atla-annotated:

Appa’s saddle strongly resembles the lotus flower on Buddha statues.

The roots of a lotus are in the mud, the stem grows up through the water, and the heavily scented flower lies pristinely above the water, basking in the sunlight. This pattern of growth signifies the progress of the soul from the primeval mud of materialism, through the waters of experience, and into the bright sunshine of enlightenment.

The Airbenders: The people of the Air Nomads were, without any seen exception, all benders due to the high level of spirituality of their people.

Their enlightenment is reflected in their art, clothing etc which are heavily based on Buddhism. I will point out and provide references for that in later posts.

pugletto:

The Complete Worldbending series. Avatar (The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra) as depicted by Windy-Asylum @ DA. (Pugletto @ Tumblr).

Information/Separate Threads:

• Ancient/World Avatars - The one that started it all.
• Air Nomads - The different Air Nations, as influenced by South America, Africa, and East Asia
• Earth Nation - The different states of the Earth Nation, as influenced by the North American Southwest, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.
• Water Nation - Water peoples! As influenced by Hawaii, Mongolia, and Madagascar.
• Fire Nation - A look at the last and final part of the Worldbending series - the Fire Nation! As influenced by Mesoamerica, India, and Japan.

pugletto:

The past Airbending Avatars. The first two I sort of interpreted from a screenshot in “Avatar Aang” (y’know, when he’s going back into the Avatar State), and then the last two are obviously Yangchen and Aang.

Honestly, I just kind of love Airbenders. I really wish we could’ve seen more Yangchen - she had to be my favorite of the four we got to meet and I was really sad that she just wasn’t given any more of a role. It would’ve been nice to see Aang confide in his previous Airbender incarnation, y’know?

Anyway, yeah. :3 Spirit world shenanigans abound.