The Story of Panyalahan Village

A Folklore from West Java

LONG time ago in Tasikmalaya, West Java, lived a young couple. They were farmers. They lived happily with their baby. The couple also had some animals. One of them was a tiger. When the couple went to work on the paddy field, the tiger looked after their baby. As usual, the couple went to the paddy field. Before they left, they asked the tiger to look after their baby.

“We will go to the field now. Look after our baby, okay?” The tiger nodded.

So, the couple went to the field. They worked from morning until afternoon. When the couple arrived home, the tiger welcomed them. The tiger acted differently. He wagged his tail and rubbed his body to the couple’s legs. He looked very happy. The husband became suspicious.

“Why does this tiger behave strangely? He does not act as usual?” he thought.

The husband looked at the tiger carefully. He was shocked. The tiger’s mouth was full of blood. Then he remembered his baby. He thought the tiger had eaten the baby.

“Why is your mouth full of blood?” he asked the tiger.

“You must have done something bad to my baby! Have you killed him? Why did you do that?” he was very panicked.

The husband took his knife and killed the tiger in anger. Then they both entered the house. They were shocked. They looked at each other. Their baby was sleeping peacefully in his cradle. He was not eaten by the tiger.

Quickly, the wife took the baby and kissed him. The baby woke up. He opened his eyes and smiled. The couple found a very large snake under the cradle. The snake was dead and full of blood.

“Oh, my wife,” the husband said.

“We have done a terrible thing. The tiger is not guilty! Look at the dead snake. The tiger must have killed him. He had saved our baby, but I killed him. Oh, my God! What have I done? I am so sorry. Forgive me, my dear tiger. Forgive me, please?”

The couple felt very guilty. They have killed their faithful tiger. It all happened because they did not check the baby first before they killed the tiger.

Since then, the couple’s village was called Panyalahan. The word Panyalahan derives from the word “nyalahan”, which means “wrong guess”.

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Pak Lebai Malang

Folklore from West Sumatra

Pak Lebai was a wishy-washy man. He always change his mind before he did something. He lived in a village next to a river. Everyday, he always used his sampan for travelling at the river.

One day, Pak Lebai was paddling his sampan at the river. Suddenly, he heard someone called out his name. It was his neighbour.

"Pak Lebai, can you come to my house tomorrow? I will have a party", said the neighbor.

Pak Lebai was happy. He loved party because he could eat delicious food. He also could get a buffalo's head from the party. Still on the same day, he got another invitation. Those two party invitations made him confused.

The two parties were held at the same time, but at the different places. The two neighbors who invited him lived in different sides of the river. One neighbor lived on the east side and another one lived in the west side.

"I will go to the east side. I can have two heads of buffalo. He is richer," said Pak Lebai.

On the following day, he paddled his sampan with great power to the east side. He did not want to be late and lost the buffalo's head. On the way to the party, he met some friends.

"The party is awful. There are not many buffalo's heads. He is very stingy, "said one of them.

"I don't care. I'm still going there. He is my friend. I'm sure he will give me the buffalo's head," said Pak Lebai.

He immediately paddled his sampan. Right before he arrived at the east side of the river, he changed his mind. He knew the host was stingy. He thought that he would not get a buffalo's head.

So he turned back his sampan and went to the west side. Again, he paddled his sampan with great power. he did not have much time. Unfortunately, right before he arrived at the west side he met his friends again.

"What are you doing here, Pak Lebai? The party is over." Pak Lebai was upset and blaming himself for being wishy-washy.

He also tired because he was padding back and forth in the river. later he fell asleep in his sampan. He did not realize his sampan was drifting away at the river. When he woke up, he was already in the different village.

When all his neighbors heard what happened to Pak Lebai, then they all started to cal him Pak Lebai Malang or the poor Mister Lebai.

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The Parakeet King

A folktale from Nangroe Aceh Darussalam

In the jungle of Aceh, parakeet birds live peacefully with their wise king. However, now their peaceful life is disturbed. A hunter goes into their jungle and plans to catch them.

It's a beautiful morning. The parakeets and their king perch on a branch of tree. They do not know that the hunter is hiding. The hunter wants to catch the parakeets with his net.

The hunter throws his net towards the parakeets. Some parakeets and the parakeet king are caught under the net. The parakeets are scared but the parakeet king tells them what to do.

"Relax. I have a plan. We all pretend to be dead. When the hunter lifts the net up, we fly fast to the sky," advise the parakeet king. The hunter goes to his net. He is upset! He thinks all the parakeets are dead.

"Oh no! I can't sell dead birds to people." He then lifts the net up.

Not long after that, the parakeets free themselves and fly to the sky. But the parakeet king is still trapped. He does not want to fly to the sky until the parakeets are free.

The hunter is surprised when he sees the parakeets are flying. He sees there is one parakeet left in the net.

He moves quickly. "Gotcha!" he catches the parakeet king.

And then the hunter goes home. He puts the parakeet king in a birdcage.

In the jungle, all the parakeets are sad because their king is locked in a birdcage. They set a plan to free their king. All the parakeets fly to the hunter's house. With their beaks, the parakeets peck the birdcage. Slow but sure, the birdcage is destroyed. Then the parakeet king can free himself.

“Thank you. You all are very kind to me. Without your help, I'm still trapped in this birdcage, "says the parakeet king.

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The Legend of Pesut Mahakam

Folklore from East Kalimantan

A long time ago, there was a village in East Kalimantan. The village was near the Mahakam River. The villagers always worked hard. Although they were poor, they were very happy. They also helped each other.

In the village, there was a rich family. The head of the family was Pak Pesut. Everybody knew Pak Pesut. He was known not because of his wealth, but because his stinginess. He did not like to help others. His family always ignored people. That’s why Pak Pesut’s family always lived alone and never mingled with others.

It was a very long dry season. All the rice fields could not get water properly. The villagers could not harvest the rice.

Therefore, all villagers were planning to leave their village and find other place to stay. Then they sent some young men to look for a place that had enough water for their rice fields.

After several weeks looked for a new place, finally those young men arrived. They brought good news. There was a waterfall and it was enough to water their rice fields. Later, all the villagers rushed to the new place. Some villagers went to Pak Pesut’s house to inform about the waterfall. Although Pak Pesut was stingy, the villagers did not hate him.

“I’m not going with you! I will stay here. I have enough rice for my family.

We will survive!” said Pak Pesut arrogantly.

The villagers knew it was useless to ask Pak Pesut to join them. So, they all left him and his family alone in the village. When they arrived at the new place, they all were very happy. They had enough water from the waterfall.

In the mean time, Pak Pesut and his family were beginning to worry. Their rice slowly was gone. Soon they would not have enough rice to eat.

It was in the morning when Pak Pesut’s wife was cooking their last portion of rice. Suddenly, someone knocked the door. A beggar came to his house.

“Go out! I don’t have enough rice,” said Pak Pesut. He was lying.

“Please mercy me. I’m so hungry. Give me a little rice please,” asked the beggar.

Pak Pesut immediately asked his family to eat the rice. He was worried the beggar would enter his house and stole the rice.

“But the rice is still in the cooking pot. Mother is still cooking it. If we eat the rice, it will be very hot,” said his son.

“I don’t care! If you all don’t eat now, you will never eat again,” said Pak Pesut.

Later, Pak Pesut and his family ate the rice. It was very hot. They needed water to drink. They rushed to Mahakam River. It was so hot that they finally jumped to the river.

The beggar saw the incident. He then prayed to God. Amazingly, Pak Pesut family slowly changed into fish. The fish looked like dolphin. Since then, everybody named the fish as Pesut fish.

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Dae La Minga

Folklore from Nusa Tenggara Barat.

THERE was a very beautiful princess in Sanggar Kingdom. Her name was Dae La Minga. The king and the queen loved her very much. The people also really loved her. Dae La Minga not only a beautiful princess, but also a very kind girl. She liked to help other people.

Dae La Minga was very popular. Her beauty was spread all over the places. many men fell in love with her. Many of them were princes from other kingdoms. One by one, the princes came to Sanggar Kingdom.

Dae La Minga was kind to everyone. And that included to the princes. She was very polite and treated them nicely.

All the princes thought that they had a channce to be her husband. They all thought the princess loved them. Therefore they started to compare to one another.
"Hey, you'd better leave this kingdom now. Dae La Minga only loves me. She was very kind to me," said one prince.

"No way! She only loves me," said another prince.

However, other princes also argued that they had the best chance to marry Dae La Minga. Then the fight was unstoppable.

Since they were princes, they had soldiers. The little fight start to become worse. It started the war!

The king of Sanggar Kingdom really worried with the condition. He did not want to see the war in his kingdom. He was really concerned with his people. He knew he had to do something to solve the problem. He asked all his adviser to give him solution.

The king and the adviser knew that Dae La Minga could not choose one of the princes. Other princes could be jealous and it would started the war. Therefore they decided to ask the princess to leave the kingdom.

"My Dear Daughter, I know this is very difficult for you. This is also very difficult for me and your mother," said the king.

He continued, "We hope you understand. If you don't leave the kingdom, there will be war. Our people will suffer."

Dae La Minga was very sad. However she completely understood with the situation. She really loved her people. She did not want the people to suffer because of her.

"Where should I go, Father?" asked Dae La Minga.

"The advisor told me to put you in a place that all the princes cannot see you. The place is very far and very high. It is in the Tambora Mountain," said the king.

The king then told his people that the princess would leave the kingdom in order to avoid the war. The people were very sad. Most of them cried. They really did not want to lose her. But they knew war would happen if she still stayed in the kingdom.

Then it was time for her to leave the kingdom. Some soldiers accompanied her. They would guard her tto go to Tambora Mountain.

Until now some people still believe that Dae La Minga spiritually still lives in Tambora Mountain. She often shows herself in certain occasion. Not everybody can see her, only the lucky people can see her.

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