Sailing the Shipping Seas

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The Lion Turtle’s Chant is inspired by a real Chinese Pure Land Buddhist chant known as Nianfo (念佛) in Mandarin. The original chant goes:

Nāmó Āmítuófó (南無阿彌陀佛) / Bow before the Buddha of Immeasurable Light

The Lion Turtle’s Chant modifies this slightly to:

Nāmó Āmítuófó Shī​dì (南無阿彌陀佛师弟) / Bow before the Buddha of Immeasurable Light’s Disciple

Which is an absolutely fascinating addition to me. Amitabha, the Buddha of Immeasurable Light, is an enlightened being who possesses pure perception and freedom from worldly attachments. By having the chant state that respect must be paid to the disciple, it acknowledges Aang’s imperfections despite his good heart and grand status as Avatar. It’s shown explicitly in the show, after all, that Aang is very much incapable of letting go of all his attachments.

Though I also wonder if, by definition, all Avatars are really just permanent disciples of enlightenment. After all, Yangchen even says:

Many great and wise Air Nomads have detached themselves and achieved spiritual enlightenment, but the Avatar can never do it. Because your sole duty is to the world. Here is my wisdom for you: Selfless duty calls you to sacrifice your own spiritual needs and do whatever it takes to protect the world.

Some very interesting ideas posed by a simple musical score.

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  Chenbao

Spring 171 

By the time they arrived in Chenbao the sun had long since sunk below the horizon, but the Blue Dragon Festival was not to be deterred by anything so trivial as the setting of the sun- the riverside path along the regatta route was teeming with tourists and food stalls, lit surprisingly well by paper lanterns strung close enough together to be a fire hazard. 

Arriving this late on the first day they had missed the opening ceremonies and a number of competitions, involving mostly novice local rowing crews- nothing Kazuo seemed too concerned about. He had spent the better part of their journey dealing cards and explaining the different function of each individual seat in a rowing crew, which Lin found to be rather tedious on its face, but the enthusiasm with which he spoke was so endearing she found herself asking a remarkable amount of follow up questions. Though she did roll her eyes when she asked what seat Kazuo had occupied in his crew and he replied, “eight- the stroke seat” with a suggestive wink. 

She half expected him to lead her to bed as soon as they checked into their room, but instead he suggested they go out in search of a quick meal and walk along the promenade. It was just as well since Lin was starving and had it on good authority (the concierge) that every vendor along the riverfront would be serving up some version of Dragon Ear Dumplings- a favorite street food of hers back home. From the moment they set off Kazuo was pointing out the various grandstands and enclosures for viewing the races and sundry seacraft moored along the banks or tucked neatly away in their boat slips. His ardor for this regatta was nearly tangible and Lin wondered aloud why he is only just now attending for the first time. 

“No room in my calendar,” he shrugged casually, before spotting something in the middle distance, “look at this,” he declared, picking up her hand and pulling her toward a food stall with a sign touting Dragon’s Beard Noodles made with purple scorpion pepper. “How is it that this place in the middle of nowhere has purple scorpion pepper, but when I ask about it in the Fire Nation district of Republic City people look at me like I’m insane?” 

“Our noodles are very good,” a little old woman, reminiscent of a stunted root vegetable admonished from inside the food stall, “if you don’t like the pepper then go somewhere else.” 

Kazuo reeled back a little, caught between shock and humor, “What?” 

“Middle of nowhere,” the woman muttered angrily, “look at all these people! You are somewhere, yes? Somewhere standing around like an idiot blocking my shop.”

Kazuo laughed incredulously, looking to Lin, and then back at the old woman, “You are talking to me, right?” 

The woman on the other side of the counter looked positively incandescent, “are you deaf or just stupid?” 

While Kazuo seemed to be taking this unprovoked lambasting in his stride, Lin felt a swell of ire raise. “Hey!” Lin barked, taking a step forward and pointing one stern digit in the old lady’s direction, “he wasn’t talking to you.” 

The old woman’s maw snapped closed, startled. From the corner of her eye, Lin could see Kazuo’s eyebrows raise in surprise, “and the only stupid thing I see here is charging ten yuans for boxed noodles.” She hooked her arm at Kazuo’s elbow, marching forward haughtily “Come on, Kaz.” 

They had only made it a few steps before Kazuo spoke, barely containing his laughter, “were you-” a laugh escaped, “were you going to fight that old lady for me?” 

Lin chanced a look at him, meeting his eyes in her periphery for only a second, but it was long enough for the tension to break over a sputtering laugh of her own. He matched it and somehow that just made her laugh harder, which in turn made him laugh harder until they were both completely overcome, leaning against each other for support. 

After a prolonged moment Kazuo managed to catch a breath, wiping at his eyes, “is that your cop voice? Did I just hear your cop voice for the first time? She looked so scared.” 

Lin drew a breath amidst her laughing fit long enough to choke out, “it’s my regular voice.” 

Somehow that made Kazuo laugh harder, “No, it’s not. I was afraid for that woman’s life.” 

Lin returned his mirth, “I didn’t- I didn’t intend for it to come across that forcefully.” 

He waved her apology away as their shared outburst began to subside, putting his arm around her shoulders to squeeze her in closer as he joked, “Are you kidding? Baby, that was the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me- I have some legislators I’d love to introduce you to back home.” 

Though he said it in a teasing manner, the use of a nickname like that sobered her entirely, though she didn’t reprove him for it. Instead, she leaned in and let him kiss her temple, smiling all the while. “Alright, let’s find some dumplings, but keep your voice down– and in the name of the spirits don’t mention scorpion peppers,” he warned. 

Eventually they found their dumplings and a retaining wall at the edge of the river on which to share them. Over a modest take out carton they exchanged more laughs and stories from Kazuo’s rowing crew days and Lin’s training days at the Metalbending Academy. 

“I promise the venue for tomorrow’s dinner is a step up from this,” Kazuo assured apologetically. 

Now, unlike Michael Newton’s book of hope, I appreciate the clarity of this book’s title: Encyclopedia of Things that Never Where (1985). Stating that definitively really gets all that belief malarkey out of the way and lets us appreciate these things on their own imaginary terms (as Georgess McHargue encouraged us to do on Monday).

This book is more like a collection of several small topical encyclopedias, each discrete from the others and in their own alphabetical order. Nor do they necessarily make a perfect or intuitive sense all the way through. Things of the Cosmos is mostly gods of major mythologies, but also King Arthur and his knights. Things of the Ground and Underground collects faeries and tree spirits, but also the manticore, Minotaur and Sphinx. Things of Wonderland seems to imply things from literature, but really it collects all manner of fantastical places, from fiction, but also from legend. Things of Magic, Science and Invention could just as well have been called Things and left it at that; it collects notable items, from Thor’s hammer to Jekyll’s potion to the many unusual uses for nails. Things of Water, Sky and Air covers all the creatures not detailed in Earth chapter — Grendel is here, griffins, too, and all the sea serpents. Finally, Things of the Night details the undead and other creatures who hide from the sun, whether they go bump or not.

(please tap for better quality bc Tumblr really enjoys crunching my art for some reason..)

With and w/o the mask bc why not! (Ignore how much the face sucks this is a super weird angle and i didn't know what I was doing)

Pose reference ⬇️⬇️

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What's in a Name: Druk

According to the Korra artbook, Druk is the offspring of Ran and Shaw, the dragons that taught Zuko and Aang the Dancing Dragon forms. Meaning the golden egg that Aang and Zuko found was probably baby Druk.

I bring this up because Zuko's dragon is actually named after the thunder dragons of Tibetan and Bhutanese mythology. Druk is also the Tibetan/Bhutanese word for thunder; this is due to thunder being attributed to a dragon's roar in Tibetan/Bhutanese folklore. In fact, a more literal translation of the word druk would be "cloud voice". Considering the cultural inspiration for the Air Nomads, it's likely that Aang had a hand in naming Druk.

In general, Druk's name creates a lot of interesting cultural and thematic connections:

Zuko's Blue Spirit mask is a "Dragon King" mask. The Dragon King is a rain dragon who can conjure up storms. Since Zuko's alter ego embodies a dragon of rain, it's fitting that he would name his animal companion after a dragon of thunder. Zuko clearly likes weather dragons.

Until Korra's time, lightning bending was a skill reserved only for the Fire Nation's royal family. Since there can't be thunder without lightning, Druk's name also alludes to his connection to Fire Nation royalty. It's even possible that Druk is also capable of lightning bending; after all, dragons are the original firebenders.

While Chinese culture attributes dragons to the cardinal direction of east, Tibetan culture attributes dragons to the cardinal direction of west. Druk's name is a subtle nod to Iroh's "Dragon of the West" legacy.

The name Druk is also significant in Vajrayana (Tibetan) Buddhism. Drukpa or "Thunder Dragon Lineage", is a school of thought in Vajrayana Buddhism. Also, the name Vajrayana literally means "The Thunderbolt Way" in Sanskrit, in which lightning is used as a metaphor for the "jolting" nature of enlightenment. Considering that Druk is the offspring of Ran and Shaw, who "enlightened" Aang and Zuko on the true nature of firebending, his name is quite fitting.

All in all, Druk is probably one of the best named characters in the entire ATLA franchise.

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