Tiger Statue

A tiger statue holds the animal still at the moment that defines it: mid-roar, mid-stride, or braced on a ledge with its weight on its front paws. The pieces in this collection come in gold and bronze tones, dark carved wood, jade-green finishes, glazed ceramic and painted surfaces, and the poses range from snarling tigers on mountain rocks to a tiger reclining among flowers and a winged tiger assembled from flat silver-tone metal.

Chinese tiger statues on rock and pine

In Chinese tradition the tiger is the king of the mountains, and many of the designs here show it on a rock. The Tiger Statue for Protection stands with its front paws planted on top of a rocky outcrop, head turned to one side in a snarl, its stripes engraved across a gold-toned body and its tail curling up behind. It comes in small, medium and large, in a golden or a bronze finish. Another gold-toned tiger roars from a rock carved with Chinese calligraphy, and a third climbs down a stepped ledge with its mouth wide open.

The Feng Shui Tiger Statue takes a similar pose in a very different palette. A jade-green tiger with gold stripes roars from a dark base carved as rock and pine branches, with an amber-colored sphere resting near its front paw, a gold band of coins draped across its back and a plaque bearing four gold Chinese characters, a phrase about a tiger's roar over mountains and rivers. Its color options are named Green Jade, Yellow Jade and Jade and Gold, in sizes S, M and L.

The Chinese Tiger Statue is quieter: a low, crouching tiger in an antique brass tone, front paws stretched forward and head raised, with lines of Chinese characters engraved along its back and flank and a small metal ring at its tail end.

Carved wood and Japanese styles

Wood gives a warmer, darker look. The Indonesian Tiger Statue Ebony Wood is carved in a deep reddish-brown: a roaring tiger steps up onto a rock ledge with one front paw raised, the muscles of its shoulders and the stripes along its flank cut into the surface, and its long tail curling down to the base. It is offered in sizes S, M, L and XL, and a second design listed in ebony goes up to XXL.

Two designs take their name from Japan. The Dominant Japanese Tiger Statue sets a dark, almost black body against an antique gold tone on the head, paws and tail, so the face stands out first. It steps onto a stack of flat rocks decorated with a curling cloud motif, its stripes traced in fine incised lines. The smaller of the two is a low, prowling tiger in a pale golden tone, head lowered as if stalking, offered in two sizes.

Painted busts, ceramic and modern pieces

Metal and wood are only part of the story. A ceramic tiger reclines on a gray-green rocky base among broad leaves and pink flowers, its coat glazed in orange and black. One bust rises from a base shaped like driftwood, painted in cream and ochre with dark stripes, while another, in matte white, shows only the head and one heavy forepaw emerging from a rough block. A painted tiger head with glossy reddish-brown eyes, a white muzzle and a ruff of cream fur is made to hang flat on the wall, and it is also offered in white or in two copper-style versions.

Some pieces lean toward the contemporary. A bronze-toned tiger strides with one paw lifted across a dark marbled disc set on a deep red base, and a winged tiger is built from flat, silver-tone metal plates, its wings fanned out above its back.

What a tiger statue stands for

The meanings attached to these figures come from several traditions. In feng shui the White Tiger is one of the four celestial animals, guardian of the west, and it is traditionally paired with the Green Dragon. A tiger figure is widely held to stand for courage and protection, and some feng shui designs add symbols of prosperity, such as the coins on the Feng Shui Tiger Statue described above. In India the tiger carries the goddess Durga in many images, and questions about tiger figures at home also come up in vastu, the traditional Indian system of architecture and layout.

Some beliefs hold that fierce animal figures bring the wrong kind of energy, which is why the question of keeping one at home comes up so often. Our guide to whether a tiger statue can be kept at home looks at the beliefs on both sides, along with the history of these figures and how to clean them. For a shortlist, our ranking of the top 10 tiger statues picks favorites from this collection, from a gold tiger on burning rocks to a winged metal tiger.

Statue or figurine, and what goes with it

The line between the two is loose, and the collections sit side by side. A tiger figurine is usually smaller and lighter in spirit: prowling and seated tigers, white tigers, a tigress with a cub in her jaws and a saber-toothed cat, most with their size listed in the options. The statues here are display pieces, many of them set on a carved rock or a wooden plinth.

A statue also shares its theme with the rest of a room. A tiger lamp glows with a tiger engraved into an acrylic panel, a tiger rug repeats the stripes on the floor, from round printed rugs to designs cut in the shape of a tiger skin, and our full tiger decor collection adds canvas paintings, tapestries, bedding and cushion covers.

Sizes and finishes

Do the statues come in different sizes?

Some do. The Tiger Statue for Protection is offered in small, medium and large, the jade-green feng shui design in S, M and L, and the carved Indonesian tiger in four sizes up to XL. Many others are made in a single size, shown on each product page.

Are there silver or white versions?

A few. One gold-toned roaring tiger can also be ordered in silver, the wall-mounted head comes in white, and a modern tiger figure is offered in black, white, gold or brown.