Golden-Winged Great Peng

The cities of the Lion Camel Kingdom are piled high with human bones, and the air is thick with the stench of decay. This is not a scene from some dark fantasy novel, but the original description from Chapter 77 of Journey to the West. When Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie infiltrated Lion Camel City for reconnaissance, they witnessed a nation utterly devoured by demons—the king was eaten, the civil and military officials were eaten, and the entire populace was eaten, leaving only demon soldiers to patrol the empty palaces. This is the only story arc in Journey to the West where an entire population is slaughtered by monsters, and the culprit behind this cataclysm was the Golden-Winged Great Peng.

He was no ordinary demon. He was the son of the phoenix and the brother of the peacock; by seniority, Rulai Buddha would have to call him "Uncle." In the entirety of Journey to the West, no other demon possesses such an absurd lineage. His weapon was the Fangtian Painted Halberd, and his wings spanned ninety thousand miles, granting him a flight speed so great that even the Somersault Cloud could not keep pace. Of the eighty-one tribulations on the pilgrimage, the ordeal at Lion-Camel Ridge was the only one where the four disciples of Tang Sanzang were all captured alive, and even Sun Wukong was swallowed whole in a single gulp—this was the moment the Great Sage came closest to death.

In the end, the one who subdued the Great Peng was neither a Bodhisattva nor a heavenly army, but Rulai Buddha himself. Across the hundred chapters of the book, the number of times Rulai personally intervened to deal with a demon is countable on one hand, and the Great Peng was the only one who compelled the Buddha to make a special journey from Lingshan. This was not because the Great Peng's combat power was insurmountably high—though it indeed was—but because this blood relation meant that all other gods and Buddhas dared not act, could not act, and felt awkward acting. After his capture, the Great Peng's fate was even more bizarre: he was neither killed, nor imprisoned, nor banished to the mortal realm. Instead, he was appointed as a protector at the crown of Rulai—the "Golden-Winged Great Peng Wisdom King." A demon king who had just slaughtered the people of an entire nation became, in an instant, the Buddha's closest guardian deity. The absurdity of this conclusion is unmatched in all of Journey to the West.

Son of the Phoenix, Kin of Rulai: The Sacred Lineage of a Demon King

The origins of the Golden-Winged Great Peng were personally revealed by Rulai Buddha in Chapter 77. When Sun Wukong flew to Lingshan to seek help, Rulai disclosed a shocking family history:

At the dawn of heaven and earth, the leader of all beasts was the Qilin, and the leader of all birds was the Phoenix. The Phoenix received the qi of union and gave birth to the Peacock and the Great Peng. Upon her birth, the Peacock was most malevolent; on the snowy mountains, she swallowed Rulai in a single gulp. Rulai broke through the Peacock's back to emerge from her body. He intended to kill her, but the various Buddhas dissuaded him, saying that harming the Peacock was equivalent to harming the Buddha-Mother. Thus, Rulai anointed the Peacock as the "Buddha-Mother Peacock Great Wisdom King Bodhisattva." Since the Peacock was the Buddha-Mother, her younger brother, the Great Peng, was of the generation of Rulai's own uncle.

The absurdity of this kinship lies in its inversion—it was not Rulai who created the Great Peng, but rather that the Great Peng's family "created" Rulai in a sense. Without the Peacock swallowing Rulai, he would not have emerged from her womb, and the title of "Buddha-Mother" would not exist. The Great Peng was a link in this chain of causality: born of the same mother as the Peacock, he shared the bloodline of the phoenix. Rulai could recognize the Peacock as his mother, but he could not deny that the Great Peng was his maternal kin.

This lineage setting produced three critical narrative consequences.

First, it explains why the Great Peng dared to devour the people of an entire nation without anyone intervening. Most demons in Journey to the West are the mounts or attendants of some immortal; once they cause a great disturbance, their master is alerted and comes to retrieve them. The Azure Lion is the mount of Manjusri Bodhisattva, and the White Elephant Spirit is the mount of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva—their masters could appear at any time. But the Great Peng had no master. He was no one's mount, no one's pet, and no one's subordinate. His identity was that of Rulai's kin—and kin do not fall under the jurisdiction of any Bodhisattva; only the patriarch himself has the authority to dispose of them. This created a power vacuum: every Bodhisattva and heavenly general knew of the Great Peng's blood relation to the Buddha, and none were willing to wade into such murky waters.

Second, it explains why Rulai had to appear in person. It was not because others could not defeat the Great Peng—though he was indeed powerful—but because this was a "family matter." The issues of the Azure Lion and White Elephant could be left to Manjusri and Samantabhadra, but the problem of the Great Peng could only be handled by Rulai. In the power hierarchy of the Buddhist realm, the brother of the "Buddha-Mother" is equivalent to the Buddha's uncle, a status more noble than any Bodhisattva. If Rulai did not appear, no one else would be qualified to do so.

Third, it explains why the Great Peng's end was "protection" rather than "punishment." Rulai could not kill the Great Peng—killing his own maternal kin would be equivalent to denying the bloodline of the Buddha-Mother, which would shake the foundations of the Buddhist faith more than the Great Peng's slaughter of a city. Nor could he imprison the Great Peng—imprisonment would be a public admission that his own family had produced a nation-destroying demon. The only choice was incorporation: by making the Great Peng a guardian, he eliminated the threat while preserving the dignity of the Buddhist faith. The title "Golden-Winged Great Peng Wisdom King" was not a reward, but a dignified form of house arrest.

The Three Brothers of Lion Camel: An Anomalous Alliance of Buddhist and Taoist Mounts

The Great Peng did not fight alone. He swore brotherhood with the Azure Lion and the White Elephant, and together they occupied Lion-Camel Ridge, calling themselves the "Three Demons of Lion Camel." The strangeness of this trio lies in the contradictory origins of its members: the Azure Lion was the mount of Manjusri Bodhisattva, the White Elephant was the mount of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, and the Great Peng was Rulai's kin—three individuals from three different "departments" of the Buddhist faith, yet they became sworn brothers as demons in the lower realm.

In Chapter 74, Venus Star disguised himself as an old man waiting by the roadside for the pilgrimage group, warning them in advance of three great demons ahead. When describing the Great Peng, he used the title "Cloud-Road Ten-Thousand-Mile Peng" and specifically emphasized that the bird's "wings spanned ninety thousand miles"—a figure that stands out starkly in the book. Sun Wukong's Somersault Cloud leaps one hundred and eight thousand miles; the Great Peng's wings span ninety thousand. The scales of the two are nearly identical. Venus Star's tone carried a rare note of fear: he was not merely reporting on demons, but urging a retreat.

The division of labor among the three brothers was exceptionally clear. The Azure Lion presided inside the cave, managing forty-seven thousand eight hundred minor demons—he was the administrator. The White Elephant guarded the cave entrance, handling patrols and ambushes—he was the executor. The Golden-Winged Great Peng resided in the rear at Lion Camel City; he rarely acted, but when he did, his strike was decisive—he was the ultimate killer. This three-layered defense of front, middle, and rear has never appeared among other demons. Most demon strongholds are flat structures consisting of one king leading a swarm of minions, but Lion-Camel Ridge had hierarchy, division of labor, and depth, resembling the deployment of a regular army.

The relationship between the three was also not a simple brotherhood. The Azure Lion and White Elephant were originally Buddhist mounts; their descent to become demons had a certain air of "sneaking out to play"—their masters, Manjusri and Samantabhadra, could retrieve them at any time. But the Great Peng was different; he hadn't sneaked away, he was a true demon. He had no master to return to, and no former Buddhist identity to restore. Among the three, the Azure Lion and White Elephant had a way back; the Great Peng did not. This difference is most evident in the end: Manjusri took back the Azure Lion, and Samantabhadra took back the White Elephant, each returning to their own home. But the Great Peng had no home to return to—he could only be taken away by Rulai himself.

One more detail is worth noting: the three brothers did not occupy a mere mountain, but an entire nation. From Lion-Camel Ridge to the Lion Camel Kingdom, this was a leap from a "stronghold" to a "regime." For other demons, occupying a mountain to be king was the limit—the Yellow Wind Demon took Yellow Wind Ridge, the Spider Spirits took Webbed-Silk Cave, and the White Bone Demon took White Tiger Ridge—no one dared occupy a whole country. The Great Peng not only occupied one, but ate the king and the people entirely. He did not act as a parasite within a nation; he turned the entire nation into his own food reservoir.

The Catastrophe of Lion Camel Kingdom: The Darkest Chapter of the Book

There are many demons in Journey to the West who eat humans. The Yellow-Robed Monster eats palace maids, Red Boy wants to eat Tang Sanzang, and the White Bone Demon seeks to devour the pilgrimage party—but all these "man-eating" incidents combined pale in comparison to the atrocities committed by the Golden-Winged Great Peng in the Lion Camel Kingdom. While other demons eat a few people or a few dozen, the Peng has devoured the entire population of a whole nation.

In Chapter 75, when Sun Wukong transforms himself to infiltrate the Lion Camel Cave for reconnaissance, he hears the lesser demons speak of the Third King's terrifying power: steaming, boiling, and eating humans as if it were a daily routine. Yet, this is merely the horror at the level of the Lion-Camel Ridge stronghold. The true apocalyptic scene unfolds after the master and disciples are captured and escorted to Lion Camel City—when Wukong and Bajie sneak into the city, they discover that the nation has ceased to exist. The king is gone, the ministers are gone, and the commoners are gone; the only ones walking the streets are demon soldiers. An entire country was hollowed out from within by three demons and then completely consumed.

Wu Cheng'en's depiction of this passage is restrained yet terrifying. He does not describe the bloody process of the massacre, but rather the silence that follows—the empty palaces, the demon sitting on the dragon throne wearing a python robe, and a court with a new master. This "aftermath" presentation is more chilling than a "work-in-progress" depiction: you cannot see the slaughter, but the results of the slaughter are everywhere.

Throughout the book, there is an invisible scale for the harm demons cause to human society: the lightest is highway robbery (such as ordinary mountain bandits), slightly heavier is the abduction of an individual (such as kidnapping Tang Sanzang), heavier still is the devastation of a region (such as the Yellow Wind Monster leaving Yellow Wind Ridge barren), and the heaviest is the annihilation of a nation—and the only ones to reach this "national annihilation" scale are the Golden-Winged Great Peng and his two brothers. On this scale, the Peng represents not a quantitative change, but a qualitative one. He has transcended the category of a "demon" and entered the level of a "natural disaster."

This is the only time on the pilgrimage that Tang Sanzang and his disciples face a problem that is not about "saving one person" or "eliminating one demon," but rather "facing a completed genocide." The people of Lion Camel Kingdom are all dead—even if the three demons are subdued, these people will not come back to life. This is a rare moment in the pilgrimage story where redemption comes too late. Buddhism speaks of the universal salvation of all sentient beings, but the sentient beings of Lion Camel Kingdom are gone. This fact creates the sharpest irony when the Peng is later appointed as a "Dharma-Protecting Wisdom King."

The Sky-Piercing Halberd and the Ninety-Thousand-Mile Wingspan: Overwhelming Combat Power

The Peng's combat prowess stands at the absolute peak among all the demons in the book; he is effectively in a league of his own. His power does not rely on a specific magical treasure or a unique ability, but rather on the total crushing superiority of his basic attributes.

His weapon is the Sky-Piercing Halberd—the standard equipment for top-tier generals in classical Chinese literature. The legendary Lü Bu used the Sky-Piercing Halberd. When the Peng used his halberd to clash with Sun Wukong's Ruyi Jingu Bang, they fought to a standstill with a series of "clangs and bangs." One must remember that the Golden-Hooped Staff weighs thirteen thousand five hundred catties; it is the Sea-Hushing Divine Iron of the East Sea Dragon Palace, capable of changing size at will. Sun Wukong has used this staff to fight from the Netherworld to the Heavenly Palace, and from Flower-Fruit Mountain to Lingshan, and rarely has he been blocked by a demon in a direct weapon clash. Not only did the Peng block it, but he fought Wukong blow for blow.

However, the Sky-Piercing Halberd is the Peng's most unremarkable ability. His true trump card is flight. With a wingspan of ninety thousand miles and a speed so great that even the Somersault Cloud cannot keep up—this is most vividly demonstrated in Chapter 77. After Sun Wukong escapes from the Peng's belly and attempts to fly away, the Peng pursues him. Wukong performs a somersault, flying one hundred and eight thousand miles, only to look back and find the Peng close behind him. This detail shatters a fundamental advantage: throughout Journey to the West, Wukong's final recourse when facing an unbeatable opponent is to "run"—a single somersault of one hundred and eight thousand miles, and no demon can catch him. But the Peng caught up. When the option of escape was removed, Wukong faced a truly insoluble opponent for the first time.

The Peng's talons are equally terrifying. He does not kill with weapons, but by snatching with his claws. In Chapter 77, he dives from the sky and grabs Sun Wukong in one go—this movement is modeled after a bird of prey hunting. The Peng's style of combat is not human, but that of a giant eagle: diving from a height, locking onto the prey with sharp talons, and striking with absolute precision. Sun Wukong has spent his life fighting humanoid demons; faced with this entirely different attack pattern, he was momentarily unable to adapt.

Even more fearsome is his ability to devour. The Peng swallows Sun Wukong whole in one gulp—this scene is not the first time such a thing has happened in Journey to the West; the Purple-Gold Red Gourd of King Golden Horn and the Golden Cymbals of the Yellow Brow Monster had both trapped Wukong. But those were the powers of magical treasures; the Peng relies on biological instinct. He needs no treasure, for his own body is the ultimate weapon—this primitive, physical suppression is something that treasure-reliant demons completely lack.

Taken together, the Peng's combat combination is this: in close quarters, his Sky-Piercing Halberd is equal to the Golden-Hooped Staff; in long-range, his flight speed outpaces the Somersault Cloud; in ambush, his talons strike with unerring precision; and his ultimate move is to swallow his opponent whole. He has no obvious shortcomings and no exploitable weaknesses. In the entire book, there is not a second demon who can achieve this.

Wukong Devoured: The Hero's Darkest Hour

Across the eighty-one tribulations of the pilgrimage, Sun Wukong has fallen into distress more or less in every single one—rolling on the ground under the pressure of the Tight Fillet, being trapped in a gourd by Golden Horn and Silver Horn, being locked in Golden Cymbals by the Yellow Brow Monster, or having his identity usurped by the Six-Eared Macaque. But all these hardships combined do not equal the despair of the ordeal at Lion-Camel Ridge. In other tribulations, Wukong at least had the option to "go find reinforcements"—to the Heavenly Palace to find the Jade Emperor, to the South Sea to find Guanyin, or to Lingshan to find Rulai. At Lion-Camel Ridge, he almost lost even that option.

The battle sequence from Chapter 75 to Chapter 77 is a curve of continuous descent. First, Wukong transforms to infiltrate the cave for reconnaissance; after being exposed, he fights his way out with difficulty—this is still within the realm of normal. Then, he clashes head-on with the three demons outside the cave and discovers he cannot defeat them when they fight as one—this is where things begin to go poorly. Finally, he is seized by the Peng and swallowed into his belly—this is the lowest point since the start of the pilgrimage.

The description of being swallowed is extremely oppressive. Wukong employs every means to turn the Peng's stomach upside down—stabbing with the Golden-Hooped Staff, expanding his size to stretch the walls, and shrinking to drill out—but the Peng's body seems boundless, and no matter how Wukong struggles, he cannot escape. This feeling of suffocation from physical imprisonment is entirely different from being trapped by a magical treasure: a treasure is an external object that can be solved; but being swallowed into the body of another living creature brings a primal fear of being enveloped, digested, and assimilated.

More fatal is the subsequent development. After Wukong finally manages to escape from the Peng's belly, he attempts to fly away—but the Peng catches up. He performs a somersault to widen the distance—but the Peng still catches up. This is the only time in the entire book that Sun Wukong discovers he can neither win the fight nor run away.

The scene where the four master and disciples are all captured in Lion Camel City is the moment closest to "total annihilation" on the pilgrimage. Tang Sanzang is tied next to a steamer, ready to be steamed and eaten; Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing are hung from pillars; and although Sun Wukong is not bound, he is powerless to reverse the situation—surrounded by three demons and over forty thousand lesser demons, he cannot break the siege alone. At this moment, the cause of the pilgrimage truly stands on the edge of a precipice.

Wukong's final choice is to go to Lingshan to seek Rulai. This choice itself illustrates the severity of the problem—throughout the pilgrimage, Sun Wukong goes to Lingshan to seek Rulai only twice (the other being the Six-Eared Macaque incident), and both times it is when he is completely desperate. Going to Lingshan is not as simple as "calling for backup"—the journey from Lion Camel Kingdom to Lingshan means leaving his master and brothers in the hands of the demons, gambling that Rulai will act and that the demons will not eat Tang Sanzang during his absence. This kind of gamble had never appeared in any of the previous tribulations.

Rulai's Personal Descent: Why Only the Buddha Himself Could Subdue Him

The climax of the seventy-seventh chapter is not the battle, but the dialogue that follows Rulai's appearance. Sun Wukong flies to Lingshan, falls to his knees, and recounts every detail of the situation at Lion-Camel Ridge. Rulai's reaction is profoundly telling—he does not immediately fly into a rage, nor does he dispatch a Bodhisattva to capture the demon. Instead, he calmly explains the origins of the Phoenix, the Peacock, and the Peng.

The purpose of this narrative is not a lesson in mythology, but the establishment of a premise: before taking action, Rulai explains to all the assembled Buddhist followers why "this matter must be handled by me personally." He cannot let anyone else go—not because others are incapable of fighting, but because the Peng's identity is too unique. Send Manjushri to capture the Peng? Manjushri is but a Bodhisattva; by what right would he manage the brother of the Buddha-Mother? Send Guanyin? Though Guanyin holds a sublime position, in the ethics of the Buddhist fold, she is not superior to the "brother of the Buddha-Mother." Send those from the Heavenly Palace? That would be even worse—the Peng is a family matter of the Buddhist fold, and interference from the Heavenly Palace would be a disgrace to the faith.

Rulai's personal arrival in the Lion Camel Kingdom is the most imposing appearance of the Buddha in the entire book. He does not sit in the Thunder Monastery waiting for guests as he did when dealing with the Six-Eared Macaque; instead, he takes the initiative to enter the demon's own territory. This "initiative" is significant—throughout the entire work, this is the only time Rulai proactively leaves Lingshan to resolve a problem elsewhere.

The Peng's reaction upon seeing Rulai is also peculiar. He does not resist stubbornly or tremble in fear like other demons—his reaction is closer to that of a junior meeting an elder he wishes to avoid. He knows he cannot defeat Rulai, yet he does not feel he has done anything wrong. In the Peng's logic, he is simply a great bird; eating humans is nature, and seizing territory is instinct. It has nothing to do with morality.

Rulai's method of subduing the Peng is fundamentally different from how he handles other demons. There is no fighting, no spell-casting, and no crushing under the Five-Elements Mountain as he did with Sun Wukong. He employs "Subjugation by Buddhist Dharma"—the original phrasing is vague and laden with meaning. This is not a conquest of force, but rather a suppression of authority within a family: You are my maternal kin, but I am the Buddha; you must obey me.

Why does Rulai not kill the Peng? Beyond the "family face" reasons analyzed above, there is a more practical consideration: the Peng's power is too immense to waste. With a wingspan of ninety thousand li and a flight speed that can keep pace with the Somersault Cloud, such combat prowess would be the ultimate protector if utilized by the Buddhist fold. Rulai is a shrewd manager; he will not waste any usable resource. By appointing the Peng as a protector atop his own head, he solves a security threat, gains a top-tier fighter, and maintains family relations—three goals achieved with one stroke.

Yet, behind this "three-in-one" victory lie the countless wronged souls of the Lion Camel Kingdom. The commoners devoured by the Peng are utterly forgotten in this transaction. No one mentions them, no one performs rites for their transcendence, and no one holds the Peng accountable for his massacres. Rulai cares for family order, not justice; Wukong cares for saving his master, not revenge. The dead of the Lion Camel Kingdom become the most silent victims in this game of power.

The Golden-Winged Peng Great Ming King: From City-Razing Demon to Buddha's Protector

"The Golden-Winged Peng Great Ming King"—this is the title the Peng received after being subdued. Rulai appoints him as a protector atop his head, forever forbidden from wreaking havoc upon the world again. From a narrative perspective, this ending completes an extreme transformation of identity: one moment he is steaming Tang Sanzang for a meal, and the next he is standing atop the Buddha's head as a bodyguard.

This conclusion is unique among the fates of demons in Journey to the West. Generally, the ends of demons fall into four categories: first, being beaten to death (background-less demons like the White Bone Demon and Spider Spirits); second, being reclaimed by their original masters (mounts with heavenly backgrounds like the Azure Lion and White Elephant); third, being incorporated as low-level subordinates of the Buddhist fold or Heavenly Palace (Red Boy becoming a Sudhana Child, or the Bull Demon King submitting to the Buddhist fold); and fourth, the Peng—who leaps directly into the core of the Buddhist power structure.

The Sudhana Child is merely an attendant to Guanyin, and the Bull Demon King's specific position after submitting is unknown but certainly not high—yet the Peng becomes Rulai's personal protector. This difference in treatment is not because the Peng performed better (he slaughtered an entire nation, clearly the worst performance), but because of his lineage. Within the Buddhist fold, the identity of "brother of the Buddha-Mother" is more effective than any merit or crime. This is a blatant conclusion based on "family connections."

From the Peng's personal perspective, being a "Protector Great Ming King" is both an honor and a shackle. He stands eternally atop Rulai's head, unable to fly, unable to hunt, and unable to once again spread those ninety-thousand-li wings to blot out the sun. A great bird born to soar ninety thousand li is forever fixed atop the head of a Buddha statue—this is essentially similar to Sun Wukong being pressed under the Five-Elements Mountain: both use an irresistible force to fix a free soul within a tiny space. The only difference is that Wukong's imprisonment was a punishment, while the Peng's fixation is a "reward."

There is a deeper layer of irony in this ending. The prototype of the Golden-Winged Peng comes from the Garuda of Indian mythology, the mount of Vishnu and one of the Eight Groups of the Buddhist heavens. In the Buddhist system, the Golden-Winged Bird was originally a protector. By turning the Peng from a "demon" into a "protector," Wu Cheng'en is actually returning him to his original role in Buddhist mythology. In other words, the Peng's "fall" (becoming a nation-destroying demon) and "return" (becoming the Buddha's protector) form a complete circle—he eventually becomes what he was always meant to be. However, this "original state" is imposed upon him, not chosen by him.

Throughout Journey to the West, the story of the Peng poses a piercing question: when power is absolute, does justice still have meaning? The Peng slaughtered the people of a kingdom, and the cost was zero—not only was he not punished, but he was promoted. Rulai used family ties to dissolve all guilt and used the title of "Protector" to turn an executioner into a guardian. This is not a story of redemption; it is a story of how power operates. And in this story, the dead citizens of the Lion Camel Kingdom do not even have names.

Related Characters

• Azure Lion Spirit: The Peng's sworn eldest brother, the Green-Mane Lion Spirit, a mount of Manjushri Bodhisattva who descended to the world as a demon. Among the three brothers, he was responsible for command and coordination within the cave, occupying Lion-Camel Ridge and the Lion Camel Kingdom alongside the Peng and the White Elephant Spirit. He was eventually reclaimed by Manjushri Bodhisattva.
• White Elephant Spirit: The Peng's sworn second brother, the White Elephant, a mount of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva who descended to the world as a demon. Among the three brothers, he was responsible for patrolling the mountain and setting ambushes, using his long trunk to capture people. He was eventually reclaimed by Samantabhadra Bodhisattva.
• Rulai Buddha: The Peng's blood relative—the Phoenix gave birth to the Peacock and the Peng. After Rulai emerged from the Peacock's womb, he named the Peacock the Buddha-Mother; thus, the Peng is Rulai's maternal kin. He is the only being capable of subduing the Peng, personally descending upon the Lion Camel Kingdom to conquer him and appoint him as the protector atop his head, the Golden-Winged Peng Great Ming King.
• Sun Wukong: The primary opponent who clashed with the Peng; he was swallowed into the Peng's belly, experiencing the most desperate battle of the pilgrimage. In the end, he was forced to fly to Lingshan to seek Rulai's intervention.
• Peacock Great Ming King: The Peng's sister/sibling born of the same mother, the Phoenix. She once swallowed Rulai, who then broke through her back to emerge; he subsequently named her the Buddha-Mother Peacock Great Ming King Bodhisattva. The blood relation between the Peng and Rulai is established through the Peacock.
• Manjushri Bodhisattva: The master of the Azure Lion Spirit, who reclaimed the lion after the events at Lion-Camel Ridge.
• Samantabhadra Bodhisattva: The master of the White Elephant Spirit, who reclaimed the elephant after the events at Lion-Camel Ridge.