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Himmapan Forest
If you have ever visited Asian countries such as Thailand or India, you may find some similarities in their art and architecture. If you look closely into these arts and crafts, you will see many strange animals decorating the scenes. Most of them are what can be described
as a "combined-animal" as for example, a horse with a bird's head, a man with lion body, etc. These animals are actually mythical creatures who dwell in the legendary Himmapan Forest. The forest is said to be located in the Himalaya Mountains. (The word "Himalaya" in ancient
Sanskrit means "abode of snow". Perhaps that's also how the name "Himmapan" was derived.) It is also believed that the forests are located below the Buddhist heavens and are invisible to the eyes of mortals, who can never approach or enter.
The mountain are found on the Chomputaweep (India) sub-continent and cover 3,000 square yods (1 yod equals to 10 miles or approximately 16 kilometers). The base circumference is measured at 9,000 yods. The mountain system has 84,000 peaks containing 7 large ponds (Anodard, Gunnamunta, Rottagara, Chuttanna, Gunala, Muntakinee, and Srihuppata). Anodard pond's is surrounded with 5 peaks which are considered to be the great peaks of Himmapan. Each peak is 200 yods in height, 50 yods in width, and 50 yods in length.
 There are many types of creatures living in the forest. Most of the creatures here are very different from what we have in our physical world. In fact, these animals are believed to be from artists' imaginations derived from ancient manuscripts describing how they look. Hence, you may see totally different looking creatures with the
same name. That is perhaps due to different intepretations of the artists.
Through this website, you will see and able to compare a few different translations of the same creatures, some are of our artists' own imagination.
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