Hatsadiling (; ; ; ) is a mythical bird commonly featured in Northern

Thai art Thai art refers to a diverse range of art forms created in Thailand from prehistoric times to the present day, including architecture, sculpture, painting, textiles, decorative arts, crafts, ceramics, and more. While Buddhism has played a signifi ...

. The creature is considered to be the size of a house, with the head and body of a

lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'', native to Sub-Saharan Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body (biology), body; a short, rounded head; round ears; and a dark, hairy tuft at the ...

, trunk and tusks of an

elephant Elephants are the largest living land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant ('' Loxodonta africana''), the African forest elephant (''L. cyclotis''), and the Asian elephant ('' Elephas maximus ...

, the comb of a cock, and the wings of a

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

. According to an oral myth in northeastern Thailand, the bird once inhabited the legendary forest of

Himavanta Himavanta is a legendary forest, also called Himmanpan Mountain, which is said to be located in the Himalayas. Himavanta appears in a piece of Thai literature called Traibhumikatha which explains that Himavanta is a forest where many diverse my ...

. The bird is often featured as a motif on funerary hearses of prominent Buddhist monks in Northern Thailand during phongyibyan cremation ceremonies. The hatsadiling (''hathi linga'') has also been used by the

Marma people The Marma () are the second-largest ethnic community in Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts, primarily residing in the Bandarban District, Bandarban, Khagrachhari District, Khagrachari and Rangamati Hill Districts. They belong to the same comm ...

as a primary motif for funerary hearses. The bird was considered instrumental in the founding of Hariphunchai, a

Mon Mon, MON or Mon. may refer to: Places * Mon State, a subdivision of Myanmar * Mon, India, a town in Nagaland * Mon district, Nagaland * Mon, Raebareli, a village in Uttar Pradesh, India * Mon, Switzerland, a village in the Canton of Grisons * A ...

kingdom in modern-day Thailand. It is featured in

Cāmadevivaṃsa The Camadevivamsa (, , literally, "Chronicle of the Lineage of Cāmadevi") is a Pali chronicle composed in the early 15th century by the Lanna Buddhist monk Mahathera Bodhiramsi (). The chronicle, dated to c. 1410, is a semi-historical recounting o ...

, a Pali chronicle that recounts the founding of the Hariphunchai kingdom by Queen

Camadevi Camadevi (also spelled Jamadevi; IPA: ʃaːmaˈdeːʋiː Pali: Cāmadevī; , , Mon: စာမ္မာဒေဝဳ, ; 7th-century – 8th-century) was the first monarch and Queen of Haripuñjaya, Hariphunchai (Pali: Haribhuñjaya), which was an ...

. The

Dhammapada The ''Dhammapada'' (; ) is a collection of sayings of the Buddha in verse form and one of the most widely read and best known Buddhist scriptures.See, for instance, Buswell (2003): "rank among the best known Buddhist texts" (p. 11); and, "on ...

aṭṭhakathā Aṭṭhakathā (Pali for explanation, commentary) refers to Pali-language Theravadin Buddhist commentaries to the canonical Theravadin Tipitaka. These commentaries give the traditional interpretations of the scriptures. The major commentaries ...

mentions the hastilinga.

Buddhaghoṣa Buddhaghosa was a 5th-century Sinhalese Theravādin Buddhist commentator, translator, and philosopher. He worked in the great monastery (''mahāvihāra'') at Anurādhapura, Sri Lanka and saw himself as being part of the Vibhajyavāda school ...

mentions it as an animal which possesses the strength of five elephants.

Other terms

In the

Thai language Thai,In or Central Thai (historically Siamese;Although "Thai" and "Central Thai" have become more common, the older term, "Siamese", is still used by linguists, especially when it is being distinguished from other Tai languages (Diller 2008:6 ...

, the bird is also known by a number of terms, including nok hatstadiling (นกหัสดีลิงค์), nok hatsading (นกหัสดิน), nok hatsadi (นกหัสดี) and nok hat.

Other terms

References

See also