elephant is the cosmic animal, holding the world on its shoulders, and its image is shown on many architectural ornaments.
Frequently, the elephant is one of the favorite riding animals of monarchs, and thus it is associated with power and dominance.
Due to the long period of its life, the elephant indicates longevity, and memory (an English proverb says, "An elephant never forgets").
The white elephant is considered to be a sacred animal in Buddhism, as Buddha himself generated without the involvement of the father, in the form of a white elephant.
The elephant got from Buddha such qualities as patience and wisdom, and therefore became a "treasure of the law."
Hindu God Ganesha is depicted with the head of an elephant, symbolizing wisdom, as well as Airavata was the white elephant that served as a riding animal for Indra. In the Christian tradition, the elephant indicates the virtues of chastity and temperance, and is also a symbol of Christ, who crushes the serpent (Satan). The English idiom "white elephant" (a cathedral in the desert) in Thailand is used to define a useless project, a crazy idea. Since 1874, the newspaper "Harper’s Weekly" has published a cartoon in which an elephant trampled inflation and chaos, it became the symbol of the Republican Party.
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