A Bya La statue (the Rakhine version of the Nawarupa) at the Sittwe Viewpoint park in Myanmar.
Nawarupa (Burmese: နဝရူပ, also spelt nawa rupa; Pali: navarūpa, lit. 'nine forms'), also known as byala (Arakanese: ဗျာလ or ဗျာလ္လ), is a chimeric creature found in Burmese and Rakhine (Arakanese) mythology.
Description
The beast is made of 9 animals, possessing the head of an elephant, the eyes of a deer, the horns of a rhinoceros, the tongue and wings of a parrot, the body and legs of a lion, and the tail of a peafowl. In the Konbaung dynasty, the nawarupa decorated one of the ceremonial royal barges.[1]
See also
References
- ↑ "Southeast Asia Library Group Newsletter" (PDF). Southeast Asia Library Group. December 2014.
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