Four Friends/ Thuenpa Puen Zhi

Description

In terms of a symbol understanding in related to Buddhism: The elephant represents buddha’s disciple Ananda, the monkey represents disciple Mongulyana, the rabbit represents disciple Shariputra, and the bird represents buddha himself. However, the particular painting is mainly for peace and harmony in the society. Based on this, there was a short story about four animals adapted from Buddhist channel:

Once in a forest called kashika near Varanasi, there lived four animals, namely an elephant, a monkey, a rabbit and a bird. And they had a dispute over the ownership of the tree that they have been living under and fed.  The elephant claimed, “Well, this is my tree because I saw it first.” To this, the monkey replied: “Now, elephant, do you see any fruits on this tree?” The elephant agreed that the tree was without any fruit. The monkey continued: “That is because I have been feeding on the fruits of the tree long before you ever saw it.” Next, the rabbit spoke up: “I fed on the leaves of this tree when it was just a small sapling, before the monkey ate its fruit and way before the elephant ever saw it.” Finally, the bird, who had been watching the argument, came forward and asserted: “The tree belongs to me because the tree would not have grown if I had not spit it out as a seed. I helped planting the seed that grew into this huge tree, before the rabbit fed on it, or the monkey ate its fruit, or the elephant saw it”. The elephant, monkey, and rabbit concluded that the bird was the first to know the tree. So, all of them bowed to bird and regarded it as the eldest brother. Then, the four animal became friends and decided to share the tree together peacefully.