Tara Zenyora : and the Seven-Jeweled Lighthouse

by Samantha B. Adra

  The Imperial Dragon Tea House resembled the Huxinting Tea House in Shanghai, China. This red-and-white, pointed roof tea house was spectacularly magnificent. It stood right in the middle of the lake, with its foundation resting on sturdy stilts. Prince Chen, Tara, and Singha had to walk on a zig-zag bridge to reach the tea house.

  A portly and paunchy crab-faced imperial guard, resembling a night-club bouncer, stood at the entrance of the wooden staircase leading up to a private room on the upper level of the teahouse.

  Prince Chen grabbed Tara’s hand and whispered in her ear, “Just pretend you’re my girlfriend, if not, the imperial guard will refuse your entry.”

  For a moment, Tara was electrified by the touch of Prince Chen’s hand and she struggled to understand why. What’s wrong with me? Am I falling in love with him? No way! I must be out of my mind. Stop it, Tara! She tried her best to deny the feelings that arose within her.

  The imperial guard did not recognize Prince Chen because of the spell he had cast earlier to obscure his true identity. When Prince Chen realized that, he revealed his true identity to the imperial guard who immediately greeted Prince Chen by placing his fist on his heart and bowing slightly, “Auspicious greetings to Prince Chen.”

  The imperial guard was wary of Tara. Even though he saw the spiritual love bond between her and Prince Chen, the lack of dragon horns on her head made him think twice about letting her in.

  When the imperial guard was about to ask more questions about Tara, Prince Chen mumbled a spell to influence the guard. The next moment, Tara was granted access to the upper level.

  Spacious and lavishly designed with oriental wooden décor, the tearoom was bright and uplifting. A painting of the Dragon Flower Tree covered in full bloom of pink blossoms was on one side of the wall, replete with a red spring couplet that denotes love, bliss, and the blessing of spring.

  A thunderous clapping reverberated throughout the teahouse. The Spring Equinox Performance had started.

  The drum, cymbal, and gong were played, and real lions of various hues, shapes and sizes performed the lion dance. Later, various sea animals such as pink dolphins leaped up from the lake into the air, forming a heart shape to signify the arrival of spring. The finale was called the ‘Dragon Ballet in the Sky’, a spectacular finale performed by the dragons. Flying in the sky and dashing into the lake, the dragons portrayed their energy and liveliness through rapid whirling, gyrating, pirouetting, and spouting of water.

  The performance was a magnificent feast for the senses to behold. Tara, Prince Chen and Singha gave a resounding applause after each performance.

  "Would you like to have some tea? There are several tea varieties - Dragon Well, Black Dragon, Iron Mercy, Universal Sage, White Peony, Golden Phoenix, Misty Cloud. Dragon Well and Misty Cloud are green tea varieties, Iron Mercy is a red tea, White Peony is a white tea, Golden Phoenix is a yellow tea, and Universal Sage is a dark tea. Differences in fermentation and harvest times give them their distinctive taste. Do you have any preferences?” asked Prince Chen in a pompous tone to show off how knowledgeable he was with respect to tea varieties.

  “May I have a cup of Teh O Kosong, not Teh Gao or Teh Siew Dai, or Teh Peng, or Teh C?” replied Tara nonchalantly.

  Both Prince Chen and Singha exchanged glances of disbelief, not knowing what Tara was talking about.

  “Teh O Kosong means pure tea without sugar, Teh Gao means thicker tea with sugar, Teh Siew Dai means tea, with condensed milk but less sugar, Teh Peng means tea with ice, and Teh C means tea with evaporated milk plus sugar. Get it? That’s how we order tea in Singapore,” said Tara, deliberately mimicking his pompous manner.

  “Awesome. I have the most premium ‘Teh O Kosong’ exclusively for you. Is Iron Mercy your favorite tea?”

  “Excellent choice, thank you. While I’m not an Iron Lady, I do have a soft spot for Iron Mercy,” said Tara with a supercilious tone.

  “An Iron Lady who can melt my solitary heart is already an amazing lady of phenomenal mercy,” said Prince Chen with a mischievous wink.

  For a moment, Tara was speechless. Oh no! Is he signaling something? I need to stop him from fantasizing about me.

  “Thank you for your compliment. It’s a pity that I don’t think I’m merciful enough to melt a man of mediocre demeanor,” refuted Tara with a mocking tone.

  Prince Chen guffawed; he was not at all affected by her contemptuous responses. On the contrary, he thought she had some ‘character’ which was delightfully endearing to him.

  “Try some delicious local dishes, they are scrumptious and sure to tantalize your taste buds.” He picked some scallops, abalone, oysters and mussels with his bamboo chopsticks and put them on her blue-and-white porcelain plate.

  Tara tried the scallop. “Hmm…it’s surprisingly delectable! The umani flavor is divine!” Tara praised the dishes. “Why is there no fish, shrimp or crab?”

  “The dragons of noble birth are mostly vegetarian. Except for the mollusks, we don’t eat most of the sea creatures like fish, shrimp, and crab. They will make us feel crabby,” chuckled Prince Chen.

  “Oh, how I miss the local cuisine of Singapore. Chili crab, chicken rice, Katong laksa, bak chok mee, Eunos lor mee….” lamented Tara. “I miss home immensely.”

  “Thinking about returning home again?”

  “Yes, I don’t see much value lingering around in the dragon world. There are just too many things I need to accomplish back home.”

  Prince Chen was visibly distraught. He wanted Tara to stay. In fact, he was secretly contemplating his marital union with her.

  “Do you know it’s next to impossible to go back home? You either get the official approval from my father, the Dragon King, which is impossible because you are a captive; or you will have to locate the Qibaota and successfully defeat the demons before you can return to the human world,” said Prince Chen, trying his best to dissuade her from thinking about going back home.

  Having heard that, Tara was in the doldrums. “I have so many things to accomplish back home. I hope to spend more time with my elderly father and I also need to realize my mother’s dream of establishing a Cultural Harmony Foundation for the peace of humanity. As for myself, I wish to establish a dance school to share my joy and passion in dancing,” said Tara, hoping to convince him to help her.

  “Seems that you are a lady of aspiration,” replied Prince Chen. “But do you have any aspiration of settling down with a man to start a family?”

  He is eyeing me as his potential partner again.

  “I don’t foresee myself settling down with a mediocre man in the near future,” said Tara brusquely. “Besides, a widow is definitely inauspicious for you, am I right, Prince Chen?”

  “Not at all! A beautiful widow is still a splendidly auspicious spousal choice for a dashing man like me,” said Prince Chen shamelessly.

  Tara laughed. “You must be kidding! We barely know each other; how do you know for sure that I am the Mrs. Right for you?”

  “Do you know there is something called intuition? My intuition tells me you are the one I have been looking for my whole life to complete me,” said Prince Chen sincerely.

  “What if my intuition is contrary to yours?”

  “Then one day I will prove to you the power of my intuition.”

  “Yes, I bet you will,” said Tara flippantly, knowing that Prince Chen was not her type of man, and she was not keen on delving further into that conversation. “Anyway, I need a favor from you. Will you be able to help?”

  “Sure, just let me know and I will try to help you to the best of my ability.”

  “Do you think you can help me find the Qibaota?” Tara said with hope in her heart.

  Prince Chen’s initial joy turned into despondency. He was hoping that the favor would be related to something else, because he definitely did not want Tara to go back to the human world.

  “It is extremely difficult to awaken the Qibaota. So far, only three dragon masters managed to awake
n the Qibaota, defeat the demons, and enter Nirvana. Seeking the Qibaota to enter Samsara doesn’t make any sense at all.”

  Maybe I am stuck here forever, Tara sighed.

  Prince Chen doubted a willowy woman could ever accomplish the herculean task of seeking the Qibaota and defeating the demons. It was simply impossible for her to do so. Now that she was officially his girlfriend, thanks to the magical blessings from the Dragon Flower Tree, he contemplated on how he could find opportunities to spend more time with her.

  “Perhaps I can teach you the dragon martial arts. At least that could give you a teeny-weeny hope of defeating the demons. What do you think?”

  Tara’s eyes instantly lit up. “Really? You promise to teach me? I promise to do my very best and be your best student ever!” A flickering of hope arose in her heart.

  “Just a caveat, even if you master the dragon martial arts, there’s no guarantee you can defeat the demons. Are you still keen to learn?”

  “Yes, definitely!”

  “As you know, there are no free lunches in this world. I’m expecting some kind of compensation for my time and effort of teaching you.”

  “Compensation? But I have no gold ingots to give you…” moaned Tara, feeling a little discouraged.

  “I don’t need gold ingots…Perhaps you can teach me something I don’t know, like dancing?”

  “Are you sure you want to learn dancing? You don’t look like a good dancer to me,” sneered Tara, squinting at him. “Mind you, I don’t fancy an awkward student who keeps stepping on my toes.”

  Still harboring the dread of teaching her awkward Prakash how to dance, Tara was not excited about the prospect of teaching someone who did not have the aptitude for dancing.

  “How can I afford to step on your toes if I don’t even dare to step on your tail? Don’t look down on me, okay? I will prove to you my true aptitude,” said Prince Chen, confident in his ability.

  “What is your true intention?” said Tara curtly. “Are you trying to use dancing as an excuse to spend more time with me?”

  “Tara, you’re learning martial arts from me because you wish to return home via Qibaota. You know I cannot teach you for free. If you don’t wish to teach me dancing as compensation, tell me, what can you offer me?” said Prince Chen, deliberately leering at her lasciviously from top to bottom.

  Knowing what he was thinking, Tara blushed. Consciously, she placed both her arms around herself, and she was aware that she did not have any bargaining chip. “Fine. You teach me martial arts and I’ll teach you dancing. It’s a professional transaction. Period.”

  “So, it’s a deal then!” said Prince Chen triumphantly. “We shall start our lessons tomorrow.”

  CHAPTER 17

  DRAGON FLOWER DOME

  After the performance, Prince Chen brought Tara downstairs so she could personally experience the festive cheer of Spring Equinox. Many people were greeting each other with the gesture of Namaste and the phrase “auspicious greetings to you.”

  A jolly, rotund monk with the most resplendent smile came along to where Tara and Prince Chen were standing. He wore a maroon, friar-tuck-like robe without the cape and the hood. A long string of 108 sandalwood mala beads hung on his neck. He also wore a sandalwood beaded bracelet on his left wrist. Around his large potbelly was a black belt onto which many small drawstring sacks were hooked. With a pair of arch-like eyebrows and an infectious hearty laugh, he distributed small rainbow-colored drawstring sacks to the children who were excited about the candies and tiny toys inside.

  “Who is that man? He looks like Friar Tuck to me,” said Tara.

  “He is Venerable Smile, a spiritual teacher from Tushita Heaven. All of us adore his hearty laugh and generous gifts. I received lots of gifts and candies from him when I was a child. He is going to preside over a wedding ceremony at the Dragon Flower Dome soon. Would you want to witness a marriage ceremony in the dragon world?”

  “Okay, that sounds interesting!” Tara said with excitement.

  The Dragon Flower Dome was an oblong, egg-shaped dome. The interior ceiling of the dome resembled the Flower Dome found inside Gardens by the Bay in Singapore. In front of the main hall was the altar. Behind the altar was a colorful glass motif of the seven-jeweled lighthouse perched on the white lotus, which was superimposed into the tree trunk of the Dragon Flower Tree. A king and a queen were seated on the lion thrones placed on each side of the tree. The king had a white dragon pearl on his topknot while the queen had a black obsidian on her palm.

  Exhilarated to witness the wedding ceremony, Tara scrambled to take a closer look at both the bride and the bridegroom. The bride was dressed in the most impressive ocean-inspired cross-collared turquoise-coral bridal attire. The flowing train of the gown was made of intersecting silver dragon scales and fan-shaped pink seashells. She also wore an impressively elaborate pink-coral headset with her dragon horns still visible. As for the bridegroom, he looked gallant in a dark teal Hanfu with a grey, angled peak overgarment on his shoulders. His head had a topknot with two long antennae-like feathers that reached the ground.

  Soon Venerable Smile arrived to a cheering crowd. After he had given a speech about loving-kindness and resilience in a relationship, he held a stalk from the Dragon Flower Tree, dipped it in a bowl of salted water, and sprinkled upon the couple who pressed their palms together in reverence. This was a blessing ceremony to purify the couple and protect them from unwholesome influences.

  Following this, the bride and groom crossed their arms and drank dragon flower wine from one another's cups. The couple also tasted eight different types of food – lotus flower, lotus seed, lotus root, lotus leaf, dragon flower, dragon flower seed, dragon flower leaf, dragon flower bark – to represent the eight qualities of eternity, bliss, true self, purity, kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. Lastly, the groom put an Eternity Knot Bracelet on the bride’s wrist. The bracelet was made of a pink double-helix woven with an endless lotus knot.

  With the performance of Hymns of the Heart of True Love by the Dragon Orchestral Quintet, Venerable Splendid Music led the singing for all guests to follow. All the guests belted out the song of True Love to bless the couple. Svelte, lithe, and elegant, Venerable Splendid Music had the most mellifluous, lilting, and angelic voice as she sang the Dharma hymns. Dressed in a gold chiffon medieval long dress with long sleeves, she exuded heavenly beauty and grace.

  A.VA.LO.KI.TE.SVA.RA

  1.Love is kindness, Love is compassion,

  2.Love is generosity, Love is benevolence,

  3.Love is grace, Love is patience,

  4.Love is forgiveness, Love is endurance,

  5.Love is equanimity, Love is perseverance,

  6.Love is inner peace, Love is resilience,

  7.Love is gentleness, Love is magnanimity,

  8.Love is understanding, Love is empathy,

  9.Love is humility, Love is relinquishment,

  10.Love is samadhi, Love is concentration,

  11.Love is light-heartedness, Love is felicity,

  12.Love is the celebration of happiness; Love is elation,

  13.Love is gratitude, Love is contentment,

  14.Love is mercy, Love is sharing prosperity,

  15.Love is growth, Love is transformation,

  16.Love is authenticity, Love is empowerment,

  17.Love is respect, Love is devotion,

  18.Love is energy, Love is diligence,

  19.Love is selflessness, Love is infinite,

  20.Love is discipline, Love is integrity,

  21.Love is learning, Love is awakening,

  22.Love is faith, Love is sincerity,

  23.Love is vow, Love is passion,

  24.Love is mindfulness, Love is in the present moment,

  25.Love is deathless, Love is eternal,

  26.Love is the inner freedom, Love is purity,

  27.True Love is liberation from Samsara, True Love is the Great Nirvana,

  28.True Love is Transcendent Wisdo
m, True Love is Supreme Perfect Enlightenment.

  A.VA.LO.KI.TE.SVA.RA

  The finale was the Dragon Love Gesture performed by the couple. This gesture was identical to the Maori’s Hongi greeting in which the bride and groom touched their nose and forehead together. The only difference was that the couple would hold their hands together before performing the Dragon Love Gesture. Once the gesture was performed, the love connection between the couple was sealed. A breath of life coming from the hearts of the couple combined to form a white orb that entered the translucent dragon eggshell placed in front of them.

  “What is that huge eggshell for?” asked Tara, curious.

  “There are four types of birth: womb, egg, moisture, transformation. Humans have a womb-birth but the dragons have an egg-birth. The blessed dragon egg with the golden orb will be placed in the Dragon Egg Fertility Center later,” explained Prince Chen.

  “That’s cool! I love babies. It will be fun to see the adorable babies in the Dragon Egg Fertility Center,” exclaimed Tara. Suddenly, she thought of Bo who saved the dragon babies from the burning castle. Where is Bo now? I miss him.

  “No one, except the parents of the babies, are allowed to enter the Dragon Egg Fertility Center. There is an exception, of course, if you are willing to have babies with me. Not just one, but dozens of them, in fact, the more the merrier! Then I can definitely bring you to the Dragon Egg Fertility Center,” said Prince Chen in a frivolously flirtatious manner.

  What a shamelessly impudent tyke! Offended by his remarks, Tara berated him, “Who wants to have babies with an impertinent jackanapes like you?”

  Livid with indignation, she flung the dragon flower bouquet on the floor and stormed off unceremoniously.

  Gaped at her in disbelief, Prince Chen said remorsefully as he pursued her, “Hey stop, Tara, stop! I’m sorry, okay? I was just pulling your leg and I didn’t mean to hurt you. Please forgive me, will you?”