Maninjau Lake

Folklore from West Sumatra

THERE was a village in the foot of Tinjau Mountain. The villagers lived happily. Among the villagers there lived bujang Sembilan or nine young men. People called them bujang sembilan because they were nine brothers. Kukuban was the oldest. Their parents died a long time ago. Bujang sembilan had a youngest sister. Her name was Sani.

The head of the village was Datuk Lambatang. He was a kind and wise leader. He always took care of the villagers, especially bujang sembilan and their sister. He often visited them with his wife and his son, Giran.

Giran never missed joining his father to visit bujang sembilan's house. he wanted to meet Sani. He fell in love with her. Fortunately, Sani also loved him.

Giran told his parents. He said that he wanted to marry Sani. Datuk Limbang agreed. He would talk to bujang semnbilan about the marriage after the harvest.

Meanwhile, Sani also talked to her brothers about Giran. They all agreed. And they also knew Datuk Limbatang would propose her after the harvest.

Later, harvest was coming. All the villagers were happy. They had a habit. The celebrated harvest by having pencak silat competition. It is traditional martial art. Each family sent a young man to join the competition. Kukuban was the representative from his family and Giran represented his family.

Kukuban first had a match with a young man. Kukuban won the match. He then had a match with another man. Again he won. He always won. And it was time for Giran.

Later, the two of them had an amazing match. Both of them were very skillful. At the first Kukuban underestimated Giran. He was much younger than Kukuban. But he was wrong. Giran could beat him. Kukuban lost the match!

Kukuban was very upset. He though that Giran would give up. Especially that Giran would marry his sister. He felt that Giran humiliated him. He was waiting for the right time to revenge!

As agreed, Datuk Limbatang and his family came to bujang sebilan's house. He wanted to to propose Sani to be Giran's wife.

Surprisingly, Kukuban rejected the proposal. "No, I will not let Giran marry my sister. He was not a good man. I have a proof. In the pencak silat match, he attacked me brutally", said Kukuban.

"But it was only a game. I don't think he attacked you brutally. Many people watch the match and I'm sure they all agreed with me," said Dauk Limbatang.
Unfortunately, Kukuban had made up his mind. He rejected the proposal. Sani and Giran were very sad.

However both of them still met secretly.

Kukuban finally found out. He and his brothers send them to the traditional court. He accused them having a sinful relationship. And they were punished. They would be thrown to the crater of Tinjau Mountain.

"We are innocent. We never do anything wrong," said Giran. Then he prayed.

"God, when we are wrong, please destroy our body in the crater. But if we are innocent, make this mountain erupt and change bujang sembilan as fish."

Then they were thrown into crater.

Not long after that, the mountain erupted. People saved their lives. Amazingly, bujang sembilan slowly turned into fish. And the crater was getting bigger. It finally became a lake. People named it as Maninjau Lake. ***

Tanjung Menangis

Folklore from Maluku

THERE was a great kingdom in Halmahera. The people were sad. The king just died. He was a great king. He was kind and very wise. The people loved him very much.

The king had three children, two sons and one daughter. The son were Baginda Arif and Baginda Binaut, while the daughter was Putri baginda Nuri.

The queen talked to commander of the soldiers. They were discussing about the next king. According to the rule, the first child would be the next king. Therefore, they were preparing a ceremony to inaugurate Baginda Arif to be the new king.

Baginda Binaut heard they conversation. Actually, he had an ambition. he also wanted to be the king. He had a plan. Secretly, he talked to the commander and consequently the commander had to send the queen, Baginda Arif and Baginda Nuri to jail.

The commander agreed. He send them to the jail. The queen, the prince and the princess were very sad. Baginda Binaut told the people that his mother, his brother and his sister were drowned in the sea.

"Binaut is really ungrateful. He is really a bad person," said Baginda Arif.

"Be patient, my child. God will help us," said the queen.

Then Baginda Binaut became the new king. Unlike his father, he was very cruel. He asked his people to pay high taxes. The people suffered. They complained but they could not do anything. The soldiers would hurt them.

However, not all the soldiers wanted to follow Baginda Binaut. One of the soldier decided to leave the palace. His name was Bijak. He made his own troops. He knew the queen, the prince and the princess were in jail. He wanted to set them free.

On one night, Bijak and his troops attacked the jail. He wanted to set them free.

On one night, Bijak and his troops attacked the jail. They succeeded! Then he planed to attacked the palace. But the queen did not agree. She did not want to see her own people fighting. The queen then prayed to god.

Not long after that, the mountain erupted. The lava was flowing. It flowed to the palace. The people were running to save their life. Baginda Binaut was also running. Amazingly, wherever he was running, the lava always followed him.

Baginda Binaut was really scared. While he was running, he was thinking of his mother, brother and his sister. He screamed for help.

"Mother, please help me!" He went to the jail but they were not there. He was really panicked because the lava was getting closer to him.

"Help! Help!" screamed Baginda Bimaut but not one helped him.

Finally, Baginda Binaut could not run anymore. He was exhausted and he arrived at the sea. He could not go back to the land because it was full of lava. Then he swam to the sea.

Because he was very tired, he could not swim. He was drowned. Slowly, his body turned into a cave. The people often heard someone crying from the cave, therefore they named it the crying cave or Tanjung Menangis. ***

Putri Luh Cendrasari

Folklore from Bali

PRABU Maha Sila was a king. He had a beautiful daughter. Her name was Putri Luh Cendrasari. Many young men fell in love with her. They wanted to propose her to be their wife.

The king asked his daughter to choose carefully. Some of the men were princes from other kingdom. The king did not want to make the men disappointed and it would start a war.

Putri Luh Cendrasari understood. She held a competition. She would marry a man who could bring her the eyes and the scales of a white dragon. All the participants agreed. They started to look for a white dragon.

It was not easy to find a white dragon. Some of them climbed the mountains and some of them swam in the sea. However they still could not find the white dragon. One by one the participants gave up.

One of the participants was Manik Angkeran. He was not a prince. He was just a villager. Manik Angkeran really wanted to marry Putri Luh Cendrasari. Actually the princess also fell in love with Manik Angkeran.

She really hoped he could win the copetition. Manik Angkeran went to his teacher in his cave. The teacher was meditating. Manik Angkeran told his teacher about Putri Luh Cendrasari and the competition.

"What will you do to win the competition?" asked the teacher.

"I will do anything, Master. If I have to sacrifice my soul, yes... I will do it, said Manik Angkeran.
"I really admire your persistence. I can see that you really love her. And I also really love you, Manik Angkeran. And I will do anything to make you happy."

The teacher continued, "Actually I am a white dragon. Gods allowed me to be human," said the teacher.

Later an amazing things happened. The teacher slowly turned into a white dragon. Manik Angkeran was very surprised. He did not know that his teacher actually a white dragon.

The white dragon took out his eyes and shook his body. The scales fell off. He gave his eyes and his scales to Manik Angkeran. Then the white dragon disappeared. He went back to heaven.
Manik Angkeran was very sad. He lost his beloved teacher. He immediately went to the palace. The princess was happy. The winner was Manik Angkeran. They soon got married.

Not long after that the princess was pregnant. Everybody was happy except Manik Angkeran. He knew he had to fulfill his promise. He would die soon.

Manik Angkeran was talking to Putri Luh Cendrasari. Suddenly he fell down. Putri Luh Cendrasari saw the gods took manik Angkeran's spirit.

She cried. She asked gods not to take her husband. She told gods that she wanted to follow her husband. She also wanted to die.

The Gods answered, "It's not your time to die. You are pregnant."

"But I really want to be with my husband," said the princess.
Actually the gods did not want to take Manik Angkeran's spirit. They just want to test the princess if she really loved him, knowing that he was just a villager, The gods answered her request. Slowly Manik Angkeran came back to life.

He lived again. Since then Manik angkeran and Putri Luh Cendrasari lived happily ever after.***