The Lungspre Great Sages, also called the Flying Lemur Great Sages, (翼猴大聖) were a lineage of reincarnated lamas who associated with the Western Air Temple. The founder of the reincarnation lineage was Rolha (1760-1699 BG), a skilled airbending nun known for her clever koans (and practical jokes). The lineage is a fused-soul two-spirit lineage, with the human soul of the founder Rolha having fused with that of her beloved winged lemur companion Behmi during her accidental death during a volcanic eruption. (Distinct from the Avatar, a distinct kind of non-fused-soul two-spirit incarnation.)
The personalities of individual incarnations have varied, but are broadly characterized as lighthearted, free-spirited individuals who have at times clashed with monastic rules, but who have great patience, equanimity, and mastery of airbending. The Lungspre Great Sages have almost all professed asexuality, and have all been female.
The Lungspre Great Sage was identified by the elders of the Western Air Temple, who, along with the incumbent Great Sage, were killed in the Air Nomad genocide. The current incarnation of the Lungspre Great Sage is not known; if she continued to reincarnate, she was not identified.
Notable Lungspre Great Sages
Rolha (1760-1699 BG)
The founder of the lineage. She was born to Air Nomads inhabiting the Celadon Archipelago, and an itinerant cleric identified her as old-souled and likely to take to monastic life. This prophecy must have seemed unlikely to those who knew her as a child, as she grew up a rebellious youth, intelligent but impulsive and free-spirited, who ran away from her home band of nomads as a teenager. However, she was fascinated by the logic riddles of a monk she met on her travels, and determined to learn more. She grasped difficult problems in logic, theology and ethics easily, and tempered her nature with hours of deep meditation and airbending exercises. At the age of forty-five, having become acknowledged as an airbending master, she realized that she had never quite reconciled herself to the strictures of monastic life and decided to travel the world as a wandering cleric. While traveling in the land of her ancestors, the lands controlled by the Southern Air Temple, she acquired a winged lemur, Behmi, who was to be her only permanent companion for the next ten years - unlike most Air Nomads historically, Rolha did not have a single sky bison, but rather four over the course of her life. (She initially stole one from her family when she ran away, and had it returned to them when she joined the Air Temple, having repented of the theft. When she left, she bought a bison from a trader, but found it too unruly and exchanged it for another in the Southern Air Temple lands. That bison was, unfortunately, killed in a fight with pirates. The fourth she had only for a year or so before she returned to the Western Air Temple and donated it to the temple herd, and she did not develop a particularly close relationship with it, though she did usually take that bison when traveling.) in 1758, Rolha was injured in an accident in the lands of the Eastern Air Temple; the accident killed her sky bison and left her physically impaired. She return to the Western Air Temple as she found traveling life too difficult for her convalescence. She delighted in sharing her accumulated wisdom with the younger nuns and visitors, and had a very sharp mind. She was not to have a long stay there, however; while helping her fellow Air Nuns turn back a pyroclastic flow from a settled village, she was killed.
Sonam (1699 - 1610)
Derisively nicknamed "Lemur Girl" growing up for her lemur-like behavioral stereotypies, Sonam was born to Air Nomads of the Celadon Archipelago. Her powerful airbending brought her to the attention of the Western Air Temple in spite of her strange behavior, and she was steered into a monastic life. She often had visions of her past life - and some others from the point of view of Behmi. These were recognized by some of the older nuns who had heard Rolha speak, and monastic diviners concluded that Sonam was the reincarnation of Rolha. Like Rolha, she was free-spirited and liked to spend time meditating or practicing her bending alone, but patient and intelligent. She had less of a rebellious personality, though, and lived most of her life at the Western Air Temple; the longest she was away from it after taking her vows was nine months. Sonam taught airbending at the temple for many years, as well as meditation techniques. She came to be able to commune with what would become known as the Flying Lemur Great Sage spirit, confirming her status as Rolha's reincarnation, and though she felt she was near to achieving complete enlightenment and escape from further obligate reincarnation, Sonam expressed her intention in old age to return to continue teaching bending to the next generation of nuns.
Sonam died after a brief physical illness in her old age.
Medo (1611-1507)
Medo was identified as the reincarnation of Rolha's line, also among Air Nomads of the Celadon Archipelago; this time she was known to the Western Air Temple from infancy as they were looking for her planned reincarnation in accordance with her previous incarnation's instructions. She learned airbending swiftly, and at the age of nine became one of the youngest airbending masters ever; this was a cause of controversy as she had not taken full vows yet (children were not permitted to agree to a lifetime of celibacy and the renunciation of personal property.) However, when she attained majority, she did take full monastic vows, validating the decision of the abbess who permitted her comprehensive instruction in childhood.
Medo fulfilled Sonam's expressed intentions, by teaching many airbenders at the Western Air Temple, she also traveled to the other Air Temples and taught at them for six months or so at a time. She delighted in getting into challenging other masters to (nonlethal, obviously) airbending duels and competitions, and she was among the airbending masters to teach the Yuanping Avatar(1613-1519), despite her young age at the time (she was only two years older than her student.) The Yuanping Avatar developed romantic feelings for Medo, but they were unrequited. Medo was honored by emissaries from the Later Gong Earth Kingdom with the title "Great Sage" (大聖) in gratitude for her efforts to train the Earth Avatar, as she had been able to overcome his difficulties with his opposite element whereas her prior teachers had not. Thereafter she somewhat jocularly used the title "Winged Lemur Great Sage" (翼猴大聖) for herself.
In her old age, Medo served as the leader of the Western Council of Elders for a time. She was the primary airbending teacher of the Chaojia Avatar (1519-1450), whom she considered her most brilliant student. She died of natural causes before she could complete the Chaojia avatar's training, however, and her airbending training was finished by Medo's disciples. As Medo had also expressed an intent to reincarnate, her successors were found relatively quickly, and her lineage became known by the joking title she had taken for herself - Flying Lemur Great Sage.
(Various other incarnations here)
Yeshe XII (1180-1101 BG)
By Yeshe's time, the Flying Lemur Great Sage lineage had come to provide most of the abbesses of the Western Air Temple. She had something of a rivalry with the Jiongyu Avatar as to who was the best airbender in the world (persons who were not Yeshe XII generally agreed that it was the Avatar.) They nonetheless had a long and fruitful working relationship. When Yeshe was heading the Western Council of Elders, she accepted the Avatar's proposal to resolve a dispute between the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom, then both colonizing the coastal regions of the Celadon Archipelago, leading to the Great Treasure Donation and considerable growing pains for the secular administrative work of the Temple. She was deposed from power for this reason, and said that the experience had taught her humility; it would be several reincarnations before the Flying Lemur Great Sage again sought this leadership position. (Notably, after the Great Treasure Donation was widely assessed as having been tremendously beneficial.)
Dolma VI (38 BG-0 AG)
Dolma VI was abbess of the Western Air Temple when the Celadon Archipelago was invaded by the Fire Nation. A powerful airbender at the height of her skill, laid down her life in defense of the country. She had been concerned about the situation developing with the Fire Nation for years, and was troubled by visions of the Temple's invasion by the Fire Nation. She confided in one of the few survivors (a settled Celadon Islander of ethnic Fire Nation descent, who was employed as a diplomat on behalf of the Western Air Nation) that if it came to war, and the Air Temple were destroyed, she would reincarnate as a flying lemur instead of a human; he was unsure if she was joking or not.
As the persons who would identify the reincarnation of the Flying Lemur Great Sage were also killed in the Air Nomad Genocide, it is not known if Dolma VI reincarnated, or if she attained her much-delayed complete enlightenment.