Makara, the Water Creature

A family climbs the steps to a temple gate. At the foot of the railing, a stone creature stands with its mouth wide open. It looks like no animal the family has ever seen. It has a trunk like an elephant's, a smooth body like a fish's, and a tail that fans out like a peacock's.

The small child freezes and grips the mother's hand. "Mom, what is that strange creature?"

The mother laughs and bends down to her child's height. "Don't be afraid. It stands here to protect us."

Then she tells the child about it. The creature is called Makara.

Makara is a water monster of Hindu myth. But the word monster should not worry anyone. Makara is not there to frighten people. It is a gatekeeper. It stands right on the boundary, between the world outside and the sacred space within.

The strangest thing about Makara is its body. It is made of many creatures joined into one, and each part is a gift from a different realm.

The trunk and the elephant's head belong to the earth. The elephant brings the wisdom and the lasting strength of the ground. The fish's body, sometimes a crocodile's body, belongs to the water. That is the deep power of rivers and seas. The peacock's tail, spread wide, belongs to the sky. It is the shimmering beauty of the high heavens.

Earth, water and sky. All three realms in a single body.

The child listens, and the fear is gone. Now the child is curious. "Why put an elephant and a fish and a peacock together, Mom?"

The mother answers. To guard every place, a guardian must belong to every realm. A gatekeeper who knows only the ground is not enough. It must know the deep water too, and the high sky. Makara holds all three realms in itself, so no place lies beyond its protection.

It is as if Makara were telling everyone who walks through the gate that no realm of nature is without its presence.

And Makara is greater still. In Hindu belief, Makara is the mount of the god Varuna, the god of the ocean, of water and of cosmic order. It is also the mount of the goddess Ganga, the goddess of the sacred river. When the gods of water needed a creature to carry them across all the waters of the world, they chose Makara.

The child looks up at the sky, as if searching. "Is Makara up in the sky too, Mom?"

It is. The name Makara reaches all the way up to the stars. It is the Sanskrit name of the zodiac sign Capricorn. Each year the sun enters the sign of Makara, around January 14 or 15. Then Hindus hold a great festival called Makarasankranti. It welcomes the light and gives thanks for the harvest, and it celebrates the warm sunny days as they slowly return.

A creature stands silent at the temple gate, and yet its name is in the river, on the backs of the gods, and among the stars.

Makara is not far away. It stands guard right here in Vietnam.

The Museum of Cham Sculpture in Da Nang keeps images of Makara that the Cham of long ago carved in stone. The Cham are a people of south-central Vietnam whose ancestors lived in the ancient kingdom of Champa. Their Makara appear along the borders of doors and on the gates of towers.

In the Khmer pagodas around Trà Vinh and An Giang, Makara lies at the foot of the stair railing. The same is true around Sóc Trăng. In each pagoda, the body of the sacred serpent Naga runs along the steps. It ends inside the open mouth of Makara waiting below.

The child stares round-eyed at the stone mouth. "Is it swallowing the snake, Mom?"

The mother smiles. "Something better than that. Makara takes up where Naga stops. The two stand together and guard the same gate."

Makara stands at the point where the last step meets the ground. It does not move. It does not fly through fire or through swords. The strength of Makara is its presence and its endurance. It simply stands there, patient, year after year, keeping the gate always guarded.

The child holds the mother's hand and walks through the gate. One more look back at Makara, and this time there is no fear, only a smile.

The mother speaks softly. "Being a gatekeeper is no small thing, child. It is the first role and the last. To stand between two worlds, and keep the sacred forever sacred."