Originally Posted by
Candide
Tian Long Ba Bu isn't Eight Parts of the Dragon. That's technically wrong.
The literal, technically correct translation is "The Eight Humanoid Species led by Celestial and Dragon". Those species are mentioned in the Buddhist Lotus Sutra. They are humanoid creatures who frequently attend the lectures given by the Supreme Buddha and hence obtain some divine attributes, but aren't true divine beings or godlike. The leaders of those are Celestial and Dragon, thus the name. The eight species are:
1. Celestial is like a human being, but taller and bigger, lives longer and happier, however has to endure a very painful death with 5 omens: decomposed clothing, decaying head flower, smelly and dirty body, sweaty armpits and psychomotor agitation.
2. Dragon is the dragon king, but not quite like the Chinese dragon, and more like a big snake with no limb.
3. Yaksha (in Buddhism) is the third one, which literally means a divinity that can eat demons. There are three types: one that lives on earth, one in heaven and one in the netherworld. They are smart and elegant beings who are protectors of living things. However, due to the depiction in Journey To The West, Yaksha is mistakenly used as an alternate word for demon.
4. Enigma (don't know the Hindu word for it, but that's what it means) are the musicians that serve Celestial, who don't eat meat and don't drink alcohol, but live by the smell of incense, and have a pleasant body fragrance. The name comes from the immeasurable vastness of music and fragrance.
5. A-Tu-La (that's a Sino Viet name, don't know the Hindu one) is a special type of Divinity: the males are ugly as sin while the females are very beautiful. They often battle with Celestial as one side has good food and the other has beautiful females. They represent greed and envy in Buddhism.
6. Golden-Winged Eagle is a bird species that also exists in Chinese myths (in which Yue Fei is one that was reborn as a human). They love to hunt and eat dragons and everyday they must catch either one dragon king or 500 baby dragons. Because they eat too many dragons, the accumulated venom burns their bodies to ashes and only leaves a blue heart.
7. Horned Human is a species resembling human beings the most, but with horns , and are great at singing and dancing. They entertain Celestial.
8. Divine Snake is a species with human body but snake head, and is much much bigger than a man.
The translation "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils" while not referring to the 8 species is spot on with the literal meaning of the title as well as its spirit. You can see the TLBB main characters among those 8 species.