DAE LA MINGGA (Folklore from Nusa Tenggara Barat - USA)

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

Dae La Mingga was very popular. Her beauty was spread in 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 Mingga was kind to everyone. And that included to the princess. She was very polite and treated them nicely.

All the princess thought that they had a chance to be her husband. They all thought the princess loved them. Therefor they started to compete to one another.

"Hey, you'd better leave this kingdom now. Dae La Mingga only loves me," said one prince.

"No way! She only loves me. She was very kind to me," said another prince.

MAJALENGKA (Folklore from West Java - Japan)

Ratu Ayu Panyidagan was the queen of Panyidagan Kingdom. The queen was beautiful and wise. She led the country peacefully. Many men from other kingdoms fell in love with her. However the queen was not interested in them. Actually the queen was restless. She wanted to get married and have a babby son. She wanted her child to be the next leader. She was still waiting for the right man.

The queen had a dream. A handsome man came to the kingdom. However a disaster came along with his arrival. The queen asked her advisors to interpret her dream. The advisors asked the soldiers to guard the border of the kingdom. Fortunately, there was a big river at the border. People had to cross the river if they wanted to enter the border of the kingdom. The soldiers were standing by to monitor anyone crossing the river.

Days and nights the soldiers werw standing by the river. And one day, they saw a man was rowing a sampan. The soldiers were getting ready at the river side. And when the man arrived, the soldiers ask him. "Who are you? And why are you going to our kingdom?"

"I came from Cirebon Kingdom. My king asked me to meet your queen."

The soldiers did not want to take a risk. They asked the man to return and go back home. However the man refused and the fight between them was unstoppable.

The man had great skills in martial arts. He was able to defeat the soldiers. One soldier escaped. He wanted to tell the queen that the man was coming to the palace.

The whole soldiers were protecting the queen. But the queen asked them to welcome the man. She wasreally curious why he was sent to meet her.

Later the man arrived at the palace. He talked to the queen politely.

"Your majesty, I'm here because my king sent me. Our kingdom is in great problem. People are suffering from a strange illnes. They are dying and many of them have died. The medicine to cure the illness in maja fruits that grow in your kingdom. Therefore I would like to have your kindness to give me some of the maja fruits."

The queen was silent. She was thinking very hard. She was not thinking whether she would give the fruits or not. It was not a problem for her. There were a lot of maja fruit trees in her kingdom. Giving some of the fruits would not be a problem. However she was thinking how handsome the man was. He was also powerful. He was able to defeat her soldiers. And he was also very loyal. He did his duty from his kingdom to find the fruits.

The queen then said, "You can get the fruits as many as you like. But there is one condition. You have to marry me."

"I'm so sorry, your Majesty. I cannot do that. I cannot marry you. I'm married and I have a wife," said the man.

The queen was angry. She asked the soldiers to put the man in jail. This time the man could not win the fight. There were too many soldiers fighting him.

Not long after the man was in jail, rain fell down heavily. There was also big storm! People were only staying in their houses. And in the morning sun was shining brightly, suddenly people were screaming.

"The palace is gone! The queen is gone!"

Other people were also screaming, "Maja langka! Maja langka!" It means maja fruits are rare. People were very confused. They did not know why the palace, the queen, and the maja fruits suddenly dissapeared. They kept on talking about that and later they named the palace as Majalangka. Slowly it became Majalengka.

PANJI KELARAS (Folklore from Banten - Australia)

Once upon a time, there was a king. he is very rich and had great power. However he was not happy. His only child, the prince, was not a good son. The prince had bad attitudes.
He liked to do cockfighting and gambling. Every time the prince had cock fighting. He also ignored his father's advice. Until one day, the king could not hold it anymore. He asked the prince to leave the palace and lived in the jungle. The prince knew it was his punishment. So he left the palace and went to the jungle. He had never been to the jungle before. He was very confused. He did not know where to stay.
While he was busy looking for a place to stay, he found a hut. He was so happy. He immediately knock the door, then a beautiful girl opened the door. She was an orphan. Her parents just died and now she lived alone. The prince fell in love with her. He asked her to marry him. The girl agreed and later they got married. The prince and his wife had a happy life. They got happier when the wife was pregnant.
The prince worked harder. He wanted to give the best to his baby. When the prince was working in the field, he heard that his father, the king, died. And now there was no king in the palace. The prince rushed to the palace. When his wife asked to join him, the prince forbade her. The wife was sad. She was pregnant and she was alone in the jungle. While she was sitting for the husband, and eagle flew above her. The eagle dropped an egg. It was a chicken egg. She keep the egg. And when she delivered a baby son, the egg also hatched.
She named her son Panji Kelaras. While she was working, Panji Kelaras always played with his chick, which soon grew as a cock. Meanwhile, Panji Kelaras father now was the king. However, the king did his bad behaviour again.
He liked to do cock fighting. The king's cock always won the fighting. He was not satisfied, he made a competition of cockfighting and the prize was a bag of gold. Many people brought their cocks and fought them with the king's cock. No cock should beat the king's cock. Panji Kelaras heard about the competition. He asked his mother's permission to go the palace. She gave him her blessing. She let her son go to the palace because she wanted him to meet his father, the king. When Panji Kelaras arrived at the palace he immediately gave his cock to the soldiers.
Soon, the kocks were fighting. Finally, Panji Kelaras cock won the fighting. He was so happy. The king kept his promise. He gave Panji Kelaras a bag of gold. When Panji Kelaras left the palace, the king secretly follow him. The king was surprised when Panji Kelaras went to the hut he used to stay with his wife. And he was more surprised when he saw his wife hugged Panji Kelaras. "
Who is he?" asked the king. He was jealous.
"He is you son. Where were you? I was waiting for you for long time but you never came back," said his wife.
The king regretted his mistake. He apologized to his wife and to his son. Later the king asked them to stay in the palace. And when the king died, Panji Kelaras became the king. He led the kingdom wisely.

THE CURSE of JOKO BANDUNG (Folklore from Yogyakarta)

A long time ago, there were two kingdoms. They were Pengging Kingdom and Prambanan Kingdom. The king were fighting. They were at war! Pengging's king was Joko Bandung. He was very strong and powerful. He had great martial art skill. He led the soldiers and fought bravely.
Meanwhile, Prabu Boko, the king of Prambanan sent a giant to fight against Joko Bandung. The Giants name was Bandawasa.
Bandawasa was very big. Joko Bandung was not afraid with the giant. They were fighting.. And finally Joko Bandung won the fight. Before he died, Bandawasa's spirit joined Joko Bandung's spirit. That made Joko Bandung became more powerful. He then added Bandawasa's name into his name. His name changed into Joko Bandung Bandawasa.
Joko Bandung and his soldiers were attacking the palace of Prambanan Kingdom. Joko Bandung was looking for Prabu Boko. He wanted to kill the king of Prambanan Kingdom. Joko Bandung was more powerful. He killed Prabu Boko.
Joko Bandung occupied the palace. He asked all Prabu Boko's family to gather. He met Prabu Boko's beautiful daughter. Her name was Roro Jonggrang. he fell in love with her. He wanted to marry her.
Roro Jonggrang did not want to marry him. She hated Joko Bandung. However she was afraid and did not have any courage to refuse the marriage proposal. She had an idea how to refuse the proposal.
She would ask Joko Bandung to build 1.000 temples only in one night. If he could build the temples, Roro Jonggrang would marry him. Joko Bandung agreed. He accepted the challenge. He was not worried, he would asked the genies and the spirits to help him.
Joko Bandung and his genies started to work. They build the temples one by one. Roro Jonggrang was really worried. She knew Joko Bandung could not finish building 1.000 temples before sun rose.
She was thinking very hard. She had to find a way how to stop the genies and the spirit fro building the temples. Suddenly she had an idea.
She asked all the girls to make a lot of noise by grinding the rice in the mortar. She also asked them to make fire. She hopped that the spirits and the genies would think that sun was going to rise.
It worked! The noise and the fire woke the cocks up. The cocks were crowing. The spirits and the genies thought that morning would come soon.
And they also thought the sun would rise soon. The spirits and the genies were afraid of the sunlight. They left Joko Bandung alone. Joko Bandung was very angry! He knew Roro Jonggrang was plying a trick on him.
"Why did you do that? If you do not want to marry me, why don't you just say it? You are just looking for an excuse to refuse me!" said Joko Bandung.
He continued, "You are so stubborn like a stone. I curse you to become a statue!"
Joko Bandung's magic power had changed Roro Jonggrang into a statue! Since then people named the temples that the spirit and the genies build as Sewu Temple. And the people also named the Prambanan Temple as Roro Jonggrang Temple.

PUTRI TANGGUK (Folklore from Jambi)

THERE was a village in Jambi. The people were farmers. One of them was Putri Tangguk. She lived with her husband and her children.
Putri Tangguk and her husband had a very small rice field. Amazingly, the rice field was able to harvest a lot of rice. Their harvest was always abundant. They put their harvest in their big barn. They were very happy with their life.
Putri Tangguk always helped her husband in the rice field. One day, she said that she wanted to quit helping her husband. She wanted to take care of the children and mingle with the neighbours.
In the morning, Putri Tangguk wanted to cook some rice. However she could not find any rice in the kitchen. She was surprised and she felt that she just took some rice from the barn and put it in the kitchen. Then, she went to the barn. Surprisingly, there was no rice in the barn. She immediately told her husband about the missing rice.
"Look! The rice is gone. Our rice is stolen!" said Putri Tangguk.
Putri Tangguk and her husband immediately went to the rice field. And after they finished, they brought the rice. On the way home, rain fell down heavily. The rain made the road slippery. Putri Tangguk fell down several times.
She was really upset. later, she asked her husband to put the rice on the road.
"What for?" asked the husband.
"The road is slippery. If we throw the rice on the field, we can step on it. Therefore the road is not going to be slippery. Don't worry, we have an amazing rice field right?" asked Putri Tangguk.
Although he did not completely agree with her idea, the husband still threw the rice in front of them. The idea worked. Every time they stepped on the rice, they did not fall down.
When they arrived home, their rice was only left a little. It was only enough for their dinner. However they were not worried. Tomorrow morning, they planned to go to their rice field and took a lot of rice. They planned to fill their barn.
Surprisingly when they arrived, their rice field was full of grass. There was no rice at all. They were really confused.
At night Putri Tangguk had a dream. An old man came to her and said, "You were really ungrateful. You treated us badly."
"I am one of the rice you threw away on the road. You stepped on us! The god of the rice was really angry. He decided not to give you a lot of rice anymore. You can only get a little rice," said the old man.
Putri Tangguk then woke up. She really regretted what she did. She knew it was wrong to throw away the rice but it was too late. She could only feel sorry

THE LEGEND of BIDAR COMPETITION (Folklore from South Sumatera)

Sah Denar was a rich merchant. He had a beautiful daughter. Her name was Putri Dayang Merindu. Sah Denar had a best friend. His name was Tua Adil. He was also a rich merchant. Ta Adil had a son. His name was Dewa Jaya. Dewa Jaya was a handsome man. He fell in love with Putri Dayang Merindu.

He asked his father to propose her. His father was happy. Actually both Sah Denar and Tua Adil had the same wish. They hoped the friendship would be tighter by having their children got married.

Putri Dayang Merindu was very confused. She was in a dilemma. She was an obedient girl and she never wanted to make her parents disapointed in her. But she did not love Dewa Jaya. She asked Dewa Jaya to give her unlimited time for her to think. Dewa Jaya really loved her. He did not mind waiting for her answer.

Meanwhile, there was a humble young man. His name was a farmer. He was very handsome. One day Kemala Negara was walking on the side of Musi River. He saw a comb floating in the river. The comb was very beautiful. Kemala Negara knew that the owner must be very rich.

He wanted to return it to the the owner. So he asked people around. Finally, Kemala Negara met a girl. She knew the owner. The comb belonged to Putri Dayang Merindu was the daughter of Sah Denar. Kemala Negara was not comfortable meeting Putri Dayang Merindu. So, he asked the girl to return it to Putri Dayang Merindu.

Putri Dayang Merindu was very happy to have her comb back. She lost it while she was washing her hair. Putri Dayang Merindu asked the girl to introduce her to Kemala Negara.

Later they met. Putri Dayang Merindu was so amazed with Kemala Negara. She fell in love with him. Happily, Kemala Negara also loved her. Later they continued to meet. And they secretly kept their relationship.

Kemala Negara wanted to marry Putri Dayang Merindu. He talked to her parents about had and he proposed her. Of course the proposal was rejected. Sah Denar said that Putri Dayang Merindu was engaged with Dewa Jaya. Kemala Negara was angry. He asked Dewa Jaya to compete. They agreed to have a river craft competition.

People were gathered along the side of Musi River. They were curious who would win the competition and would marry Putri Dayang Merindu. And the competition started! They started to row strongly. They both were very strong. They used their maximum power to row. And they finally reached the finish line. Who was the winner? Well, they both reached the finish line exactly at the same time.

When people approached them, they were surprised. Both of them were lying on their river crafts. They were very tired. Thay have lost their power. They were so weak. And slowly they died.

Putri Dayang Merindu was extremely sad. She never thought that it would happen like this. She said that she just want to die. She asked her parents to divide her body into two parts. One part was buried with Kemala Negara's body and one part was buried with Dewa Jaya's body. She wanted to be fair to both of them.

People were touched. To commemorate the incident, people always had a river craft competition. Bidar is from biduk lancar or swift river crafts. And the place where Putri Dayang Merindu often washed her hair was named Kampung Keramasan or Washing Hair Village.

THE PIRATE CROCODILE (Folklore from Lampung)

A long time ago, not many people dared to sail in Tulang Bawang River. A big crocodile lived there.
People believed the crocodile would eat anyone who sailing in the river.
Not far from the river, there was a village. Aminah and her parents lived there. She was a beautiful girl. One day her parents asked her to go to another village. It was across the river. Aminah was a kind daughter. She always obeyed her parents.
“Please be very careful, dear. If you see the crocodile near you, row your sampan as fast as you can,” said the mother.
“I will be careful, Mother. I will come back to you later. I promise you,” said Aminah.
Aminah then took her sampan. She rowed it slowly. She did not want to make any noise. She did not want the crocodile to hear her.
But she was wrong! The big crocodile was looking at her. The crocodile was swimming silently. Then... it attacked the sampan. It turned upside down.
Aminah was so scared.
“Help! Somebody please help me!” screamed Aminah.
Aminah was drowned. She was unconscious. When she was awake, she was inside a big cave. She stood up and looked around. She saw something shining in the dark. When she approached it, she found a lot of jewelries. She was very surprised. Suddenly she heard a voice.
“You can take those jewelries. But you have to stay with me.”
The voice was from the crocodile. It was the same crocodile that attacked her in the river. to run but she was cornered. The crocodile was right in front of her.
“Don’t be afraid. I’m not a real crocodile. I was a human. I was a pirate and always stole people’s jewelries. A witch cursed me into a crocodile. And now I keep all the jewelries here inside the cave.”
“How do you go to the river?” asked Aminah.
“There is a tunnel that connects the cave to the riverside,” explained the crocodile. He did not realize that he already broke his secret.
Aminah then pretended to agree stay inside the cave. When the crocodile was sleeping, she took the jewelries and went to the tunnel.
Finally she arrived at the riverside. She met some villagers and they helped her.
Aminah’s parents were very happy, their daughter back home. They sold all the jewelries and gave the money to other villagers. Everybody was happy, they were not poor anymore.

THE LEGEND of WATER LILY (Folklore from Central Java)

One upon a time, there was Umbul Wening Kingdom. The king was King Ranubanu. He was a wise king. He loved his people. He always took care of them. The king had a daughter. Her name was Princess Dewi Arum. She was very beautiful. Her skin was very smooth. She also smells very good. She lovedswimming and playing in the water. She often spent her time swimming in the pond.

The king was very very sad. A lot of people suffered a strange disease. Lots of them died. The king had asked the palace healers to cure the sick people. Sadly none of them could find the cure. He had an idea. He announced that he would give half of his wealth to anyone who could cure the sick people.

People from other kingdoms came. Again they could not help the people. While the king was almost hopeless, there came an old man.

He said, "Your majesty, I know how to cure them. The medicine is a beautiful flower that grows in the lake. However, not anyone can pick the flower. There has to be the most beautiful girl in the kingdom who can pick it."

The king was silent. He knew the most beautiful girl in the kingdom was his daughter. However, he was hesitant to ask his daughter to do the difficult task. Recently the princess was only staying in her room. She was not allowed to go outside of her room. The king was afraid that she would be infected by the disease. Theking knew that by asking his daughter to go outside she would risk herself. He talked to his daughter and asked her to decide.

"I will go, Father. If I am the only one who can pick the flower, yes I will go. I don't want to see our people dying," said Princess Dewi Arum.

Later, the princess left the palace. She was accompanied by the old man and some soldiers. The old man guided them to find the lake. After having a long journey, they finally found the lake. The old man and the soldiers stayed a bit far from the lake. The princess went to the lake alone. When she was standing at the side of the lake, she was amazed with the water.

The water was clear and it looked so fresh. The princess had not been swimming for a long time. She really missed spending her time playing in the water. Without waiting any longer, she jumped out and swam in the lake.

The soldiers and the old man patiently waited for the princess. They thought that she was still looking for the flower. They did not know that she was having fun swimming in the lake.

They waited for days and none dared to go to the lake. Finally, one soldier went back to the palace. He talked to the king about the princess. And the king decided to go to the lake. He was worried.

When he arrived at the lake, the king was really angry. He saw his daughter was only swimming and not looking for the flower.

"Dewi Arum!What are you doing here? You're supposed to find the flower and not swimming and having fun like this!" said the king. He was really angry.

"I...I...I am sorry, Father. I forgot," said the princess.

"You forgot? If you really want to stay in the lake, then you can stay forever!" said the king.

Amazingly, right after the king finished his sentence, the princess changed into a beautiful flower. The king was sad but it was too late. He picked the flower and gave it to the old man. The old man used the flower as the medicine and the people were all cured.

The people were very grateful. They were also thankful to God. Since then, they named the flower as teratai or water lily.

PUTRI BUNGSU AND THE DRAGON (Folklore From Aceh)

ONCE upon a time, there were two dragons lived in Aceh. The dragons were male and female, they were husband and wife. The dragons really wanted to have a child. They always prayed to God to give them a child.
One day the dragons were resting at the river side. Suddenly they saw a baby beside a basket. The basket was drifting by the current of the water.
"Myn husband, look! There is a human baby inside the basket. Let's save the baby!" said the mother dragon.
The father dragon immediately swam fast. He brought the baby to the side.
She was a baby girl. The dragons were very happy. They had a child. Although the baby was a human child, the dragons really loved her. They named her Putri Bungsu.
Days passed by, Putri Bungsu was adult. She was very beautiful. The dragons always took care of her. They also always protected her.
In mean time, putri Bungsu real parents were looking for her.
In the mean time, Putri Bungsu real parents were looking for her. There was an incident and accidentally Putri Bungsu was drifting in the river.
After years looking for her, Putri Bungsu's real parents finally found her.
"My child, thank God we finally found you. You are our daughter. We know it from the mark in your hand," said the mother.
The dragons were angry! they said Putri Bunsu was their daugter. "No! She is our daughter! We have raised her since she was a baby. We loved her and she loved us," said the mother dragon.
Putri Bungsu's real parents and the dragons were arguing. They each claimed to be Putri's Bungsu's parents and they asked Putri bungsu to stay with them.
They were arguing and they did not get any solutions. Putri Bungsu's real parents asked for help. They asked Tuan Tapa to help them. Tuan Tapa was a holy man. He also had supernatural power.
Tuan Tapa then asked the dragons to let Putri Bungsu leave and stay with her real parents. The dragons were angry. They asked Tuan Tapa not to interfere.
Tuan Tapa realized that the dragons could not negotiate. Therefore Tuan Tapa challenged them to fight.
"If you win, you can keep her. However you have to let her go and stay with her real parents if you both lose the fight," said Tuan Tapa.
"Ha ha ha...No problem! We will win the fight!"
Then Tuan Tapa and the dragons were fighting bravely. Although he was alone and had to fight with two dragons, Tuan Tapa was very brave. he used all his skills to fight them.
And finally he won the fight! The father dragon was dead. The mother dragon was very sad and angry. She knew she could not win the fight. She escaped.
The mother dragon was very angry. She wagged her tail. It broke an island into two small islands. people named the islands as Pulau Dua.
The tail also wagged another big island into many small islands. People named the island as Pulau Banyak.
While the body of the father dragon changed into a big stone.
People named it as Batu Hitam. And the blood dried into a big red stone, people named it as Batu Merah

ORIGIN of LOTUS (Folklore of West Java)

PRABU Ranubahu is the king of Umbul Wening. He had a beautiful doughter, Dewi Anum. Dewi Arum has an unusual habit. She loves to take a bath and swim in the lake. Everytime she takes a bath, she forgets about everything, food, rest, even her duties as a princess.
The king and queen often scold Dewi Arum for her habit. But she never pays attention to them. One day, Umbul Wening is stroke by a plaque. Many of its citizen die. Many physicians try to cure the people of Umbul Wening but they all fail.
Suddenly a monk comes to see the king and says he has a vision from God. According to the monk, this plaque can be cured using the plants that live in the lake located at the Krendawahanan Forest. But, there is a catch. Those plants must be taken only by Dewi Arum.
So the king orders her daughter to go to Krencawahana Forest to get the plants. Dewi Arum agrees and goes to the forest accompanied by her beloved servants, Nyai Wijen and Nyai Empul.
After a long and tiring journey, they finally arrive at the lake.
Seeing the clear and blue water, Dewi Arum jumps and take a bath in the lake. She forgets about her duty to go and get the cure for her people. Her servants try to remind her about her duties but the princess ignores them.
Back at the kingdom, Prabu Ranubahu in worried about her doughter. So, he goes after her. He is surprised to see her daughter is bathing in the lake and forget about the duties. The king furious.
"Arum?! What are you doing? Our people are dying and here you are having fun bathing in the lake. Since you enjoy beeing in the lake so much, you should become part of the lake!"
Right after the king finishes his sentence, a strange thing happens. Dewi Arum turns into a beautiful red flower. The king is surprised and sad to see what happens to her daughter. So, he picks the flower and goes back to his kingdom.
When the king arrives with the flower, the sickness that has been plaguing the kingdom is gone.
The beautiful flower that was once Dewi Arum is called lotus. It always grows in lakes

THE LEGEND of SANGKURIANG (Folklore from West Java)

According to local folklore, the formation of the Tangkuban Parahu volcano began with a young man SANGKURIANG who fell in love with his own mother, DAYANG SUMBI.
One day, when he was hunting, Sangkuriang accidentally killed his beautiful black dog (Si TUMANG). This dog is actually Sangkuriang's father who had been condemned to live the life of a dog by his GURU. However, Sangkuriang never knew it.
Sangkuriang had been separated by his mother since childhood. Yet, he was destined to meet his mother again. When on his way home, he stopped at a small village and met and fell in love with a beautiful girl. He didn't realised that the village was his homeland nor that the beautiful girl was his own sacred mother (remain young & pretty).
Their love grew naturally and one day, when they were discussing their wedding plans, Dayang Sumbi suddenly realised that the profile of Sangkuriang's head matched that of her only son's who had left twenty years earlier. How could shee marry her own son? But she did not wish to dissapoint him by cancelling the wedding. So, although she agreed to marry Sangkuriang, she would do so only on the condition that he provide her with a lake and a boat with which they could sail on the dawn of their wedding day.
Sangkuriang accepted this condition and built a lake by damming the Citarum river. Wiath a dawn just moment away and the boat almost complete, Dayang Sumbi realised that Sangkuriang would fulfill the condition she had set. With a wave of her supernatural shawl, she lit up the eastern horizon with flashes of light. Deceived by false dawn, the cock crowed and farmers rose for the new day.
With his work not yet complete, Sangkurinag realised that his endeavour were lost. With all his anger, he kicked the boat that he himself had built. The boat fell over and, in so doing become the mountain TANGKUBAN PARAHU (in Sundanese, TANGKUBAN means upturned or upside down, and PARAHU means boat). With the dam torn assunder, the water drained from the lake becoming a wide plain and nowaday became a city called BANDUNG (from the word BENDUNG, which means Dam).
[From: INDONESIA: TANGKUBAN PARAHU Booklet, published by PERUM PERHUTANI UNIT III - JAWA BARAT, KPH BANDUNG UTARA. Jl. Cirebon No. 4-A. Telephone: (022)-771142, Bandung.]

THE UNHAPPY CENDRAWASIH (Folklore from Papua)

Mr and Mrs Brown Bird lived in a jungle in Papua. Mr Brown always complains about his feathers. He thinks they were ugly. He is jealous with his friend, Mr Green Bird.

"I want to have beautiful feathers like Mr Green Bird. His feathers are not brown like mine. They are very beautiful," says Mr Brown Bird to his wife.

"Honey, you have to be grateful with your feathers. With feathers like this, humans are not interested in us. So they will not hunt us," says Mrs Brown Bird.

Mr Brown Bird then goes to the God of Jungle. "I want to have beautiful feathers like Mr Green Bird's feathers,” says Mr Brown Bird.

"Don't worry. I can make your wish comes true. Just choose one color."

"Hmm I don't know. How about red? Yellow? Green? I'm confused.

"The God of Jungle is upset. "Choose now!"

Mr Brown Bird then looks up to the sky. He has an idea. "Aha! I know which color to choose. I don't want want one color of my feathers. I want many colors. I want my feathers to be colorful like the rainbow in the sky.

"Not longer after that, Mr Brown Bird's feathers are colorful. When he goes home, his wife does not recognize him.

"Honey, it's me. I'm your husband."

"No, my husband is not like you! His feathers are brown!" says Mrs brown Bird.

Mr Brown Bird tries very hard to convince his wife realizes that he is really her husband.

"You are very stupid, my husband. Wit color like these, humans will hunt you. What if thy also take our children? Now, please go away! Our lives are in danger if you are still here," says Mrs Brown Bird. She is crying.

Mr Brown Bird is very sad. He knows he just made a very big mistake. He then lives his house. His name then changes into Cendrawasih. It means a bird of paradise.

BREAKING THE SUN (Folklore From Papua)

A long time ago, the sun did not shine too long. It was only shine for a while then it set to the west. Earth was in dark most of the time. People did not like it. There were not many things they could do during the day. They wished to see the sun shine longer.

There was one man who really hated to be in dark. His name was Rangga. Everyday he was thinking how he could make the sun shine long enough. One day, he had an idea.

"I think the sun is too big to move. If we can break it into some pieces, the sun can move quickly. Therefore we can have enough light from the sun," said Rangga to his friend.

"But, how can we break the sun?" asked one of his friend.

"We can break it by throwing a spear. But it should be a magic spear," said Rangga.

"How can we get the magic spear?" asked his friend.

"Let's meditate in the jungle. We ask the elf to guide us to find the magic spear," explained Rangga.

Then Rangga and his friends meditated in the jungle. It was not an easy thing to do. They weredisturbed by wild animals. Luckily they had strong concentration. They were safe from the animals. After a while, an alf finally came to them.

"What do you want my child?" asked the elf.

"We want to break the sun. We need to find a magic spear," explained Rangga.

"Hmm...the magic spear belongs to the great thief. You have to fight him and grabs the spear from him," said the elf.

Rangga and his friends understood. They knew about the great thief. They heard that he had a supernatural power. Luckily the elf had also given them the supernatural power to fight against the great thief.

Rangga and his friends were looking for the great thief. They finally found him. At first Rangga nicely asked the great thief to give him the spear, but of course the thief refused.

"Why should I give you the spear so you can break the sun? I love darkness. I can steal easily, ha...ha...ha..."said the thief.

Rangga and his friends knew they did not have other choice. Then they were fighting. Thanks to the supernatural power given by the elf, Rangga and friends won the fight.

Finally Rangga held the magic spear. He held it firmly. He did not want to waste the time. He wanted to throw the spear and break the sun.

Rangga concentrated and threw the spear with great power towards the sun. And it worked! The sun was breaking into some pieces. The biggest piece became a moon and the small pieces became the stars.

Since then, the sun shines long enough. And when it set to the west, the earth was not completely in the dark. The moon and the stars gave people enough light.