She tries to spoil Hanuman’s plans to build a bridge from India to Sri Lanka to rescue Sita, another central figure of the story. A mermaid princess and daughter of Tosakanth, she falls in love with Hanuman, one of the central characters in the various versions of the epic. We can find the “Golden Mermaid”, Suvannamaccha, in the Thai version of the Ramayana – a highly-revered piece of Indian literature. Because of this, mermaids were largely depicted in literary stories as lonely, tragic figures who sacrificed themselves for love. Similar to the Japanese ningyo, the Chinese mermaids were famous for their tears that turned into pearls. Hermaphrodite mermaids with black skin, yellow hair, human eyes, webbed hands and feet, and red wings are mentioned in Hai Cuo Tu, a book written by the biologist Nie Huang from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Interestingly, some of them had four feet and could emit a sound similar to that of a crying baby others could even resurrect after death.Ī book written in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Sou Shen Ji, refers to mermaids living in the South China Sea: They were called jiao ren and were excellent craftswomen who would weave cloth that could never get wet. The book also mentions other types of mermaid, such as chi ru, di ren and hu ren. Mermaids are mentioned in some Chinese works, such as the Shan Hai Jing, a compilation of Chinese geography and mythology from the fourth century BC that refers to mermaids as ling yu or ren yu. Sometimes they were depicted as demons, but the female Naga, the Nagini, can be represented as a sensual woman, associated with bodies of water, fertility, and protection, playing roles similar to mermaids in Western culture. The Nagas are serpents who inhabited rivers and pools and could change their form at will. In some cases, the serpents are replaced by dragons. It’s not exactly an amphibian creature, as the Naga, an anthropomorphic half-man-half-serpent, is presented in Indian and other southeast Asian legends and myths as water spirits. But, most of the time, we can see Vishnu emerging from the fish’s mouth. Sometimes it is depicted as having the upper body of a man and the lower body of a fish. In Indian culture, we can find the Matsya, the fish avatar of Vishnu in Hindu mythology. The most famous one is known as “The Fiji Mermaid”, which was claimed to have been caught near the Fijian islands, in the South Pacific, but was probably made by Japanese fisherman around 1810.Ī Fiji Mermaid, Monaco Oceanographic Museum The Japanese became famous for being master craftsmen of fake mermaids. These “handmade mermaids” were so well done that it was impossible to detect where the joints were. After the 1837 publication of The Little Mermaid, by Hans Christian Andersen, the idea of mermaid brides was particularly in vogue, and those who expected a beautiful mermaid found themselves looking at a creature with the lower body of a fish and a head and torso of a monkey. Some of them were known as “Japanese mermaids”, since it was said the creatures were caught in Japan by sailors who brought them to the West. In the 19th century, thousands of people, mainly in the US and England, visited freak shows to see skeletons and mummified creatures that were believed to be the remains of actual mermaids. This was in part owed to the mermaid stories told in Japan by the Western sailors that had sailed there. With time, especially after the late 19th century, the word ningyo acquired connotations similar to those associated with the word “mermaid” in the West: beautiful and seductive. One feature they have in common with Western mermaids: a beautiful voice. Their tears turn into pearls and their flesh, when consumed, brings eternal youth to those who have done so. They usually have a semi-demonic appearance – not at all seductive. These are creatures that possess aquatic and human characteristics, although they are quite different from the Western mermaids: They possess long fingers, sharp claws, shining golden scales, deformed heads, horns and salient teeth. Japan speaks of a hybrid, half-human-half-fish called the ningyo, and the most well-known stories are those of Amabie and Yao Bikuni. Mermaids also appear in Asian legends and mythologies, sometimes represented similarly to the Western mermaids, but at other times, as monstrous beings with physical features unlike what we’ve seen so far. Like water itself, these creatures can be enticing… and frighteningly familiar… They arouse feelings of curiosity, hope, and bottomless fear. The mythical creatures which inhabit the depths of the ocean give form to water’s essential mysteries.
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