Manussiha

'man-lion'), is a Burmese half-man half-lion mythical creature believed to be created by Buddhist missionary monks to protect a new-born royal baby from being devoured by rakshasis (ogresses) from the sea.

The Myanmar-English Dictionary, published by the Myanmar Language Commission, defined မနုဿီဟ as: မနုဿီဟ fabulous creature with a man's torso and a lion's hindquarters, depicted in a squatting posture on forked haunches [Pali မနုဿ + သီဟ][6] The most famous version of history of Manussīha is from Sāsanālaṅkāya Treatises (သာသနာလင်္ကာရစာတမ်း).

[c] According to that treatises, Manussīha, first appeared in 235 BE (309 BCE), is not a real creature, but a statue in order to frighten the ogres, demons and evil spirits.

In 235th year after Parinibbāna of Lord Buddha, the Buddhist missionary of five mathērs (senior monks) led by Soṇa and Uttara arrived at Sadhuim of Suvaṇṇabhūmi where the king Sirīmāsoka was reigning at that time.

After that, Manussīha figures drawn on palm leaves were put as amulets on children's head to protect them from bad creatures.