New Delhi: The environment-friendly Beijing Olympics torch, which arrives here tomorrow amid unprecedented security, is inspired by auspicious clouds and a scroll.

The red and silver torch resembles an ancient Chinese scroll and features "lucky cloud", incorporating traditional as well as modern elements.

According to the Chinese mythology, deities fly on lucky clouds or auspicious clouds. Chinese people expect the auspicious clouds to bring blessings and harmony.

The combination of the Olympic flame and torch is one of the most well known and strongest symbols of the Olympic movement, heralding not just the arrival of the Games but also spreading a message of peace or "Ekecheiria", as the Greeks call it, to the world, International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said recently.

The aluminium-made torch is 72 centimetres tall and weighs 985 grams. Scheduled to scale Mount Everest sometime in May, the torch is designed to withstand extremely low pressure, low temperatures and strong winds.

The light yellow flame can burn for over 15 minutes and will be fuelled by propane, a relatively clean energy source. The flame for the XXIX Olympiad was handed over to Liu Qi, president of the Beijing Organising Committee of the 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG), at a traditional ceremony held in the Panathenian stadium in Greece amid anti-China protests.

The torch relay in London, Paris and San Francisco was also marred by anti-China protests over the communist nation's crackdown in Tibet.

Crossing five continents, 21 cities around the globe, the torch relay will cover 137,000 kilometres in 130 days before the flame finally arrives at the National Stadium in Beijing on Aug 8,2008 for the opening ceremony.
Source : PTI