The old turtle is a character taken from the Chinese novel 'Journey to the West'. The old turtle roams around the east bank of the river, upon seeing Tang Sanzang a Buddhist monk in the bank; old turtle asks him to ask Tathagata Buddha when he would be converted and how long he would live. But upon seeing Lord Buddha Tang Sanzang forgets to ask and this makes old turtle angry and he dumps the fellow monk in the river for not granting his request.
