Deputy prime minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam ushered in 2017's Deepavali with a Facebook message that once again eschewed the usual tried-and-tested pedestrian greetings favoured by other seasoned politicians.

In an IQ-raising post, he explains the significance of Hanuman, the popular half-monkey, half human in the ancient Ramayana epic, which is a testament to the spread and influence of culture over time.

Origins

Tharman wrote that Hanuman could very well be the inspiration for Sun Wukong, the monkey hero in the 16th century Chinese epic Journey to the West.

Both Hanuman and Sun Wukong share similar characteristics in the stories told about them, such as how they can transform themselves into completely different beings.

Hanuman is believed to have found his way all over Asia via merchants who travelled widely and through the spread of Hinduism in Southeast Asia and Buddhism into China from the first century C.E.

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All this co-mingling is great, according to Tharman:

That’s also how most of our Asian traditions developed - with local and foreign legends being woven into oral traditions by story-tellers, and evolving and deepening in their own ways over the centuries.

If you’ve heard about “mansplaining” before, this is “Tharmansplaining” for you -- where everything makes sense and your ignorance doesn’t matter.

In 2016, Tharman explained the significance of Garuda:

Here are some totally unrelated but equally interesting stories:

HDB things we are so used to now but will probably not miss in 10 years’ time

Which of these cool young Singaporeans would you want your kid to grow up to be?