Hakka Americans
Hakka Americans (客家美國人 or 客裔美國人), also called American Hakka, are Han people in the United States of Hakka origin, mostly from present-day Guangdong and Fujian, China, and Taiwan. Many Hakka Americans have connections to Hakka diaspora in Jamaica, the Caribbean, South East Asia, Latin America, and South America. The Han characters for Hakka (客家) literally mean "guest families". Unlike other Han ethnic groups, the Hakkas are not named after a geographical region, e.g. a province, county or city. The Hakkas usually identify with people who speak the Hakka language or share at least some Hakka ancestry. The earliest Hakka immigrants to what is now the United States mostly went to Hawaii, starting when the Kingdom of Hawaii was an independent sovereign state. After the lifting of the Chinese Exclusion Act by the passage of the Magnuson Act in 1943, the Hakka began to come to the US from Taiwan and to a lesser extent Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, Jamaica and the Caribbean.
Carved wood vahanas in National Museum
The "vahanas" are both the symbol and the emblem of the deity that they carry. In Hindu iconography, positive aspects of the vehicle are often emblematic of the deity that it carries such as "Nandi", the bull, vehicle of Shiva, represents strength and virility. "Parvani" the peacock, vehicle of Kartikeya, represents splendor and majesty. The "Hamsa", vehicle of Saraswati, represents wisdom, grace and beauty.