Sunday, August 22, 2021

Lessons from Haw Par Villa #3: Deities

Through my rigorous study of Haw Par Villa, I've learnt that there are three secrets to survival: weapons, friends, and ideally being some kind of hybrid human animal.
As you can see, turtle man and floral fishlady are doing ok in this otherwise grim scene.
You're still at risk, though. Above, a fishperson stabs a personfish. Below, snailman seems to suffer, while the singing lady seems unperturbed.
It's hard to absorb the overall scene, which is the story of the eight immortals invading Neptune's palace. The Queen of the lake of Jade allegedly intermediates, although I don't see that going on.
In Chinese culture, there are many deities.
Above if the god of longevity, below the god of prosperity, both recurring themes.
Even for frogs!So you get to worship a lot of things, if you like. Here are some temples in which to do this.
Buddha also has different forms. I tried to research this, but got confused, worried I'd offend those more scholarly on such subjects, and gave up.
So let's instead consider the weight difference above and below!
Barry was also considering this.