Dragon Spotlight 18: Biwar's Dragon

This week’s dragon doesn’t have a name of his own, but was slain by a legendary warrior whose name he will forever be associated with.

One day, a village in New Guinea formed a group to go and find sago, a kind of flour made from the centers of palm trees.  Twelve boats were made ready, and after three days the boats were nearly filled.  On their way home, they passed over a dragon, who began whipping his tail around creating huge waves.  Not only did many of the boats capsize, but the village itself was flooded.  One pregnant woman held onto a tree to survive, eating its fruit and roots.  When her son Biwar was born, there were so few villagers left that she had to raise him on her own away from the village.

Biwar was a talented young man.  He could start fires and create weapons, and he was also a great sailor.  One day, he came home with so many fish that his mother asked where they came from.  When he told her, she begged him to never go there again, for that was where the dragon had emerged and killed so many of her fellow villagers.  Hearing the tale, Biwar began setting up a trap for the dragon in the mouth of a cave.  He lured the dragon into the cave, and when the dragon’s head creeped in Biwar’s traps set off.  Arrows fired, spears were thrown, clubs rained down, and daggers flew through the air at the dragon.  Biwar ran home and told his mother that the dragon was dead.

The next day, Biwar and his mother sailed to home village of Mimika.  Everyone welcomed them back and celebrated Biwar, who had defeated the dragon that nearly killed him before he was even born.

Rachel’s drawing of Biwar uses a monitor lizard native to New Guinea (pictured below), grown to enormous proportions.  You can see his tail churning the water behind him.

Dragon Spotlight 17: Souvan and Soutto, the Mekong River Dragons

Welcome back from the holiday break, everyone!  Since last week probably revolved around food, and may have featured some bickering, we’ve decided to give you the story of Souvan and Soutto this week.

The mighty dragons Souvan and Soutto lived in a huge lake, too distant to visit every day but close enough to be great friends.  On one visit, Soutto brought Souvan elephant meat, and in return Souvan wanted to send a gift to Soutto.  However, the hunting went poorly and Souvan only caught a porcupine, so he sent the porcupine meat along with some of its quills, which were very beautiful.  Soutto was quite angry, for he felt that Souvan had cheated him.  After all, an animal that produces hairs as long and quick as a porcupine’s quills must be an enormous creature!  Souvan tried his best to explain the true size of porcupines, but Soutto would not admit to having never seen one and insisted he had been wronged.  He brought an army of dragons against Souvan and his dragons, and their fight threw mud onto the land and eventually blocked out the sun.  It only ended when the gods become so frustrated with the feuding dragons that they intervened, and punished them both by making them create rivers.  Soutto made the Mekong River and Souvan created the Nan, and even though the dragons became friends again, the water from those rivers is said to remember the feud so that putting water from each river in the same bottle will crack or even shatter glass.

In Rachel’s illustration, you can see Soutto furiously accusing Souvan of short-changing him.

Dragon Spotlight 16: Baruklinting

You may have noticed that there was no post last week - the semester is certainly beginning to “drag on.”  Get it?  “DRAG-ON”?  OK, we’ll get right to the myth.

This week we are focusing on a myth from Java about 1 shepherd boy who was picked on by the 9 other shepherd boys from his village.  One day this unpopular boy was resting under a tree, when he heard the other 9 boys planning to come pelt him with cow dung to drive him away.  Before they could throw the cow patties at him, just as he prepared to run, the sky opened up and rain poured down on them all.  The unpopular shepherd, a clever boy, found a cave to hide in.  The others followed him and shoved him out into the rain, laughing as his clothes were drenched.  But they only laughed for a few seconds, because suddenly the cave snapped shut!  It was not a cave at all, but the mouth of the dragon Baruklinting, who had received a vision that nine shepherds would be delivered to his great mouth.

The last remaining shepherd ran back to his village in horror.  He rallied the villagers, who grabbed weapons and prepared to fight the dragon.  But when they ran to the place where Baruklinting had been, the dragon was gone and the sun was shining.

For this drawing, Rachel chose to focus not on an indigenous species but on the cave formations Baruklinting would have had to imitate.  Stalactites form his upper row of teeth and stalagmites form his bottom teeth.

In some versions of the myth, Baruklinting is actually the unloved shepherd boy and not the dragon, begging the question - is something more sinister going on?  Is Baruklinting both the boy and the cause of the other, cruel shepherds’ demise?  Since we’re just on the other side of Halloween, we’ll let you ponder the question!

Dragon Spotlight 15: Bakunawa

This week we’re departing from India and the Middle East to cover Southeastern Asian dragon myths!  There are some great ones ahead, so give yourself permission to get just a little bit excited.

Our first dragon is the bakunawa, a dragon indigenous to the Philippines who is famous for trying to eat the moon.  In fact, the stories say that there were once seven moons who the moon goddess Bathala created - but this was before the bakunawa ate them.  Bakunawa has two sets of wings, whiskers on his face, a red tongue, and an enormous mouth.  In most stories he is a serpent, but in some he is more like a shark.

There are several stories about Bakunawa, and why he ate most of our moons.  Some say he was irresistably attracted to the moons and their beauty.  Others say he was angry over the death of his sister, a sea turtle who laid her eggs and caused the tides to gradually rise until one night, the humans on the island she visited captured and killed her.  The goddess Bathala sided with Bakunawa, touched by his grief, and refused to punish him for eating six moons.  In another story, Bakunawa fell in love with a human woman, and their happiness was destroyed when the villagers found out and burned her home to the ground.  Bakunawa ate the moons in a fit of rage and vengeance, and Bathala punished him, banishing him to the sea.

But Bakunawa is not content to stay at sea.  Often the waters rise as he tries to come back home, and whenever there is an eclipse of the moon, it is said that he is trying to eat the last one.  In some places, the tradition is for people to bang pots and pans at an eclipse, driving the bakunawa away.

Rachel’s illustration of the bakunawa is based on a basking shark, since some descriptions of bakunawa make him seem shark-like.  The basking shark, as seen below, has a massive mouth (the better to swallow the moon with) and are found in the waters off of the Philippines.  She also gave it bioluminescent patches, like many creatures who live in dark deep-sea waters have, to help it in both its aquatic environment and during its missions to the darkness of outer space.

Dragon Spotlight 14: Vritra

In India, there is a Hindu god named Indra who brings rain and ensures the health of the land.  This mighty warrior god has an archnemesis in the powerful demon Vritra.

A snake so large his head reached into the clouds, Vritra is the demon of drought, a title he gained by stealing all of the world’s water.  He channeled all of the water in the world and kept it contained in a mountain without concern for the people of the world who were dying of starvation and thirst.  Despite how terrible the drought was, no warriors wanted to challenge Vritra - but Indra rose to the challenge.  He armed himself with several lightning bolts and rode an elephant to Vritra’s mountain.  There, the young storm god fought the great snake for many hours.  Vritra clawed at him, and he threw lightning at the dragon.  Finally, Vritra came too close to Indra and Indra struck at his legs, severing them.  As Vritra let out a terrible cry, Indra finished the dragon by cutting him in half.  He then released the water back into the world.

In this sneak peek of our illustration, you can see the water gushing out of Vritra’s mouth.  Rachel’s drawing of Vritra takes inspiration from both Indian statues and the bizarre horned toad species of Southeast Asia, pictured below.  

In recent pop culture, Vritra has been featured in the game Puzzle & Dragons as - fittingly - a dark dragon.

Dragon Spotlight 13: Ti'amat

The story of Ti’amat has undergone many changes over time.  In the Babylonian creation story, Ti’amat - like Illuyankas, from last week - is chaos personified in dragon form.  A brave warrior named Marduk eventually defeats her and restores order to the land.  However, in earlier Sumerian versions of the story, Ti’amat is the goddess of salt waters and creates the land along with her partner Apsu, god of the fresh waters.  

In addition to creating the land, Ti’amat and Apsu also have many children who are gods and goddesses themselves.  Because their children constantly kept them up at night, Apsu planned to spread them across the world, but one child - Ea - dissented.  He killed Apsu and tried to kill his mother Ti’amat, but she fought off his attack.  She then organized a war against Ea, with many of her children by her side, including her son Kingu as commander.  Ea chose his son Marduk to lead the rebel forces, and Marduk used not only spears and a club and a bow and arrow, but also his powers of wind and lightning.  Ultimately, Marduk triumphs and the story morphs from one of a rebellious grandson to a marvelous hero defeating the evil dragon.

Ti’amat, after creating the lands, then literally became them - all of the features of the earth are said to rest upon her back.  In Rachel’s illustration of Ti’amat, you can see the mountains along her back.  Her design is based loosely on the sturgeon, as seen in the two rows of bony scutes running down her sides. Rachel chose the sturgeon because they are a primitive group of fishes, much like how Ti’amat is one of the first recorded dragon myths.

In popular culture, Tiamat is a queen, goddess, and mother of evil dragons in the game Dungeons and Dragons.  Tiamat is also the name of a 1980s Swedish metal band.  Rock on, Ti’amat!

Dragon Spotlight 12: Illuyankas

Our story this week revolves around the ongoing fight between Teshub, the storm god, and Illuyankas, the dragon of chaos.

In Hittite mythology, Teshub fought Illuyankas constantly.  In one of their fights, Illuyankas came close to defeating Teshub, and even though the god survived, he called upon his daughter the goddess Inara, to help defeat the dragon and protect mankind.  Inara then called upon a human man named Hupasiya to join on their quest.  Taking advantage of the dragon’s greed, Inara threw a great feast and lay enchantments on the food and wine so that it would never run out.  Illuyankas and all his serpent children ate and drank until they passed out along the tables.  Then Hupasiya, who had been hiding in the dining hall, bound them with ropes and had Teshub scatter them across the land.  But this only kept the dragons’ chaos at bay for another year.

There are many stories of battles between Teshub and Illuyankas, since their fight was to be everlasting.  Each year when the Hittite new year was celebrated, it was said that Teshub clashed with Illuyankas.

Rachel’s drawing shows the dangers of draconic drinking, with Illuyankas having partied just a little too hard at the feast.

Below is a carving depicting Teshub killing Illuyankas from 850-800 BC.  An outlined version of the picture shows the shape of the dragon more clearly.

Come back again next week for more Middle Eastern dragons!