From: tkim@sdcc3.ucsd.edu (Tonghyun Kim)
Newsgroups: alt.manga
Subject: Re: 3x3 Eyes Magic & Names List
Keywords: very long
Date: 9 Apr 92 05:33:35 GMT
Organization: Vajra-Dhatu

In article <1992Apr8.222745.28247@athena.mit.edu> pckyip@athena.mit.edu (Patrick C Yip) writes:
>
>I disagree with the use of zombie despite the English translation's use of
>it. Firstly, zombie is already dead, but is magically controlled to work
>by its master; Wu is not dead, because he/she still has his/her soul (
>although it's in its master 3eyes' body). Zombie can't think, has no emotion;
>Wu can think, have consciousness, has emotion. Zombie eats no human food,
>(dunno whether it needs any source of energy though); Wu will get hungry,
>has to eat food like human. In short, Wu is just like human, but can
>never die, because his/her soul is in his/her master 3eyes' body. Any
>wound or injury suffered by Wu will be recovered in short time, even under
>the situation of being blown up into pieces (although in this case it takes
>much longer time -- more than one week-- for the Wu to be fully recovered)

How about "The undying one" as the translation of Wu?

>On death of his/her master Sanjiyan, it's likely that the soul of the Wu
>will be returned to the Wu. Although the story never says so (on the contrary,
>it implies that when the Sanjiyan dies, the Wu dies), but I think this
>will strength the devotion of Yakumo towards Pai. Otherwise, if Yakumo will
>die when Pai dies, obviously he has to fight for her life no matter he loves
>her or not! :)

I disagree. Because if an Wu get back his soul upon the death of his
master, the easiest way for him to become human again is to KILL his
master. That makes having an Wu very risky (unless that Wu has
special reasons to not to do so, like in the case of Yakumo) for
Sanjiyans.

>Siva is one of the biggest two or three gods in Hinduism. He has many 
> forms of incarnations, sometimes like a fish, sometimes a turtle, and
> later even the Buddha is one of his incarnations! (a deed to downgrade
> the influence of Buddhism by Hindu monks, it's said)

You're confusing Siva with Vis(h)nu. Those in Vishnu sect of Hinduism
considers Buddha to be one of the ten avatars of Vishnu but you won't
find any relation with Siva and Buddha in any place.

BTW, the spelling for Hindu/Buddhist gods are not very consistent.
Some gods have two or more different ways to spell their names.

>>  Konron (lit. "Kun mountains")
>>    The range of mountains in northern Tibet. In Chinese myth, it is regarded
>>    as the unknown place where the dead might achieve Buddhist Nirvana
>>    (due to its impassibility and remotely western position relative to
>>    the mainland).  (Kun and Ron are special characters that were created
>>    purely for place names.)

K'un-lun is a sort of paradise ruled by Hsi Wang Mu (Seioubou in
Japanese) in Chinese mythology. It didn't have any association with
Buddhist Nirvana until later date (that is until Buddhism became
popular in Japan; merging Buddhism with their own myth happended in
China, Korea, and Japan).

>
>In Egyptian mythology, Anubis is one of the gods in hell (is it the sone
>of the hell king, BTW?) He has a head of wolf, a body of human. He is the
>judge of the dead when the dead comes to the hell. The dead's heart is
>weighed against the feather of truth on a scale. Tatoh (the sand golem with
>a bird's head in 3x3eyes) carries the record of the deeds of the dead and 
>he also responsible for recording the trial. The creature ???? sitting 
>beside the scale is a combination of several animals. It sits beside the
>scale because it always wants the heart to become its food.

Anubis' head is Jackal (dog)'s, not that of a wolf. Some scholars
suggests that Anubis means "little dog". Although he is a god of the
dead, he is not supreme in his command. After Osiris became the new
god of dead (and the judge), Anubis' role had been seriously
reduced (r.a.c. will suffer the same fate once r.a.m is created :-).

>>Ganesha
>>  In Pai's dreamworld, elephant-warrior "Wu" of the deformed Kaiyanwang.
>>  (Haan notes that in Hindu mythology, Ganesha is the good-natured son of
>>  Shiva - a clear contradiction.)

Correct (commonly used) spelling for him is GANESA. 

>
>In Hindu mythology, he is the son by Siva and Parvati. 
>He used to have a human head, but was chopped off by his dad, Siva.
>It's because he was usually charged with guarding the entrance to Parvati's
>palace, and he was so stubborn that he refused to let passage of Siva!
>Parvati asked Siva to replace their son's head, and the first animal which
>passed the spot was picked, which happened to be an elephant.
>Ganesha used to have their tusks unbroken too (Do you notice in 3x3eyes his
>tusk was broken?), but he's got one (or both) broken because...
>

One night, Ganesa had eaten too much of his worshipers' offerings and
he was taking a walk, riding on a rat (!). Because of a snake,
Ganesa fell from his rat and his belly EXPLODED. To repair his
broken belly, he wrapped the snake around his body. It was so funny
that The Moon laughed at Ganesa. Being offended by The Moon, he
threw one of his tusks at The Moon, cursing him. Due to Ganesa's
curse, The Moon was fated to lose its light perodically, while
Ganesa lost one of his tusks.


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