Lions and elephants are often found in traditional building ornamentation. Besides appearing as single lion brackets or elephant brackets bracing beams and girders or in combination depictions with other auspicious animals on sparrow brackets and walls, they often appear in unique shapes bearing other auspicious animals on their backs in thematic portrayals of ”praying for the auspicious” or flower paintings in an imitative ancient style, mostly on buildings constructed by Quanzhou craftsmen. The article scrutinizes the images of lions and elephants in folk craft art using ornamentation of temples and residences in Taiwan, Kinmen and Quanzhou as examples, attempting to analyze then in terms of the use of homonyms (of depicted objects to suggest represented themes), symbolism, allusions and connotations. It also examines changes in the use of lions and elephants I ornamental illustrations on traditional buildings and the implied auspicious significance of their names.