View source for World Turtle

{{Short description|Giant turtle supporting or containing the world}}
[[File:PSM V10 D562 The hindoo earth.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|An 1877 drawing of the world supported on the backs of four elephants, themselves resting on the back of a turtle.]]

The '''World Turtle''', also called the '''Cosmic Turtle''' or the '''World-Bearing Turtle''', is a [[mytheme]] of a giant [[turtle]] (or [[tortoise]]) supporting or containing [[Religious cosmology|the world]]. It occurs in [[Hinduism]], [[Chinese mythology]], and the [[mythologies of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas|mythologies of some of the indigenous peoples of the Americas]]. The [[comparative mythology]] of the '''World-Tortoise''' discussed by [[Edward Burnett Tylor]] (1878: 341) includes the counterpart [[World Elephant]].

==India==
{{further|Kurma}}

The World Turtle in Hinduism is known as ''Akūpāra'' ([[Sanskrit]]: अकूपार), or sometimes ''Chukwa''. An example of a reference to the World Turtle in Hindu literature is found in [[Jñānarāja]] (the author of ''Siddhantasundara'', writing c. 1500): "A vulture, whichever has only little strength, rests in the sky holding a snake in its beak for a prahara [three hours]. Why can [the deity] in the form of a tortoise, who possesses an inconceivable potency, not hold the Earth in the sky for a ''[[Kalpa (aeon)#Hinduism|kalpa]]'' [billions of years]?"<ref>Toke L. Knudsen, [http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1004&L=indology&D=1&O=D&F=PP&P=1612 Indology mailing list].
<!--  dhRtavaktrasarIsRpo 'pi gRdhraH praharaM tiSThati khe 'lpavIrya evam / gagane na kathaM sa kUrmarUpaH pratikalpaM dhRtabhUr acintyazaktiH // 
The mailing list post is from 2010, Knudsen went on to publish his translation of Jnanaraja in 2014, so there should be a reference to a relevant page in print now (I do not think Jnanaraja had been edited before, at least not easily available
--></ref>
The British philosopher [[John Locke]] made reference to this in his 1689 tract, ''[[An Essay Concerning Human Understanding]]'', which compares one who would say that properties inhere in "substance" to the Indian, who said the world was on an elephant, which was on a tortoise, "but being again pressed to know what gave support to the broad-backed tortoise, replied—something, he knew not what".<ref>Locke, John (1689). ''An Essay Concerning Human Understanding'', Book II, Chapter XXIII, section 2</ref>

''[[Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable]]'' lists, without citation, ''Maha-pudma and Chukwa'' as names from a "popular rendition of a Hindu myth in which the tortoise Chukwa supports the elephant [[Maha-pudma]], which in turn supports the world".<ref>[[Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable]], 15th ed., revised by Adrian Room, HarperCollins (1995), p. 1087. also 14th ed. (1989).<!--find out if the -pudma misspelling in Brewer's predates Aurobindo!--></ref>

==China==
{{See also|Nüwa Mends the Heavens}}

In the Chinese mythology, the creator goddess [[Nüwa]] cut the legs off the giant sea turtle [[Ao (turtle)|Ao]] ({{lang-zh|t={{linktext|鰲}}|s={{linktext|鳌}}|p=áo}}) and used them to prop up the sky after [[Gonggong|Gong Gong]] damaged [[Mount Buzhou]], which had previously supported the heavens.<ref name="YangAn2008">{{cite book|last1=Yang|first1=Lihui|last2=An|first2=Deming|author3=Jessica Anderson Turner|title=Handbook of Chinese Mythology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tUwTxocaOGsC&pg=PA182|year=2008|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-533263-6|page=182}}</ref>

==North America==
{{Main|Turtle Island (Indigenous North American folklore)}}

The [[Lenape mythology|Lenape]] creation story of the "Great Turtle" was first recorded between 1678 and 1680 by [[Jasper Danckaerts]]. The belief is shared by other [[indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands]], most notably those of the [[Iroquois|Haudenosanee confederacy]],<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/pss/2800081 Why the World is on the Back of a Turtle] - Miller, Jay; ''Man'', Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, New Series, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Jun., 1974), pp. 306–308, including further references within the cited text)</ref> and the [[Anishinaabe]]g.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/turtle-island |title=Turtle Island |encyclopedia=[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]] |publisher=[[Historica Canada|Historic Canada]] |first1=Amanda |last1=Robinson |first2=Michelle |last2=Filice |quote=For some Indigenous peoples, Turtle Island refers to the continent of North America. The name comes from various Indigenous oral histories that tell stories of a turtle that holds the world on its back. For some Indigenous peoples, the turtle is therefore considered an icon of life, and the story of Turtle Island consequently speaks to various spiritual and cultural beliefs.|date=November 6, 2018 |accessdate=February 6, 2022}}</ref>

''[[The Jesuit Relations]]'' contain a [[Wyandot people|Huron]] story concerning the World Turtle:

"When the Father was explaining to them [some Huron seminarists] some circumstance of the passion of our Lord, and speaking to them of the eclipse of the Sun, and of the trembling of the earth which was felt at that time, they replied that there was talk in their own country of a great [[earthquake]] which had happened in former times; but they did not know either the time or the cause of that disturbance. 'There is still talk,' (said they) 'of a very remarkable darkening of the Sun, which was supposed to have happened because the great turtle which upholds the earth, in changing its position or place, brought its shell before the Sun, and thus deprived the world of sight.{{'"}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://puffin.creighton.edu/jesuit/relations/relations_12.html|title=Front Page|date=11 August 2014|website=puffin.creighton.edu|access-date=11 April 2016|archive-date=21 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160321002545/http://www.puffin.creighton.edu/jesuit/relations/relations_12.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Southern Africa==
The usilosimapundu of [[Zulu people|Zulu]] folklore also bears some similarities to the world turtle. It is a creature so large that it contains many countries and that one side of it experiences a different season than the other side.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Callaway |first=Canon |title=Nursery tales, traditions, and histories of the Zulus, in their own words, with a translation into English |publisher=Springvale Mission Press |year=1868 |location=Natal}}</ref>

==In modern media==
The ''[[Discworld]]'' book series, created by [[Terry Pratchett]], takes place on a fictional world that is a flat disc sitting on top of four elephants astride the shell of a giant turtle named [[Discworld (world)#Great A'Tuin|Great A'Tuin]].

In the book ''[[Monday Begins on Saturday]]'' by [[Arkady and Boris Strugatsky]], a disc upon elephants on a turtle is said to have been discovered by a pupil who entered an ideal world of imagination.

In the book ''[[It (novel)|It]]'' by [[Stephen King]], Pennywise's archenemy is a giant turtle named Maturin. Maturin also appears in King's [[The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass|Wizard And Glass]], the fourth book in [[The Dark Tower (series)|The Dark Tower]] series.

In the start of the first chapter of the book ''[[A Brief History of Time]]'' by [[Stephen Hawking]], an old woman says, "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a [[Turtles all the way down|flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise]]."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Excerpt from A Brief History of Time |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/77010/a-brief-history-of-time-by-stephen-hawking/9780553109535/excerpt |access-date=2022-12-05 |website=Penguin Random House Canada |language=English}}</ref>

The film [[Strange World (film)|''Strange World'']] is revealed to take place on and inside a World Turtle, with the characters trying to stop an infection from killing it.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Chilton |first=Louis |date=2022-11-26 |title=Strange World director explains new Disney film's big twist |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/strange-world-twist-ending-explained-b2233531.html |access-date=2022-12-05 |website=The Independent |language=en}}</ref>

According to the series creators of the television series [[Avatar: The Last Airbender]], the lion turtle that guides [[Aang]] in the third season was heavily inspired by World Turtle myths.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Yohanna |first1=Klarissa |last2=Retnaningdyah |first2=Pratiwi |date=2022-09-30 |title=Katara's Authenticity in Avatar: The Last Airbender |journal=Tell: Teaching of English Language and Literature Journal |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=112 |doi=10.30651/tell.v10i2.13440 |issn=2657-2443|doi-access=free }}</ref>

In the ''[[Pokémon Scarlet and Violet]]'' videogame expansion, The Indigo Disk, the legendary Pokémon [[Terapagos]] can undergo terastallization bearing the Stellar Type. In this form, Terapagos resembles the world as the ancients saw it.

In ''[[Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer]]'' a giant turtle is carrying the world which is in some sort of time knot.

In the book [[A Wild Sheep Chase]] by [[Haruki Murakami]], the  narrator references this idea: "The "world"—the world always makes me think of a tortoise and elephants tirelessly supporting a gigantic disc."

The television series [[What We Do in the Shadows (TV series)]] references character Nandor the Relentless's belief in the World Turtle in the episode "The Casino". A B-plot of the episode involves character Colin Robinson teaching Nandor about the [[Big Bang|Big Bang Theory]].

The young adult novel [[Turtles All the Way Down (novel)|Turtles All the Way Down]] and subsequent [[Turtles All the Way Down (film)|film adaptation]] derives its name from the World Turtle and discusses it.

The television series [[It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia]] references this idea in the episode “Charlie Rules the World”, as Frank Reynolds, arguing with Dennis Reynolds about what is real, claims that they could be in “a turtle’s dream in outer space.”

Sturgill Simpson’s “Turtles All the Way Down” is a modern country psychedelic ballad from his 2014 album, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music. Sturgill comes to a conclusion, choosing to encourage listeners to live their life the way they please, and don’t waste their time trying to find the answers, because “it’s turtles all the way down the line.”

In "[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]" an illustration of a World Turtle appears if the game is paused during the Arsenal Gear section.

== In philosophy ==
The [[regress argument]] in [[epistemology]] and the [[infinite regress]] in [[philosophy]] often use the expression "[[turtles all the way down]]" to indicate an explanatory failure based on an explanation that needs a potentially infinite series of additional explanations to support it.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

==See also==
* [[Aspidochelone]]
* [[Atlas (mythology)|Atlas]]
* [[Bahamut]]
* [[Discworld (world)|Discworld]]
* [[Mytheme]]
* [[Turtle Island]]
* [[Turtles all the way down]]
* [[World Serpent (disambiguation)|World Serpent]]
* [[World Tree]]
* [[Zaratan]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Reptiles in culture}}
{{Turtles in human activities}}

[[Category:Legendary turtles]]
[[Category:Mythological archetypes]]
[[Category:World-bearing animals|Turtle]]
[[Category:Legendary creatures in Hindu mythology]]
[[Category:Buddhist legendary creatures]]