Thanh Giong : The Giant Boy | Vietnamese Mythology | Asian Mythology | Mythlok | Podcast

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Mithlook with your host Nitin Nair. Today we are actually going to be exploring a lot more on Southeast Asian mythology and especially Vietnamese mythology. Now the Vietnamese mythology if you look at the grand scheme of things in Southeast Asian mythology is one of the smaller less popular ones mainly because it does not have the hype and the whole touristy element that is associated with all the other mythologies in the region which has got international prominence due to the influx of foreign travelers from abroad. Vietnamese mythology is unique because it totally focuses on a group or cluster of different characters with different characteristics who actually define or control the whole cosmology. So one of the main groups is that of the four immortals and what we are going to be focusing on today is one of them. So today we are going to be focusing on Thanh Nguyen who is also known as the giant boy. Now Thanh Nguyen is a folk hero in Vietnamese mythology and is one of the four immortals along with Liu Han whom we discussed a while ago. Legend has it that he rode an iron horse and defeated the Chinese army. He is regarded as the first anti-invasion hero in the country and a Vietnamese version of the Buddhist god Vaisravana. As a child Thanh Nguyen did not speak, smile or stand till the age of three. After he received a call from the emperor to help him in battle, he started talking and eating more. This ultimately helped him grow quite big and is then depicted as a giant with immense strength. During the 6th century, a woman lived alone in the village of Phu Dong and wanted to have a child. She is considered to be the mother of Thanh Nguyen and all his origin stories tend to drive back to this lady. Now she found a massive footprint in her paddy field where she grew up and worked. She placed her foot on the giant footprint which led to her getting pregnant. Now this is another example of divine interference in human lives by impregnating women which is common with Christianity and many parts of you know Hindu and other Southeast Asian mythologies and in cases some European mythologies as well where the gods actually decide to interfere in the lives of the human beings by impregnating one of them without actual physical contact. After getting pregnant, nine months later she gave birth to a boy whom she named Nguyen. Now Thanh Nguyen or Sinh Nguyen was also known as Phu Dong Thanh Nguyen which translates to the heavenly king of Phu Dong, Ong Nguyen, Sir Nguyen and Shung Nguyen Thanh Nguyen which also translates to the divine king of heaven. Thanh Nguyen was over 10 feet tall and was heavily built with the skills of an efficient warrior. The king ordered the creation of an iron horse that was 18 feet tall and a sword that was 7 feet long. Some accounts also claim that it was a 12-foot staff and not a sword that was forged as a weapon and he was also provided with iron clothes as armor. Thanh Nguyen was also provided with an iron helmet to protect himself from the enemy. He used these weapons and the iron horse which could breathe fire through his nostrils to destroy his enemies before flying off into heaven. Thanh Nguyen is considered to have taken birth on the earth for this sole purpose to help protect the Vietnamese people from the invading Chinese army. Thanh Nguyen is still considered to be an icon to the Vietnamese people and many of them tend to still pay homage and worship the boy giant as a savior and protector. Numerous comic books and cartoons have been created to help the new generation stay in touch with the legendary tales and folklore that surrounds them. If you look at world mythology in general, Thanh Nguyen is not the only giant who actually helped the locals stop an invading army or protect them physically from enemies. Thanh Nguyen is one of the more positive characters who have been built around the whole giant narrative in mythology from around the world but Thanh Nguyen also had this specific quality where the locals themselves helped equip him with the required armor and weaponry to actually protect them and after this whole act of completing or denying the entrance of the Chinese army into Vietnam, he actually disappeared into heaven to take his place among the four immortals. Some people claim that this is similar to the concept of reincarnation, kind of different avatars that is common in Hindu or Indian mythology but the Vietnamese mythology is very specific in terms of why gods actually take birth on the planet and it is for specific reasons and not to influence human life in general. So this was another character from the four immortals of Vietnamese mythology and we will be delving a lot more into the four immortals. Along with them we are also going into the four benevolent creatures or animals of Vietnamese mythology as we go along this podcast and this journey we have together. Thank you very much for tuning into MythLoke. This is your host Nitin Nair signing off by reminding you once again that MythLoke is the home of mythology.