Garuda is one of the great divine beings of Indian mythology — half man, half eagle, gold from beak to talon, and large enough on some accounts to blot out the sun with his wings. He appears across Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain tradition, and his image flies over much of South-East Asia: he is the national emblem of Indonesia and Thailand, the airline of Indonesia, and the royal seal of more than one Hindu dynasty.
His birth story, from the Mahabharata, is one of the strangest in world myth. His mother Vinata and her sister Kadru — both wives of the sage Kashyapa — made a foolish wager. The loser was to become the slave of the winner. Vinata lost. The price of her freedom would be paid by her unhatched son.
When Garuda finally broke from his egg, the gods themselves trembled. He was so radiant they mistook him at first for Agni, the fire-god, and bowed. To free his enslaved mother, Garuda had to steal the amrita — the nectar of immortality — from the gods themselves. He fought through fire, blade, and storm, defeated the gods in the field, took the cup, and was on his way home when Vishnu finally stopped him.
Vishnu did not fight him. Vishnu offered him a deal. In exchange for returning the amrita to the heavens, Garuda would become Vishnu's mount and standard-bearer for all time, riding into every cosmic battle with the preserver of the universe on his back. Garuda accepted. The arrangement has lasted ever since.
It also gave him his most famous enemy. The naga serpents, children of Kadru, were the cause of his mother's enslavement. Garuda has been the eternal foe of the snakes ever since — sweeping down on them from the sky, eating them, scattering them. Even today, in much of South and South-East Asia, painted images of Garuda are placed in homes as a charm against snakes and snake-bite.
In Buddhist tradition the Garudas became a whole race of golden bird-beings, sworn protectors of the dharma. In Hindu tradition Garuda himself remains one being, vast and golden and patient, waiting for Vishnu's call. Wear him and you wear the eagle that carries a god on its back — and the loyalty fierce enough to do it forever.