History Main / HermitGuru

-->--''The Literature/{{Discworld}} Companion'', '''Creator/TerryPratchett''' and '''Stephen Briggs'''

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', adventure S4 ''The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth''. A hermit (with psionic powers yet) lives in a cave in the Yatil Mountains of the TabletopGame/{{Greyhawk}} campaign setting. If approached politely he will give the {{PC}}'s some information and will trade a useful item.

** ''Literature/WitchesAbroad'' and ''Literature/ThiefOfTime'' both address the question: If people seek wisdom from old men on mountains because wisdom seems wiser when it's a long way away, where do the people who already live on the mountains go to seek wisdom? Answer: To Ankh-Morpork to learn from a working-class housewife.

** In the eighteenth and nineteenth century non-religious hermits were employed by the owners of stately homes in order to provide a living feature to a folly. Some hermits are still employed today for the purpose of novelty.

* Guru Pathik in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', pictured above. He's a bit odd (the man lives on onion-banana juice smoothies!) but essentially good-natured. His origin is never explained; no one else of his ethnicity or culture has ever appeared in the setting.

* Italian comic strip ''Nirvana'' has a big-nosed, bearded hermit as the protagonist, sitting on a tall rock and having to deal with people asking for advice, a bad poet, aliens or boy scouts who thinks he's in need of assistence.

* Tibet in the ''Manga/AxisPowersHetalia'' webcomic. He's replaced by [[PandaingToTheAudience a talking panda]] in the anime [[DistancedFromCurrentEvents for obvious reasons]].

* Baikinsennin from ''{{Franchise/Anpanman}}''. He has a house high up in the mountains (complete with natural hot springs) and gives advice to Baikinman on how to defeat Anpanman (that fails thanks to Baikinman's own stupidity).

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' has Kasen Ibaraki, AKA Ibaraka-Sen, star of the official manga ''Manga/TouhouIbarakasenWildAndHornedHermit''. This caused a bit of confusion in the Western fandom because the term "''sennin''" was officially rendered into English as "hermit", but Kasen is far from isolated, usually hanging around the Hakurei Shrine and just as active as any other member of the cast. That said, she ''does'' fit the mold in most other regards, including living in a hard-to-reach mountain dojo, and she seemingly didn't get out much before she was officially introduced in ''WAHH''.

* ''Fanfic/Plan7Of9FromOuterSpace''. [=TuMok=] of Mars relates how he consulted a 900-year old sage on Olympus Mons. After months of {{Ice Cream Koan}}s and WordSaladPhilosophy, he loses patience and bangs the sage's head against the hardest rock he can find. On recovering consciousness, the sage tells Tumok that he's discovered the wisdom he was looking for. "For it is only when you stop screwing around with this existential rubbish that you ever achieve anything."

* Tibet in the ''Manga/AxisPowersHetalia'' webcomic. He's replaced by [[PandaingToTheAudience a talking panda]] in the anime [[TooSoon for obvious reasons]].

The guru [[MadOracle could be crazy]] in a comedy or parody.

* Sahasrahla, and to some extent the old man on DeathMountain, in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast''.

* [[Disney/{{Fantasia}} Yen Sid]] takes this role whenever he appears in the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series. In this universe, he's a RetiredBadass who lives in a MageTower on an island floating in space, but offers advice to anyone who can actually find him.

* ''Plan 7 of 9 from Outer Space''. [=TuMok=] of Mars talks of how he consulted a 900-year old sage on Olympus Mons. After months of {{Ice Cream Koan}}s and WordSaladPhilosophy, he loses patience and bangs the sage's head against the hardest rock he can find. On recovering consciousness, the sage tells Tumok that he's discovered the wisdom he was looking for. "For it is only when you stop screwing around with this existential rubbish that you ever achieve anything."

** One in ''Discworld/SoulMusic'' is yer quintessential hermit, dispensing advice and vague, heartwarming platitudes with a meaningful glance towards the begging bowl.
** ''Discworld/SmallGods'' also features St. Ungulant (whose first initials are actually "S.T."), who lives up a pole in the middle of the desert, and is stark raving mad. But don't say that to his ImaginaryFriend Angus! Ungulant also makes an appearance in the second Discworld PC game. S.T. Ungulant is also very proud of being a self-taught hermit, although he admits that trying to apprentice yourself to an older hermit "ruins the point of herming."
** ''Discworld/WitchesAbroad'' and ''Discworld/ThiefOfTime'' both address the question: If people seek wisdom from old men on mountains because wisdom seems wiser when it's a long way away, where do the people who already live on the mountains go to seek wisdom? Answer: To Ankh-Morpork to learn from a working-class housewife.
** One lives on the Ramkin property in {{Discworld/Snuff}} (see RealLife, below). Herming from father to son, with a week's vacation every year, and all the snails you can eat.

%%* OldMaster Dohko from ''Manga/SaintSeiya''.

The Hermit Guru lives on a mountain, in the desert, or anyplace suitably remote. The guru is usually a male, but even the wise witch that lives in a cave could qualify.

While this trope has died out in the real world due to greater modernization and population density, in fiction it still thrives as a way for protagonists to gather wisdom.

Compare ReclusiveArtist. Sub-trope of TheHermit, often overlaps with BarefootSage and ToBeAMaster.

-->''Wisdom is a lot wiser the further away it is; any old thing written down by some bald old man with lots of Xs and Zs in his name is bound, under this rule, to sound more wise than the same thing written by the man next door. This especially applies if the putative wise man lives above the snowline. No-one says "If he's so wise, why isn't he on the beach?"''
--->--''The Literature/{{Discworld}} Companion'', '''Creator/TerryPratchett''' and '''Stephen Briggs'''

--->''The Literature/{{Discworld}} Companion'', '''Creator/TerryPratchett''' and '''Stephen Briggs'''

The Hermit Guru lives on a mountain, in an ancient temple, or anyplace suitably remote. The guru is usually a male, but even the wise witch that lives in a cave could qualify.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'' has Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi who are old Jedi Masters living alone on Dagobah and Tatooine for the last twenty years. They each do their part in training Luke to become a Jedi Knight.

* Played with in ''Film/BatmanBeyond''. To be trained by the League of Shadows, Bruce Wayne must pick a rare blue flower and climb to his monastery at the top of a snow-bound mountain. This is presented the same way as this trope, with Ducard presenting Ra's al Ghul as a mentor who will help Bruce seek enlightenment, even though the path he teaches is a lot more antagonistic than most gurus.

Compare ReclusiveArtist. Sub-trope of TheHermit, often overlaps with BarefootSage.

* ''Manga/MakenKi'': Tesshin Kushiya was so awed by Atsuma's Blood Pointer ability that, despite defeating her her, he sealed himself away in a cave on Okino Island in order to study and perfect the technique himself. Over time, he became such a formidable combatant, that not even S-rank Maken users could best him. Yet, he still believes his "fist" is only a pale imitation of hers.