Black Panther - a rich blend of world’s history and culture

Source

As a long time superhero - fiction fan, I was mostly up to date with upcoming related films; particularly Marvel movies. And in recent times, I have watched most of it (if not all) – the Avengers’ line-up. You can name it, and I have seen it!

Iron Man? Done!
Thor? Done!
Captain America? Done!
and so on..

But the recent film – Black Panther – have set it apart from the rest in ways that is not fiction related.

You see, Black Panther is not your ordinary, or say, traditional Marvel film where “heroes” don’t get to showcase real world heritages, traditions and cultures. Most of the past Marvel films portray fictional traditons and cultures (eg. Thor). Though Black Panther is still fiction per se (including “Wakanda”), some scenes point to rich cultural heritage and traditions.

ARCHITECTURAL SETTING

Wakanda

Source

In the nation of Wakanda, where Black Panther reside, I particularly noticed just how some structures or buildings resemble real world structures or even historical temples.

In one instance, one of the buildings look too close to those of the Mayan Temples of South America.

Mayan Temple (Kulkulcan pyramid) in Yucatan, Mexico.

Source

In some instances, I noticed that they seemed to have borrowed structural ideas from some of India’s famous temples. Like the Jagannath Temple in Puri, India.

Jagannath Puri temple in Puri, India.

Source

This maybe no coincidence as I explain later on.

GLORY TO HANUMAN

M'Baku and his army from a scene in the movie

Source

In one scene, after an intense fight between M'Baku (a leader of one tribe) and T'Challa (the would be Black Panther), M’Baku hails his God, saying “Glory to Hanuman!”

But who is Hanuman and is he a fictional character too?

Hanuman, lifts a portion of the Himalayan Mountains

Source

Hanuman, is depicted in the Vedas (the oldest known scriptures of the world coming from the ancient times of India) as the head of the monkeys who helped Lord Rama defeat the terrifying demon named Ravana after the latter kidnapped Lord Rama’s wife Sita, taking her away from India into his huge kingdom in Lanka (now known as Sri Lanka) around 3 million years ago. Lord Rama then ruled the earth for 11,000 years. The story is much popularly known as Ramayana.

Rama with the army of monkeys killing the demon Ravana

Source

Though some may claim this as a myth or even fiction, some evidence suggest that this indeed happened as the bridge that the monkeys build for them to cross to Sri Lanka still exist to this day.

Adam's Bridge also known as Rama's Bridge as seen from the air.

Source

MARTIAL ARTS

A Capoeira martial arts fight

Source

In many scenes throughout the movie, different styles of fighting was used. Specially during one on one combat fights, we can see that there was more than one fighting style that was used.

To have a better reference as to what possible fight styles was used, we can go back to Black Panther’s first appearance in the Avengers franchise and check what styles was implemented.
In a forum discussion, it is said that during fight scenes of Black Panther in Captain America – Civil War, they used a mix of taekwondo, capoeira, wushu and extreme martial arts. Most of this fighting stances originated from South Korea and China.

Such fighting styles was evidently visible in most scenes on Black Panther’s solo movie.

A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE OF MOVIES

With the flow of the Black Panther movie, I hope that similar future films will follow its footstep – paying tribute to world’s heritages and culture with a touch of ancient historical references. In this way, the children who are the most fan of such films, may find an entertaining way to learn History and Culture of our world.