Panji Semirang

Folklore from East Java

KURIPAN was a big kingdom. The king had a son. His name was Raden Inu Kertapati. The prince was engaged with a princess from Daha kingdom. Her name was Dewi Candra Kirana. One day, Raden Inu Kertapati planned to visit Daha kingdom. He wanted to meet his fiance.

Raden Inu Kertapati went to Daha kingdom with his guards. While they were riding the horses,suddenly a group of people from Asmarantaka stopped them. The leader was Panji Semirang. Upon hearing their place of origin, Raden Inu Kertapati and his guards were alert. They heard that Asmarantaka was a place of thieves.

Panji Semarang would like to meet him. Raden Inu Kertapati agreed. However, Panji Semirang greeted him nicely. Raden Inu Kertapati almost not believe it.

"Don't believe what you heard, Raden. We are not thieves," said Panji Semirang.

Raden Inu Kertapati felt so strange. He felt he already met and knew Panji Semirang for a long time. He was really familliar with Panji Semirang.

Raden Inu Kertapati then continued his trip to Daha kingdom. When he arrived, the king welcomed him nicely. The king was accompanied by his concubine. Dewi Liku, and their daughter. Her name Dewi Ajeng. However, his fiance was not there. He asked Dewi Liku, "Where is Dewi Candra Kirana?"

"Your fience is going crazy. She left the kingdom and went to the jungle."

While talking to Raden Inu, Dewi Liku put a spell on him. She was doing black magic to him. She would make Raden Inu Kertapati forget his fience. She wanted him to marry her daughter, Dewi Ajeng.

Her planned worked. The king set a wedding party. Dewi Ajeng and Dewi Liku were extremely happy. Suddenly people were screaming.

"Fire! Fire!"

Yes, the palace was on fire. Everybody ran for help. The soldiers were trying to extinguish the fire. And some of them were rescuing the king and his family.

While Raden Inu Kertapati was leaving the palace, his memory of Dewi Candra Kirana came back. He and his guards were looking for his fience. He then remembered something. He knew why he was so familiar with Panji Semirang. He really looked like Dewi Candra Kirana. He was so sure that Panji Semirang was Dewi Candra Kirana!

Raden Inu could not find Panji Semirang anywhere. He finally arrived in Galenggang kingdom. The people there were restless. A group of thieves were stealing their property. Raden Inu and his guards helped the people. They were fighting with the tieves.

Raden Inu and his guards won the fight. The thieves ran away.

The king of Gelanggang kingdom was happy. To honour his great help, he held a party. He asked a poet to perform. His name was Jaka Asmara. His poetry was titled A very Sad Love Story. Raden Inu was touched. He felt that the poetry was about his life.

He was looking at Raden Asmara carefully. He felt so familiar with him. Suddenly he realized that Raden Asmara was Dewi Candra Kirana. She was also under the spell. The spell broke when she met Raden Inu. They were happy. Raden Inu asked her to go to his home in Kuripan kingdom. Later, they got married and lived happily ever after.***

Dae La Minga

Folklore from West Nusa Tenggara

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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The Legend of Catu Island

Folklore from Bali

A long time ago there was a village in Bali. The people worked as farmers. One of the was Jurna. He was a diligent farmer. He always had a great harvest. However he was never satisfied. He wanted to have better and better harvest.

"I will promise to gods. If they give me better harvest than I have now, I will give them offerings and I will share the harvest to the neighbors," said Jurna to his wife.

"I agree, But remember, you have to keep your promise," said his wife.

Soon, Jurna had better harvest. He had more rice than he had before. He was happy. And as promised, he prepared offerings to the gods and he also shared to his neighbors. They were very happy.

Jurna was not satisfied. He wanted to have better and better and more harvest. Therefore he promised to gods that he would double his offerings and his sharing to the neighbors.

His wish came true. His harvest was much better than before. The other farmers were amazed. They were also very thankful because he shared his harvest to them.

One day, Jurna went to his rice field. When he arrived, he saw a pile of soil on the ground. It looked like a catu. Catu was made of coconut shell. People used catu to measure the amount of rice. At home, Jurna talked about a soil which looked like a catu to his wife. She had an idea.

"Let's make catu from rice," she said. Jurna agreed. Later they formed the rice just like catu. On the following day, Jurna went to his rice field. He saw the soil catu was getting bigger.

"Hmm...I will make rice catu bigger than this," said Jurna himself. He asked his wife to make bigger rice catu. He felt very satisfied. He wanted to show his rise catu to his neighbors. He hoped that his neighbors would prise him as a rich man. And they did! All the neighbors praised him. Jurna became arrogant. On the next day, Jurna went to his rice field. He hoped the soil catu were not getting bigger and bigger. But he was wrong. Strangely, the soil catu was bigger.

"Don't worry, I have much rice. I can make rice catu bigger," said Jurna arrogantly. While he was making the rice catu, he was thinking how the neighbors would prise him.

And his wish came true. All the neighbors were so amazed by the size of the rice catu. They all said that Jurna was very rich. Jurna became more arrogant.

Then Jurna went to his rice field. He hoped the soil catu would stop growing. But he was wrong. Again, it became much bigger than before. Jurna was really upset. He made rice catu bigger than before.

It always repeated. Every time he went to his rice field he always found the soil catu became bigger and bigger.

His wife always reminded him to stop making rice catu. She said that their stock was getting lesser and lesser. She asked him to stop wasting the rice.

But Jurna ignored her. He was only thinking how he could make his rice catu bigger than the soil catu. Soon he lost all of his rice. He became poor. He regretted his bad behaviour. Meanwhile the soil catu became very big. It was like a hill. People then named it as Catu Hill or Bukit Catu. ***