China is the predominant influence of the fantasy world, though various East Asian, South Asian, Southeast Asian and North American cultures were also incorporated. Many characters in the world of Avatar have the ability to "bend", or to psychokinetically manipulate the element associated with their nationality.
And although Avatar was an American production, its creators forged a distinctly Asian world, with influences from monastic Tibet, Thai kingdoms, and Japanese villages, as well as Arctic indigenous communities. This unique approach was not lost on the TV writer Albert Kim when he watched the series with his daughter.
The nations in Avatar the Last Airbender are based largely on Asian countries. The Fire Nation is largely based on Japan, with some Thailand influence. The Earth Kingdom is largely based on China and Mongolia. The Air Nomads are mostly Tibetans.
Although director M. Night Shyamalan cast many Indian and Asian actors in the movie, the filmmaker cast Caucasians to portray the Southern Water Tribe. Shyamalan did this even though the Water Tribe was obviously inspired by Indigenous and Alaskan Native Cultures.
In terms of geography and population size, the Earth Kingdom is the largest nation of the four. Members of the Earth Kingdom include earthbenders, like Toph. The Kingdom is a monarchy and is ruled over by an Earth Monarch, and they are usually based in the city of Ba Sing Se, the capital of the Earth Kingdom.
Avatar: A Study in Worldbuilding — the Fire Nation [ The Last Airbender ]
What is the Southern Water Tribe based on?
The first culture to emerge from DeMartino and Konietzko's early drawings, the Water Tribe was based on Arctic cultures such as the Inuit. Other features of the Tribes—such as Sokka's boomerang—resemble indigenous cultures of Australia and the Americas. The Tribe's ships may also be inspired by Polynesian catamarans.
They have a deep sense of community and love that holds them together through anything. The world is traditionally divided into four nations: the Water Tribe, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, and Air Nomads.
The Water Tribes are tribes at the north and south poles who are loosely based on the Inuit people. The Earth Kingdom is a large and diverse nation reminiscent of ancient China that is highly decentralized. The Fire nation is based on Imperial Japan, and they have been at war with the other nations for a century.
The culture of the Water Tribes, as well as their location in the polar regions of the world, is primarily based on the real-life Arctic cultures such as the Inuit, Sireniki, and Yupik; as well as Siberian cultures like the Yakuts, Buryats, various Paleosiberians, and various Tungusic peoples (like the Evenk).
James Cameron recently spoke with Empire for their January 2023 issue and was asked why he decided to make the Na'vi blue in Avatar. It turns out that there's not any grand reasoning behind the choice, it was simply the only colour he felt wasn't taken by other cinematic characters. “As for the colour: green was taken.
Perhaps the most famous of the real locations that inspired Pandora, the park is comprised of dense forest, deep ravines and canyons, caves, and strange pillar-like rock formations unique to China and formed by erosion.
In the 2009 science-fiction film Avatar, director James Cameron conceived a fictional universe in which humans seek to mine unobtanium on the fictional habitable moon Pandora. The Earth-like moon is inhabited by a sapient indigenous humanoid species called the Na'vi, as well as varied fauna and flora.
Critics saw an "undeniably" Hindu connection between the film's story and the Vedic teaching of reverence for the whole universe, as well as the yogic practice of inhabiting a distant body by one's consciousness and compared the film's love scene to tantric practices.
Humans (Na'vi name: sawtute meaning "sky people") are a sapient, bipedal, mammalian dominant species native to planet Earth, who by the 22nd century has become a technologically advanced species capable of interstellar travel and colonization.
"Avatar" is a sci-fi re-imagining of the European colonization of the Americas, James Cameron said. The film drew inspiration from other movies with similar themes, like the Japanese anime "Princess Mononoke." The Na'vi and avatars are directly influenced by Hindu deities.
The Air Nomads primarily draw inspiration from Buddhists in Tibet, Shaolin Monks and Sri Lankan Buddhism, with some Hindu influences as well. Their bald heads, clothing and meditation practices are very similar to those of real life Buddhist monks.
Toph Beifong was originally designed as a muscular, jock-type guy who was meant to be a foil for Sokka and his "nerdiness", as described by series creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino in the featurette "The Women of Avatar".
The Earth Kingdom's main culture is largely Chinese, especially the Qin and Ming dynasties, plus some aspects of Korean culture and some Turkic influence in the Si Wong Desert.
The Earth Kingdom was divided into fifty-five formal states during the lives of Kyoshi and Roku, and also had various subnational kingdoms, provinces, prefectures, and semi-autonomous city-states.
It is common for people of the Northern Water Tribe to pray to the Moon and the Ocean. Totemism is part of the tradition of the Water Tribe, and diverse totemic spirits, full of symbolism, are represented profusely in palaces and the city.
Neteyam te Suli Tsyeyk'itan, or Neteyam, is a major character in the Avatar franchise, serving as one of the main characters in Avatar: The Way of Water. He is the 15-year-old eldest son of Jake Sully and Neytiri, who is also the older brother of Lo'ak, Tuktirey, and Kiri.
Na'vi are monogamous creatures and the process of their reproduction is similar to Terran mammals, as they do possess genitalia; however, though they nurse their young and possess belly buttons where they were once connected to an umbilical cord, the Na'vi are non-placental, thus the details of their internal biology ...
So how much science is there in "Avatar"? CAUTION: Possible spoilers ahead. The movie is set on the fictional Pandora, one of the many moons of a fictional Saturn-sized gas giant, Polyphemus, which is located in the real Alpha Centauri system, which at nearly 4.4 light-years away is the closest star system to Earth.
