Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 12 (Egyptian and Indo-Chinese).djvu/371

Rh dian of the northern heavens, for he has been transformed into the protecting spirit of Tongking, to whose miraculous intervention and assistance the achievements of the national heroes are ascribed. The Tongkingese consider that their greatest fighters and wisest statesmen have been inspired by Tran-vu, believing that he was several times incarnated in human form and lived several earthly existences to deliver Annam from Chinese invasions and from dire chimeras—such as the nine-tailed fox, the magic cock, and a series of evil spirits that victimized the people—as well as from a variety of epidemics. He has become the national tutelary saint, one of the four wardens of the kingdom, the palladium of the Annamese race; and he is worshipped impartially by the Buddhists, the Taoists, and the Confucians.

A great many temples are erected to him all over Tongking, and Hanoi itself boasts of two of them—one, that of Huyen-thien, in the town, not far from the river-front, and the other, that of Tran-vu, on the Great Lake. The Huyen-thien and Tran-vu images are of exactly similar model, but the bronze statue on the Great Lake is considerably larger, measuring 3.07 metres in height, or a little over ten feet, its weight being 3986.4 kilogrammes, or something like 8620 pounds. The Huyen-thien image is massive, but not nearly so large as the Tran-vu statue. The figure is made of wood, lacquered over in different colours, and profusely gilt. This temple of Huyen-thien is served by nuns, and apart from the tutelary deity it is principally filled with images of the Buddha, being devoted to that faith, though an inscription states that it was erected to the glory of Huyen-thien, Tran-vu, Nguyen-quan, "the greatest of the spirits."

The Tran-vu Temple, on the contrary, notwithstanding the foreign name of the Grand Buddha applied to it, is scarcely Buddhistic at all. The main shrine and the surrounding courts are somewhat dilapidated, and the sanctuary in which the image stands is pitch dark, so that the figure can be seen only