Air Nomads
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The Air Nomads is a collective term for a nation of people in the fictional universe of the 2005 animated television series . One of the series' "," the Air Nomads were wanderers by definition, but had four Air Temples, at each corner of the globe, hidden away atop mountain ranges in the northern Earth Kingdom and on three remote islands. The Air Nomads were home to a monastic order of men and women who practiced Airbending, the mystical art of psychokinetic manipulation of air.
Appearance
The Air Nomads wear yellow and orange clothing. All are so far seen wearing orange shawls over long sleeved yellow shirts, a brown belt, yellow pants with brown on the back, and brown boots that reach the knees. Most Air Nomads have grey or brown eyes and a light complexion.
Young boys to be trained as monks have shaven heads while monk elders grow beards and mustaches. Airbenders who have attained some level of mastery in the art will be marked with arrow tattoos on their arms; for male Airbenders, an arrow tattoo is placed on their shaven head and extends down their back, and their arms, hands, legs and feet.
The Airbending Avatar before Aang was female and from either the Eastern or Western Temple. Female Airbenders do not shave their heads. Based on the female Airbenders that have been shown, it seems Airbenders have naturally dark brown hair.
National emblem
The national emblem of the Air Nomads is a circle with a closed, blunted clockwise spiral beginning in the lower right and curling inward toward itself. It bears some resemblance to a singular variant of the tomoe, but looks most like a flipped and rotated version of the Tibetan symbol for the origin of the universe.It also looks very similar to the Maori Kuru.
Culture
While other Nations possess royalty and are run by monarchy, the Air Nation is run by the monks of the Air Temples. (i.e. a theocracy)A century before the time of the series, the Air Nomads were the victims of genocide at the hands of the Fire Nation. One of the sole known survivors of the massacre was the very person the Fire Nation sought to kill in its quest for supremacy: the twelve-year-old Airbender and Avatar, Aang, had run away from home shortly before the war began in earnest, and became trapped in suspended animation. He has since been awoken from sleep, and begun a quest to restore balance and peace to the warring nations. The other known survivor was , who had revealed the location of the Air Temples to the Fire Nation, but died shortly afterward.
In the series so far, there are significant populations in each nation that are unable to bend. Aang is currently the only known living Air Nomad, but all Air Nomads shown in the series through flashbacks appear have been able to airbend. It is possible that due to the spirituality of the Nomads, all of them were capable of Airbending.
General Iroh has stated that the air nomads removed themsleves from the affairs of the rest of the world and found themselve peace. Iroh also mentioned that they have a good sense of humor, a fact shown when Monk Gyatso asked of Aang's help in blowing cakes off to other monks' head.
The arrow on an Airbender head means he has mastered Airbending. This was an emulation from the arrow on the head of a Flying Bison, the Air Nomad's sacred animal. Apprentice airbenders have no tattoos.#redirect
They also appeared to be vegetarians, as the modern monks of Tibet. This was stated by Aang when he said he didn't eat meat in the episode,
Airbending Animals
In the series, there are various animals that can bend just as humans can. Sky bison, giant bison with 6 legs and enormous beaver like tails, use their legs and tail to bend air. Flying bison also defend themselves by using their tails to create a strong gust of air.Locations
Although airbenders are primarily a nomadic culture, there are four temples in various remote locations where councils are held and novices are raised. The temples are divided by gender, with the Southern and Northern temples for males, and the Eastern and Western ones for females.In each temple is a large cylindrical room locked behind a door which can only be unlocked via Airbending. This room contains thousands of Avatar statues which, though not named, the current Avatar can seemingly recognize as they were his/her former lives.
Southern Air Temple
Located in the remote Potola mountain range, the Southern Air temple was the boyhood home of the Avatar Aang and his fatherlike mentor , as well as . Afiko gave away the location of the temple to the Fire Nation, and it was raided early in the war during Fire Lord Sozin's genocide on the Air Nomads. This ended with the airbenders extermination. Though unlikely, it may be possible that some airbenders were not at the temples at the time of the raids. The series hasn't mentioned this possibility, however.
The temple is large and peaceful, and has an Air Ball arena and is also home to the origin of the Air Scooter, invented by Aang. Once inhabited by flying bison and lemurs in the days of the monks, it is now barren and abandoned by humans and animals alike. A statue of Monk Gyatso resides on the outside of the temple.
Northern Air Temple
High in the upper reaches of the Earth Kingdom resides the Northern Air Temple. After the extermination of the monks, the temple was rediscovered by and his group of refugees. The Mechanist used the gliders within to give his paraplegic son a new life in the air.
The Northern Temple has been customized to home more people than before, but much of the original building has been destroyed and the area around the temple polluted to help accommodate the new residents. The new changes angered Aang at first, but in the end he decides that the people that inhabit the temple mean well and is glad that the people have found a new home in the temple.
Eastern Air Temple
One of the two Air Temples to train only female Airbenders, the other being the Western Temple, it was home to Malu the Ghost Witch. The fate of the temple is unknown after the Fire Nation attacked it. When Aang, the current Avatar, was to be separated from his mentor monk Gyatso, the elders of the Southern Air Temple had decided to send Aang to the Eastern Air Temple to complete his training without Gyatso's fatherly influence. However, before they could do this, Aang overheard and ran away.Western Air Temple
The Western Air Temple is situated nearest to Fire Nation territory. It was perhaps the first temple to be invaded by the Fire Nation.Influences
In many aspects, the culture of the Air Nomads seems to be a mix of the Monks of Tibet, and the nomadic Mongols of Mongolia, as well as the warrior monks of Shaolin Temple.#redirect The razing of the air nomads is a likely allusion to the brutal suppression of the Tibetans and southern Mongolians by communist China, as well as the attacks Shaolin Temple has endured several times.#redirectNotable figures
See also
References
| Information |
| | | | Water Tribe | Earth Kingdom | Fire Nation | Air Nomads |
| Characters |
| Aang | Katara | Sokka | Toph | Zuko | Iroh | Azula | Waterbender | Earthbender | Firebender | Airbender |
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