Temples or pagodas to the worship of Buddha are dotted all over Vietnam. You will see in every temple an altar with a huge Buddha sitting cross-legged, with his compassionate face. Statues of saints surround the Buddha, their faces expressing peace and love.
But behind the altar there are eighteen other wooden or clay statues, which have the most monstrously ugly faces. These are the eighteen La-Hans, or Heavenly Beings .
What is the story behind these cruel looking statues?
Many years ago a band of eighteen evil men terrorized the countryside. Tales of their cruelty were told from village to village.
One night the bandits decided to attack a rich man's house. As they neared the gates of his house, they were amazed to hear him call out to them, ‘Come in gentlemen, please, come in!'
The bandits were suspicious of the man's friendliness and when he offered them food and wine, they made sure he tasted it before they did. While they ate, the rich man told them why he had shown them such hospitality. Only the day before, he had been shocked and amazed when his horse had spoken to him!
The horse had told his master the eighteen bandits would descend on his house, and would probably burn it to the ground. However, the horse said, that if he welcomed them and gave them food and drink, they would not kill him.
The bandits were angry on hearing this. ‘So you expect us to believe this story! Let's go down to the stable and see if this famous horse can really talk!' This they did.
The bandits stepped back in astonishment when the horse told them that he had wanted to repay his master for all his kindness.
‘The Lord Buddha teaches us we all must have many lives,' continued the horse. ‘In my earlier life I was a man of the village and my master here did many good deeds for me. But when I became a wealthy man, I forgot my friend. In fact, I cheated him. In my next life, I returned in the form of a horse and my purpose was to serve this man. By serving my master I have been able to make up for my previous dishonesty.'
The horse looked around at the bandits before going on, ‘You can be saved from living a thousand years in hell! Please destroy your weapons before it is too late…'
They returned to their cave where they stayed for days. If a man had been made to come back to life as a horse just because of ingratitude and dishonesty, what was to become of them, who had been so evil? they asked one another. They thought about coming back as a snake, a rat or even a tortoise!
Several weeks later, eighteen fearsome looking men visited a Buddhist monk in a large temple. The men said they wanted to follow the Buddha's teachings. They had shaved their heads. For many years they studied and prayed and fasted until they were admitted as fully-fledged monks. Their time was lived out in complete kindness and devotion until in their old age, they had reached the time of enlightenment. The eighteen bandits became La-Hans, the Heavenly Beings.
So that is how the eighteen statues with monstrous faces came to be behind the altar of Buddha in every temple in Vietnam.
