A Review of Creation Myths from Around the World

There are a lot of myth about creation all around the world. Each one has different standpoints about how the world and human being were formed. However, basically all agree that there is a great lord that in a way or another create the whole world or a base for the world. In my opinion, there are three myths can strongly show the difference between different myths, which are Lac Long Quan- Au Co; the great gourd in Vietnam and Nuwa used clay to create human in China.

First, Lac Long Quan and Au Co is the most popular creation myth in Vietnam. The story tell that Lac Long Quan was descended from the line of the Dragon. He had the great strength to stay in water, fly in the air. He used his strength to defeat a lot of monsters. Au Co was the most beautiful daughter of Than Nong, the God of farming. Lac Long Quan and Au Co met and fell in love. They got married and live in a palatial palace. Au Co got pregnant and gave birth to 100 boys at once time. Lac Long Quan was dragon, so he couldn’t stay on land too long. At last, he decided to leave his wife, Au Co. Lac Long Quan told Au Co: “I am from the Dragon line. I like to dwell on the Coast. You are from the Fairy line, you like to be on highlands. Therefore, we can no longer live together. It is better that we separate now. You take fifty children to the highlands, and I will take fifty children down the coast…” Therefore, Au Co took 50 children to the highlands, Lac Long Quan took 50 to the coast. Au Co and Lac Long Quan’s children were Vietnamese people’s ancestors. Vietnam’s agriculture, culture, and life style were all taught by Au Co and Lac Long Quan. In this myth, people were formed before Lac Long Quan and Au Co get married. However, it explains how Vietnam appeared and how Vietnamese were taught to do certain things. The Gods in the story were Lac Long Quan and Au Co. I think they can be seen as “God” because they both have the root from God. Lac Long Quan was dragon, and Au co was from Than Nong. Even though they were gods, they still lived near people. That makes an idea that they are somehow a bridge connect people and more powerful god.

Second is the story about the great gourd. The story is about a couple lives in a mountain. They got married for a long time, but the wife cant pregnant. One day, when she was working, she saw a big foot print, so she put her foot in it to compare the bigness. Then, she suddenly got pregnant. She had been pregnant for 5 years before giving birth to a gourd. The couple was sad. They put the gourd in their kitchen. Time went fast, and they forgot about the gourd. And then in a stormy night, they heard some strange sound in their kitchen. They found out that the sound was from the gourd. They were curious about what was inside. The wife use a knife to open the gourd. And there were tiny people inside. The story tells that the Kho’mu people went out first, and then Kinh, Muong, Thai, Tay… went out after. The people who came out first lived in the highlands, and the people who came out after lived in the plain. The story didn’t talk anything else about the couple. There seems no god in the story, but if you look closer, you can see that the foot print is a sign of god. Even though it is just a sign, we still can see that people in the past thought that there would be no human if there is no god. The story also gives an idea about the order. The first people came out stand for the wiser, stronger live in highland because highland is hard to live in; the people came out after live in plain, which is easier to live.

Third is the myth about Nuwa. In the myth, Nuwa was a woman with the upper part of body was human, the another part was snake. Nuwa created the Earth in order to celebrate Pangu, the God who created the Heaven. She created lakes, mountains, and everything in the world. She thought that there was still something missing, but can’t find out what. While she was thinking about it, she saw her shadow in water. She immediately recognized that the missing thing was human. Nuwa used her shape to make the first human from clay from the Great River. She knew that she couldn’t keep making human from clay, so she made a way for them to repopulate. She use the clays with bigger shape to make man, and the smaller to make woman. She also taught human how to play instrument in order to fight against fear. In this myth, Nuwa was a God herself, and she create the world for Pangu. The world is like a treasure to God in that story. Human is the most important treasure there. Without people, the world couldn’t be completed. And the story also expresses an idea that people needs to be independent, that they need to face the fear themselves.

In conclusion, all the myths in the world are different and unique, based on the culture of where they come from. However, the same point of them is the God, and how the God see the world and human as.