Obvious or not, the wind fights a rock.

Air and stone

      For millennium, the magic stone sat upon the mountaintops raised high above the valleys of flowers and fruits. So began my story, as it has been told by many tongues. Caressed by the wind, coated in ethereal plants, and exposed to enchanted rays of the early suns, this rock became pregnant. After a particularly long period of pregnancy ( several decades), a stone egg the size of a ball emerged. Years went by as the rock grew in size, looking down upon the western island jungles. One day, cracks formed in the stone, and they widened quickly. Soon the rock shattered, and out of the rubble came a most curious creature. Case you don't already get the obvious hints, the creature is me. So anyways I swaggered out, and sat down and looked up at the sky. Only the Jade Emperor knows how long I stared at the sky, but as I looked over yonder his royal majesty was disturbed. Why was he disturbed? Because my eyes were glowing golden, and their light was brighter than the sun.So yes, that's how baby monkey demons are made. The battle here is rather too greatly symbolic for my tastes. You see, I was destined to follow my so called 'Parents' footsteps, either as stone, a statue chiseled out of rock, that or become like the wind, being swift and laughing. I thought about it for some time, but in the end I chose to be more like 'dad'(who wants to sit for all eternity as a star-gazer? Not me.). After I stood up and began to explore, I lost my golden touch, and was like any other normal monkey... demon. So I went on to prove myself to other apes and in conquering their trials, I became their righteous ruler.First I proved my bravery by leaping off a waterfall, second I proving my strength by defeating some trials. Then of course trying times, and struggles, blah blah blah blah. Actually becoming the Monkey King was the easy part, now keeping the throne? That is and was hard.All this awesomeness was merely too much for the monkeys, so they made me their king.

My parents are the sky and the earth. Guess Mom and Dad are always with me.

Baby pictures of a stone ape

So as it happened, I was born from a rock. At the time of my birth, the universe was in a primordial state and there wasn't much to be had. After wandering the four corners of the Earth, I came to rule a kingdom of Monkeys. When my subjects starting dying from old age, I thought "why die when you can live forever?" and got to work on that. So I started on a journey.

Whacking Demons, jumping 30,000 miles in a single somersault, immortality, those sort of things.

I went about my time learning how to walk on clouds, earning titles ( most of which were secret insults), slaying demonic entities. You know, the usual. After I learned some things from a monk by the name of Subohdi (like how to do the best somersaults you have ever seen and how to shape-shift, of course.) I decided I would go under the ocean and just steal a weapon of mass destruction or two from my good old friend Ao-Kuang, the dragon king. I 'persuaded' my way into his treasury and found the "Ruyi Jungi Bang", or The Compliant Golden-Hooped Rod after looking at some useless junk. I did this because of a small problem me and my subjects were facing back home, just a gigantic fearsome monster that wanted to devour us. When I showed him the door, I decided to grow to be proportional to my massive staff, or grow to be 14 feet tall that is. Later on I learned a little more, things like seeing evil, breathing underwater, and general powers you would tend to associate with a powerful entity.

The 'Immortal dream', living the heavenly life of havoc and chaos.

I was pretty intimidating, with my alliances to the Saurian Demons, the Bull Demons, the Lion Spirits, and the other Demonic animalistic presences around the universe. The Jade Emperor was completely unappreciative of my pure awesomeness, and I didn't like that. In order to try and calm me down, he brought me to heaven. I thought he was going to make me the god I deserved to be. Nope, not even close. He made me the protector of horses. I thought the idea was great until about 5 seconds in. The job was terrible, and I ranked lower than cloud horse manure. So I proclaimed myself "The Great Sage, Equal of Heaven",destroyed the stables, set the horses free , and allied with some powerful demons. It took them a little while, but they eventually learned I was worthy of the title. Then they dared exclude ME from a banquet of the gods, so I ate the peaches of Immortality,the pills of longevity, and the royal wine. You know, it was quite delicious. The Jade Emperor didn't like this, so he sent his 100,000 celestial soldiers after me. You think that an army of god-soldiers could beat a monkey! Well, as it so happened they were the worst lot of eternal warriors you've ever heard of. So I obliterated them.

Buddha the trickster? Not what you would expect.

I destroyed most of Heaven's forces, and went about my merry way. Without the means to defeat my immensely amazing powers, the emperor went crying to Buddha. Buddha challenged me that I could not leap off his hand. Being the best long distance jumper in all existence, I agreed. So I clambered up, and leapt off his hand, landing near the five pillars at the edge of the world. I laughed and jumped back, only to realize that I had never left his hand, the five pillars were his fingers. I tried to escape. Tried being the keyword, Buddha turned his hand into a mountain and Imprisoned me there for five hundred years. You cannot hope to assume how enormously boring it is to be trapped in a mountain for FIVE HUNDRED YEARS!

Not how I expected to end up.

Bodhisattva Guayin was looking for a disciple to protect a eastern monk on his journey to India to retrieve the Buddhist Sutras. I was available, and my 500 years were up. Chastised, I helped to protect a young monk on his way. The monks name was Xuanzang, and he tricked me into wearing a irremovable headband that caused intolerable pain when I misbehaved. Joined by Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing, we protected the man on his way to the scrolls. The journey was long, and I suffered, blah, blah, blah. So we ended up encountering 81 tribulations, or rather, 81 trials. I was granted the powers of Heaven to combat those who dared oppose us, which in hindsight was extremely helpful. I was cleansed of my sins when all was said and done, and  I achieved Buddha-hood. For those who aren't Buddhist, I became Immortal, and now I write to you of my long journey.  \

My personal family life. A.K.A. my lack of any family life.

I have no family. Is there anything else to say? Well if you really want to go into detail ... I have no wife, I have no kids, I have no cousins, I have no aunts, uncles, grandparents. You want to know why? Because my Mom is a rock, and my Dad is the sky. Not the sort of things that are like build up families. Reunions have always been boring, nobody even came to my 80,000th birthday party, and I know online dating isn't for me. 

Behold my handsomeness!

You already know how I look, but anyways...

I stand 14 feet tall(don't ask me what the weather is like up here), and have both human and monkey features. Though I am a shape shifter, no matter what form I take, I always have my tail present. Not much else to say.

Animals, Plants, and Symbols related to me.

I am the MONKEY KING, do I need to say anything else?

Point of Origin

Should you not be able figure out by way of common knowledge that I am a Chinese god, I am a Chinese god.The part having to deal with Buddha represents the scale to which he has infiltrated Chinese Mythology since his enlightenment  around 2,500 years ago.

My Culture = China.

I can't be pin pointed to any particular religion, because in Chinese mythology, religions mix like smoothies. I have links to Buddhism, Taoism, and a little bit of Confucianism. All intertwined at one time or another, creating the motley mix we have today.