Heavily Abridged Oriental Mythology

So you want to see statues? If I were in Paris, I would go to the Luxembourg garden for some very nice nude statues, but alas, I am in Miami. We have all kinds of things, but statues are not very popular here. However, I can easily get access to plenty of other kinds of statues... So here we go...

From left to right, first is "Ong Dia" aka the Earth deity. Annually, the 2nd day of the second lunar month is the birth anniversary of "Phuoc Duc Chinh." That's his earthly name once when he was a mere mortal. He protects your real estate properties and also brings you lots of dough if you worship him. If you don't have him in your house, that may explain why you may be in foreclosure. I tested this theory and sad to say it does not work for me.

"Di Lac Bo Tat" who, according to oriental mythology, was a mere mortal in one of his many life cycles like all other deities. "Bo Tat" is a disciple of "A Di Da Buddha," read on below... Mythology certified that he was a jolly large man with an above average waist line, joking around while he traveled the land. He later became one of the five deities in line to succeed "Thich Ca Mau Ni," which is the next statue.

The next two statues (Buddhas) are brothers once when their lives coincidentally occurred in the same time frame of the universe.

"Thich Ca Mau Ni" turns out to be the brother of the next deity. Mythology believed he was the son of an ancient king, who succeeded to become "A Di Da" Buddha (not shown) after many life cycles doing good deeds.

The fourth and last statue is "Quan Thế Âm" or "Kuan-Yin" or “Avalokitesvara” which is the savior of humanity, as the name literally means "listen to the call for help." Many of you may not know this, but this deity is really a male appearing as a female. Note that this is controversial, whether this is a male or female deity. Following a quite tortuous reasoning, the justification for the female rendering is completed. As in Christianity, it's not easy to be admitted into the inner (read higher) circle if you have the wrong gender. In this case, know that this is an impersonation to illustrate motherly love. So, in one of his lives, he was the son of the king and "A Di Da" Buddha, and brother of "Thich Ca Mau Ni." This goes to prove that gender ambiguity does exist in ancient time as well as now.

Confused? Me too! But you got to view four statues and some fun reading this, I hope.