- This article is about the character in the series. For the character in the film, see Gyatso.
| "We can't concern ourselves with what was. We must act on what is." |
| — Gyatso to Aang.[1] |
Monk Gyatso was Avatar Aang's guardian, mentor, and father figure before the beginning of the Hundred Year War, as well as a member of the Council of Elders. According to Aang, he was the greatest airbender in the world during his time.[1]
Gyatso was known for his kindness and sense of humor. Though Aang learned airbending under him as part of his Avatar training, the monk always allowed time for fun and games, such as Pai Sho.[4] In his earlier years, Gyatso also had a strong friendship with Aang's previous incarnation, Roku.[5]
Gyatso was slain during the genocide of the Air Nomads, during which Fire Lord Sozin invaded the air temples. The place where his body was found revealed that he had managed to defeat many comet-enhanced Fire Nation soldiers before his demise.[1]
History[]
Early life[]
Gyatso and Roku smiled at one another after crashing their gliders.
Gyatso had a sister named Yama who died on an Earth Kingdom relief mission.[6] Gyatso later wished he had taken part in the mission in order to save Yama and was unable to move forward due to the grief he held over his sister's death. This grief caused a mental block that affected his ability to perform airbending consistently, and though his teacher, Sister Disha, attempted to work with Gyatso to help him overcome this barrier, she was unaware of Yama's impact on Gyatso's bending.[2] During his time at the Southern Air Temple, Gyatso befriended his sky bison companion, a female named Lola,[7] a relationship that was strained at first in part due to his airbending problems. He became best friends with Roku when the young Avatar traveled to the temple at age sixteen to commence his airbending training, despite a slow start in their relationship.
Adventure on Lambak Island[]
While Roku's airbending training was still ongoing, the young Avatar received a request of aid by his old friend Prince Sozin to explore an uncharted, fog-shrouded Fire Island on which the Earth Kingdom was supposedly trying to establish a presence on. Roku initially turned down the request,[8] but he and Ta Min - another friend of his who had come to the temple to deliver Sozin's request - were later attacked by an earthbender who used his bending to try and bury the pair alive.[9] Gyatso heard the attack and came to their aid, his airbending returning and allowing him to glide to their location, subdue the earthbender and dig out Roku and Ta Min. After the danger was over though, Gyatso found himself unable to airbend again, causing Ta Min to suggest that seeing her and Roku's lives threatened had allowed him to focus his chi and overcome his mental block. The trio questioned the earthbender, who claimed he had been sent to kill Roku by Earth King Jialun, before managing to escape.
Following the attempt on his life, Roku decided to travel to the island and drive out the supposed Earth Kingdom presence there, believing both things to be part of a scheme of Jialun's. Disha refused to sanction his plan,[10] prompting Roku to leave the temple without her knowledge. Gyatso agreed to lend him Lola as a means of getting to the island in return for Roku allowing the Air Nomad to accompany him there; recalling how his airbending had become much stronger when Roku had been in danger, he guessed that Roku's adventure would provide him with similar opportunities, and from there he could perhaps figure out how to permanently restore his bending.[7]
After leaving the temple, Gyatso and Roku searched for the island using a coded map Sozin had sent to Roku. Their efforts were unsuccessful however, and after several days of fruitless searching, Gyatso suggested the two of them return to the temple before they could get into any further trouble. Roku convinced him to spend one more day looking though, adding that he would claim to have forced Gyatso to fly him away if it meant saving the Air Nomad from punishment. That night, Gyatso practiced his airbending forms, but was unable to produce more than faint gusts of wind despite his technique being flawless, and he eventually gave up in frustration. Roku - who had been secretly watching the display - assured him that his airbending would return, citing how he had once been greatly affected by the death of his brother Yasu, but had eventually healed. This prompted Gyatso to tell him about Yama, but neither of the two wanted to elaborate on their losses, and Gyatso instead asked about how Roku had been able to heal. Roku put it down to his friendship with Sozin, and related an anecdote from his childhood about how the prince had once defended Yasu against an angry patron in the Fire Nation Royal Spa.
Resuming their search the next day, Gyatso and Roku got into a debate over their respective cultures, with Gyatso criticizing the Fire Nation for allowing the Fire Lord to wield absolute power and not having a female ruler at any point in its history. Roku in turn criticized the Air Nomads for segregating their temples based on gender, as well as their constant neutrality in political matters, which he saw as choosing inaction in response to injustice. Gyatso retorted that there would be far less injustice if more people acted like Air Nomads, before claiming that he would invent new slang and spread it across the Fire Nation. The discussion was interrupted by Roku catching sight of the fog-shrouded island they had been searching for; after he claimed to have known the location of it all along, Gyatso sarcastically thanked him for the tour of the South Sea.[11]
Despite Gyatso and Roku's efforts, Lola proved unwilling to fly into the fog, and Roku proposed that he and Gyatso do so themselves with Gyatso's glider. Gyatso was reluctant, pointing out the danger of blindly crashing into a mountain or rock, as well as his struggles with airbending. Recalling Gyatso's original reason for choosing to accompany him, Roku deliberately fell out of Lola's saddle, prompting Gyatso to go after him. Again, Roku being in danger caused Gyatso's airbending to return, and he managed to grab Roku and glide with him towards the island. The two of them were unable to make it to the shore though, but Gyatso was able to safely drop Roku into the shallow water nearby,[12] and the pair walked through the shallows onto a rocky beach.
Having arrived on the island, Gyatso felt a strange spiritual energy coming from it, and suggested there was more to the place than Sozin had revealed to Roku. He then expressed a hope that Lola would be okay, to which Roku replied that she would likely return to the temple now that her riders were gone, before sarcastically commenting on Gyatso's connection - or lack thereof - to her. In response, Gyatso remarked on Roku's lack of an animal guide despite his being the Avatar, noting that Avatar Szeto had grown up with his dragon companion. Roku grudgingly acknowledged this, and Gyatso joined him in checking their supplies and assessing their surroundings before asking where they should go now. Recalling where they had arrived on the island and what Ta Min had said to him, Roku proposed that the two of them follow the beach northeast, the Earth Kingdom's presence having been reported to be on the eastern coast of the island. Gyatso asked what Roku would do once they found the Earth Kingdom contingent, and expressed doubt when the Avatar claimed he would tell them they were trespassing on Fire Nation territory before peacefully persuading them to leave. Roku then stood up to begin traveling along the coast, only for Gyatso to point him in the right direction.[13]
A couple of days after their arrival on the island, Gyatso and Roku discovered the remains of a campsite built with earthbending, as well as a landing boat tied to a nearby tree. Exploring the area, Roku found a number of footprints, and from them he judged the Earth Kingdom contingent to be made up of six people. Gyatso remarked that he would have expected the supposed Earth Kingdom presence to be much bigger, and for them to have constructed a military outpost as opposed to a temporary camp, but Roku suggested the outpost had simply been established further inland. This did not convince the Air Nomad, who questioned why the Earth Kingdom would seek to claim a Fire Nation island without trying to secure its coast, to which Roku replied that the Earth Kingdom was not known for cunning tactics. Gyatso dismissed his claim as an overgeneralization, and pointed out that securing the coast was basic logic as opposed to military strategy. He suggested that Sozin had neglected to tell Roku the full story regarding the island, but Roku dismissed such an idea, and the two of them continued to follow the Earth Kingdom contingent inland.
As night fell, Gyatso and Roku set up their camp on the edge of a swamp, and the pair had another conversation in which Gyatso admitted he was afraid his airbending would never return to its former strength. He told Roku how Yama's death had left him broken and uncentered - Roku replying that he had felt much the same after losing Yasu - but also confessed that part of him did not want to heal, believing it would mean having to forget about and stop loving his sister. In response, Roku suggested that instead of not loving Yama, he should figure out what it meant to love her following her passing, causing Gyatso to remark that the Avatar was not as foolish as everyone said. Roku thanked him for the compliment, before asking if Gyatso wanted to know why Disha would not teach him airbending. Gyatso replied that the answer to that question was obvious, and demonstrated his point by using his glider staff to knock Roku's headpiece - a gift from Sozin that was traditionally worn by the Fire Nation crown prince - off his head, prompting Roku to dive into the swamp in order to catch it. As Gyatso came over to help Roku up, Roku laughed and pulled the Air Nomad down into the swamp with him.[14]
The two friends would later get into a major argument regarding Sozin's possible withholding of information about the island which Roku did not want to believe. While separated, Gyatso could not leave Roku behind as friends and if he needed his help. Gyatso while searching for him met Malaya, a island native with whom he developed a extremely strong and affectionate bond. Gyatso opened up about Yama's death to Malaya. Gyatso realized Roku's advice came true in how he spoke about Yama to Malaya.[6] Gyatso and Roku eventually found each other and reunited under a unbreakable friendship.
Later life[]
Upon their return to the Southern Air Temple, Gyatso helped monitor and observe Roku's training with Sister Disha and their bond strengthened. Before starting their gliding lesson for example, Gyatso and Roku were goofing off by using their bending to blow Roku's long hair in each other's face while standing in line. During the lesson, Roku showed off a new glider trick by making several loops in the air. Gyatso tried to top his skill by air surfing atop his glider, but the young monk soon lost control, only to be saved by Roku. The additional weight proved too much for him to handle, and the two of them crashed into a group of student airbenders on the land below. The crash did little to dampen their spirits, however, as they both smiled at one another over what had happened.[5]
Eventually, Gyatso became a master airbender and received his tattoos around the mid-50s BG. As a young man, the Air Nomads were increasingly involved in the affairs of the other nations, regarding this as the best way for the Air Nomads to reach others and help the world. However, this provoked a discourse on how far they should be involved with the leaders of other nations, as they were often wealthy or aristocratic figures with a lot of worldly prosperity, who were often unwilling to cede their own power. Believing that the stance of the temples was impeding the spiritual growth of people around the world, a renegade order known as the Guiding Wind broke from the temples and argued against involvement with the elite classes of other nations. Gyatso remained neutral in these debates, and he believed that diversity amongst his people was a good thing, and that internal debate often led to fruitful progress no matter the decision. To that end, he encouraged the temples to discuss and debate one another in the spirit of compromise.[15]
Gyatso was later promoted to be one of the five head monks at the Southern Air Temple. He was highly respected, a great baker, kind, and wise, but he remained a bit of a prankster.[1][4] At some point, Gyatso befriended a younger Guru Pathik.[16]
Befriending Aang[]
Gyatso taught Aang how to fly a kite.
Some time after Roku's death, Gyatso became the guardian of the next Avatar, Aang, and formed a strong bond of friendship with the young Air Nomad. Gyatso regularly participated in Yangchen's Festival together with his pupil. After the festival's end, he took the young nomads to an island just off the coast, where they used airbending to fly cranefish kites. Due to this, Aang always missed the tales the Air Nomad elders used to tell, though Gyatso assured him that he would have "plenty of time" to learn of Air Nomad history later in his life.[17]
Twelve years after Roku's death, Gyatso was present with the rest of the Council of Elders when Aang's identity as the new Avatar was revealed. Since Gyatso was Aang's personal teacher and guardian, it also became his duty to better the Avatar's airbending skills. The bond between the two became very strong and intimate to the point where Gyatso became a paternal figure to Aang, as well as a close friend and confidant. He helped Aang with his airbending training, played games with him, and made Aang's difficult time at the temple more enjoyable.
Monk Gyatso cheated by using airbending while playing Pai Sho with Aang.
Even though Aang's status was announced as the Avatar, Gyatso believed that he should still grow up as a normal boy. He refused to accelerate Aang's airbending training and assured Monk Tashi that Aang was content and had time for games. The other monks disagreed with this, believing that Gyatso's affection for the boy was clouding his judgment. They decreed that Gyatso and Aang were to be separated and that Aang was to be sent to the Eastern Air Temple to complete his training. Aang overheard this and, having already been ostracized by his peers after his identity as the Avatar had been revealed, was shocked that the monks wanted to isolate him from his last and best friend. Not knowing that Gyatso intended to fight this decision, Aang fled the temple with Appa and was subsequently frozen into an iceberg for one hundred years. Gyatso never saw Aang again.[4]
Last stand and death[]
After Aang ran away, the Fire Nation launched an assault on the Southern Air Temple, intent on slaughtering the temple's population. Gyatso made one last stand against the Fire Nation and managed to fend off and defeat many firebenders, despite their enhanced abilities as a result of Sozin's Comet. However, he eventually fell, along with the rest of the Air Nomads.[1]
Legacy[]
Aang discovered Gyatso's skeleton at the Southern Air Temple.
A wooden statue of Monk Gyatso was placed in the courtyard of the Southern Air Temple before the entrance of the hallway that led to the Air Temple sanctuary, celebrating his airbending prowess.[1] Gyatso's memory lived on in the form of Aang, who grieved his death greatly, going into the Avatar State upon discovering his corpse in the rubble of the destroyed Altar of Remembrance[18] within the Southern Air Temple.[1] When Aang was trying to open his chakras, he needed to release all his grief in order to open the air chakra located in his heart. When Aang laid out all his grief in front of him, all the Air Nomads with Gyatso at the front, appeared before him. Thanks to Pathik's guidance, Aang was able to cope with the pain that Gyatso's death and the demise of the Air Nomads had given him, and he was able to let go of it.[16]
Personality[]
Gyatso was a cheerful person and had a great sense of humor; he often played pranks on his peers with his pupil, Aang,[1][19] and even used his airbending to cheat during a Pai Sho game. Though he often played around, Gyatso was also a wise man, and one of the five members of the Southern Air Temple's Council of Elders. He was a kind and understanding individual who was well-liked by other students in the temple.[3] Gyatso held a great adoration for Aang, desiring to keep him close by his side and shelter his childhood to the point that the council saw fit to separate the two. An empathic man, he had the ability to bring a smile to Aang's face, even when the latter felt depressed and under pressure.[4] Gyatso always managed to effortlessly work levity into difficult situations, while still taking everyone's feelings seriously.[15] He also procrastinated in his training when he was younger, such as when he did not practice his gliding, instead choosing to race with Avatar Roku.[5] As they matured, Roku often came to Gyatso for practical advice or a fresh perspective when he was feeling dour.[15]
Gyatso studied birds for a passion. He also liked Fire Nation tea, while disliking the flavor of Air Nomad tea.[20]
Abilities[]
According to Aang, Gyatso was the "greatest airbender in the world". During his youth, Gyatso showed proficiency in the use of airbender staffs, as he was able to windsurf using his glider and perform numerous maneuvers while in the air.[5] In his elder years, his airbending style was quick, elusive, flexible, and almost playful. In this way, he could easily outmaneuver any opponent.[19] When the Fire Nation besieged the Southern Air Temple, Gyatso used his airbending abilities to fend off and eliminate numerous Fire Nation assailants whose power had been enhanced by Sozin's Comet, before he was ultimately subdued and killed along with the rest of his people.[1]
He was also a talented cook, making fruit pies[21] and dumplings with great proficiency.[22]
Relationships[]
Aang[]
Aang and Gyatso had a close relationship.
Gyatso was Aang's father figure and mentor. The two shared a close bond and were often found having fun together. They used airbending to play pranks on the other inhabitants of the Air Temple, such as interrupting the Council's meditation by throwing fruit pies at them. Aang loved Gyatso like a father and was devastated when the Elders told him he was the Avatar and would need to leave Gyatso. This, in fact, was one of the reasons Aang ran away from home. The full extent of Gyatso's reaction to this is not known, but he was shown to be deeply worried when he read Aang's goodbye letter.[4]
When Aang returned to the Southern Air Temple one hundred years later, he accidentally stumbled upon Gyatso's skeleton, causing him to cross over into the Avatar State, overcome by rage, grief and guilt. Aang would continue to feel guilty about running away and "not being there for his people when they needed him most" until Guru Pathik helped him to deal with this pain and to let it go. A mirage of Monk Gyatso and the other airbenders played before his eyes when he thought of them and they disappeared into the clouds as Aang let them go.[1][4][5]
Roku[]
Avatar Roku first met Gyatso when he journeyed to the Southern Air Temple in order to learn airbending. The two shared a small rivalry with each other, each of them trying to outdo the other by using air gliders to race each other. Eventually, however, they became great friends, even later in life. When Avatar Roku was showing Aang how the Hundred Year War started, he noted that "some friendships are so strong that they can even transcend lifetimes", citing his experiences with Gyatso as evidence.[5]
Peers[]
Gyatso had a good relationship with the other Air Nomad boys, who were rather fond of him. He was regarded highly as an excellent airbender and was chosen among the other men to be on the Council of Elders. However, the other monks believed he was holding Aang back in his training, which resulted in Gyatso being forced to separate from Aang.[1][4]
Guru Pathik[]
Guru Pathik mentioned to Aang that he was a close personal friend of Monk Gyatso.[16]
Sozin[]
Gyatso never liked nor trusted Sozin. As far back as the Lambak Island Conflict, Gyatso was already suspicious of his motives. During their first meeting, Sozin displayed xenophobic beliefs regarding Air Nomads, much to Gyatso's chagrin.[6]
Relatives[]
- Yama (older sister)
Appearances[]
Avatar: The Last AirbenderBook One: Water (水)
Book Two: Earth (土)
Book Three: Fire (火)
Graphic novels
Chronicles of the AvatarAvatar Legends: The Roleplaying GameAvatar games |
Trivia[]
- Gyatso once taught Aang how to divert his fears when Aang was afraid or nervous: one must close his or her eyes, take deep breaths, and think about his or her favorite animal.[23]
- Gyatso is the only one of Aang's elemental masters to not have been a member of Team Avatar.
- Gyatso is the first known person who trained alongside an Avatar and later taught their successor, with Katara being the second and Jianzhu being the third.
- Though hundreds of airbenders and others died in the War, Gyatso's skeleton was the only one shown during the whole series.[1]
- Gyatso's remains were surrounded by the armor of a large number of Fire Nation soldiers, the first indication in the series that airbending can be lethal and used to kill.[1] As such, Gyatso was the first known airbender to have killed, with Zaheer being the second, and Amihan the third.
- Near the end of the series, Aang wore beads that looked exactly like Gyatso's.[24]
- Gyatso (Tib: རྒྱ་མཚོ, Wylie: rgya-mtsho) is a Tibetan personal name meaning "ocean", and has been the personal name of all Dalai Lama besides the first. His name along with Tenzin's comprise the name of the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso.
- In early drafts, Momo was supposed to be Gyatso's reincarnation but this idea ultimately went unused.[25][26]
- In an interview on AvatarSpirit.net, Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino were asked whether Gyatso was a member of the Order of the White Lotus. While DiMartino answered that they would neither confirm nor deny it, Konietzko revealed, though somewhat jokingly, that he used to contribute funds to the society.[26]
- Yama was confirmed to be Gyatso's biological sister in the non-canon cut chapter of The Reckoning of Roku, "Our Deepest Wounds". This would have made Gyatso the first Air Nomad with a confirmed biological sibling.[27]
- Gyatso is played by Lim Kay Siu in Netflix's live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender.[28]
| Preceded by Unknown, eventually Jianzhu |
Avatar's guardian Unknown - 0 AG |
Succeeded by Tenzin |
| Preceded by Disha |
Avatar's airbending master 12 BG - 0 AG |
Succeeded by Tenzin |