Stone lion is carved by stone, a Chinese traditional architecture. You will find the stone lion in temples, pagodas, Bridges, mansion, gardens, mausoleums, seal of China. But most of time, stone lion is refers to the left or right side of the door.
The stone lion begins with the Han dynasty. It was said the stone lion was spreaded from western. And then the stone lion became a "Spirit Beast" within the introduction of Buddhism. Stone lion is seen as a spirit beast of mythology in the Chinese culture instead of real-life animals, and stone lion becames the spirit beast with kylin.