Purple Butterfly

A fun bookmark my boss gave me for my birthday - together with other stuff. It's a plastic butterfly-shaped clip bookmark.

According to the “Butterflies” chapter in Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, by Lafcadio Hearn, a butterfly is seen as the personification of a person's soul; whether they be living, dying, or already dead. In the Philippines, a superstition says that if a butterfly enters your house, the person whom you most love is coming to see you. However, large numbers of butterflies are viewed as bad omens.

***Wikipedia

Elephant

Another wooden bookmark from South East Asian country - Thailand. My boss gave this to me when she arrived from a business trip in Bangkok. She kinda know i fancy bookmarks.

While Carabao is the beast of burden in the Philippines, it is the Elephant in Thailand. The Elephants were also important in battle, with kings mounted on them fighting the Burmese to defend their country on many occasions. They have also been noted for their intelligence, memory and pleasant nature. A Thai legend has it that a marriage is like an elephant-- the husband is the front legs, that choose the direction, the wife the back legs, providing the power.
Elephants only sleep for three or four hours a day, usually from 11pm to 3am. They simply lie down, yawning and later snoring just like humans. Only sick elephants sleep standing up.

***http://www.chiangmai-chiangrai.com/elephants_thai.html

The Hill Tribes

These are wooden bookmarks with a miniature doll in ethnic costumes. I got them from an swap partner from Thailand. These dolls are actually representations of the Hill Tribes. It is a term used in Thailand for all of the various tribal peoples who migrated from China and Tibet over the past few centuries. They now inhabit the remote border areas between Northern Thailand, Laos and Burma (Myanmar). These areas are known for their thick forests and mountainous terrain. The hill tribes are subsistence farmers who use slash and burn agricultural techniques to farm their heavily forested communities.

The six major hill tribes within Thailand are the Akha, Lahu, Karen, Hmong, Mien and Lisu, each with a distinct language and culture.

***Wikipedia