Indonesian Folklore, Indonesian Myth, Indonesian History, Indonesian Culture, Indonesian Food, Indonesian Folklore, Indonesia Island, Indonesian People, Indonesia Legends

Napombalu

Folklore from North Sulawesi

ONCE upon a time there were a handsome hunter, his name was Lawongo. In the jungle he only hunted wild hogs. The animals often always destroyed the villagers' fields. The villagers were very grateful. With Lawongo's help, their field were safe from the wild hogs.
Lawongo was also very great in playing a flute, it was so melodious. Everybody always enjoyed listening his playing the flute. One of the people was a beautiful girl. She always listened attentively. Lawongo knew there was a beautiful girl who always paid attention to him. Lawongo fell in love with her. The girl also loved him, later they got married.
They were very happy. They loved each other and promised to be always together. They would be together until they died.
In one night, Lawongo had a strange dream. In his dream he was hunting a very big wild hog. The hog attacked him. He did very hard to kill the hog. He used his knife to stab the hog and it finally died.
On the next morning, Lawongo went hunting. It was still early in the morning and he did not want to wake his wife up.
In the jungle ha did not see any animals. He could not find any wild hog either. He felt very strange. He walk and he felt very thirsty. He picked a coconut. And when he wanted to open it using his knife, he saw his knife was full of dried blood. He was confused. Suddenly he remembered his wife. Somehow he had a bad feeling about his wife. He immediately went home.
When he arrived home, many people were in front of his house. One of the people said,"We're sorry for your wife, Lawongo. Please accept our condolences."
"What happened?" asked him. He rushed into his house. He saw his wife was dead. Her body was full of blood. Lawongo was very sad. He felt very guilty. He knew last night he stabbed hi wife. He then told the villagers to do something.
"I cannot live without my wife. Please prepare two coffins, one for me and the other one is for my wife."
"No, please don't do it. You are still young and we still need you here. Besides that we still want to hear you play the flute." said one of the villagers.
"Don't worry, I still play the flute for you. Male a hole on the coffin's cover. If you cannot longer hear my playing, it means I'm dead. You go to the beach. A strange thing will appear from the sea. Do not point at that thing and do not say anything. It is my reincarnation." said Lawongo.
Later, the villagers buried the two coffins. At the first night, they could still hear his playing. However the sound was getting weaker and weaker. And finally the villagers did not hear anything.
They did Lawongo's request. They went to the beach. They all set down on the beach. Suddenly, a strange thing appeared from the sea. It was very big. They all were surprised. However they did not say anything. The thing finally stooped growing.
The villagers used their sampan and came to the thing. It was a coral island. They named the island as Napombalu, which is from the words Napo and Nawalu. Napo means a coral island and Nawalu means a strange thing which turn into an island. ***

Bujang Katak

Folklore from Bangka Belitung


There was an old woman. She lived alone in her hut. She was a poor farmer. She was getting older and getting weaker. She did not have husband but she prayed to god to give her a son. She hoped her son could help her work in the rice field.

“God, please give me a son. I really want to have a son although he looks like a frog”, prayed the old woman.

God answered her pray. She was pregnant. Later the baby was born. Surprisingly the baby looked like a frog. His head and his skin were like frog’s head and skin. At first, the old woman was sad. However, later on she was grateful to god. She raised her son with great love. The baby grew as a kind man. He was very strong and obedient to his mother. People called him Bujang Katak. Bujang means a young man and Katak means a frog.

Later Bujang Katak was adult. He wanted to get married. However he did not want to marry the girl in his village. He wanted to marry one of the king’s seven daughters’!

He told his plan to his mother. She was sad. She knew that the king would reject his married proposal. But she did not want to see her son sad. And later they arrived at the palace. Bujang Katak told the king about the married proposal.

“I really appreciate your courage young man. But I can not make any decision. I will ask my seven daughters to give their opinions and decisions”, said the king.

One by one all the seven daughters talked. The first daughter didn’t say good things about Bujang Katak. She insulted him. “You are so ugly. No wonder people call you Bujang Katak. You really look like a frog. I don’t want to have a husband who looks like a frog”, said the first daughter.

The second daughter also said bad things to him. “You are very poor. I don’t want to have a poor husband”. So the other daughters talked bad things about him.

Finally the youngest daughter had her turn to talk. She was the most beautiful and kindest daughter. She didn’t say bad things about him. She accepted Bujang Katak’s married proposal! “I will marry him, Father” said the youngest daughter to the king.

Everybody was surprised. All the elders’ sisters were laughing at her. The king was shocked! He never thought that one of his daughters would marry Bujang Katak. He wanted to cancel the married. So he asked Bujang Katak to do something very difficult.

“I will let you marry my daughter but you have to build a golden bridge from your house to this palace”, said the king.

Bujang Katak and his mother went home. His mother was very sad and confused.

“How can you build a golden bridge, Son?” she asked Bujang Katak. “Don’t worry, Mother. I will pray to God to help me”, said Bujang Katak.

Then Bujang Katak prayed days and nights. One night, amazing things happened. His frog’s skin removed from his body. His head also changed. He became a very handsome man. His mother burned the removed skin. Amazingly the skin changed into gold. They had a lot of gold. Slowly they built a bridge using the gold.

Finally the bridge was built from they house to the king’s palace. The youngest daughter was very happy. Her husband was very handsome and also very rich. He had a lot of gold. All her sisters were jealous. They were even more jealous when the king asked Bujang Katak to be the new king.***

 

Indonesian Folklore Thumbnails

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” (The Story of Panyalahan Village A Folklore from West Java)

Indonesian Folklore Thumbnails

The couple had any children yet. Their dream came true. The statue had changed into a very beautiful girl. The priest and his wife then took the girl home. They named her Nai Manggale. (Nai Manggale, Folklore from North Sumatra)

Indonesian Folklore Thumbnails