(So you should stop reading now, because you KNOW I'm about to tell you an Indonesian fairy tale!)
Now you are probably curious. How bad could it really be? So here is one of my personal favorites, translated into English by yours truly. It is the legend of how Mount Tangkuban Perahu came to be (in West Java). Also, I would just like to remind you, THIS IS A CHILDREN'S STORY.
ALSO ALSO, this is your VERY LAST WARNING. STOP READING NOW!
The story begins with a god and goddess who, because of mistakes they made, were forced to spend eternity on earth. The goddess, Wayung Hyang, turned into a wild pig, and the god, Tumang, became a dog. Wayung Hyang tried to do good in the forest, and Tumang became a hunting dog for a king named Sumbing Perbangkara.
One day, King Sumbing Perbangkara went hunting in the forest. While he was there, he really needed to pee, so he peed near a tree. He didn't realize that some of his pee pooled on the leaf of a plant there. A short time later, the pig, Wayung Hyang, passed by. She was very thirsty. She saw some water on a leaf and drank it. Who would have predicted that drinking this water would impregnate her?
Several months later, the king was hunting in the forest again. It happened to be shortly after Wayung Hyang had given birth to a very beautiful baby girl. The king heard the baby crying, and he found her all alone on the forest floor. Entranced by the beauty of the child, he brought her home and raised her as his own child. He named her Dayang Sumbi.
As she grew, she became a beautiful princess. Her beauty was known throughout the land. At that time, a great war broke out. Dayang Sumbi did not like the war, and she asked her father, the king, to allow her to live in solitude, away from the kingdom. The king eventually granted her wish and sent her away with his best hunting dog, Tumang, to be her companion. Dayang Sumbi lived in a small cottage at the edge of the forest. She lived simply, and nobody knew that she was the princess. Living in solitude, she spent her hours weaving cloth.
One day, as she was weaving, she got drowsy and dropped her weaving shuttle. She felt very lazy, and didn't want to get down from her seat to retrieve the tool, so she swore in her heart that if someone would come pick it up for her, she would marry him. To her surprise, it was her companion, Tumang, who picked up the shuttle for her! Because she had to keep her promise, Dayang Sumbi married Tumang.
When the king heard what had happened, he was very embarrassed. His beautiful princess had married a dog and was already pregnant with their first child! In his shame, he banished Dayang Sumbi to the forest. Nobody besides Dayang Sumbi knew that Tumang was actually a god. Every full moon, Tumang transformed into a very handsome man.
Dayang Sumbi eventually gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. He had white skin and thick, black hair. Dayang Sumbi named him Sangkuriang. The boy grew, and was very nimble. He was a very talented archer, and one day, he asked his mother for permission to go hunting in the forest. Dayang Sumbi was craving deer heart, so she let her son go with Tumang to protect him. While he was hunting, Sangkuriang saw Wayung Hyang, the pig, cross his path. He readied his arrow. But Wayung Hyang ran and hid. Sangkuriang commanded his dog, Tumang, to find the pig. Tumang knew the pig was the goddess, Wayung Hyang, and he refused to obey Sangkuriang. He just sat and look at Sangkuriang.
Sangkuriang was very angry at Tumang. He tried to scare Tumang into obeying by pointing his arrows at him. But he accidentally released an arrow, and it sank deeply into the body of Tumang. The dog died. Sangkuriang panicked and didn't know what to do. Finally, he took Tumang's heart and brought it home to his mother. He told her it was a deer heart, like she wanted.
Dayang Sumbi happily cooked the heart, and the two of them ate it for dinner. After they finished eating, Dayang Sumbi remembered Tumang. She asked Sangkuriang where their dog was. Sangkuriang could hide the truth no longer, so he finally confessed to his mom that he had shot Tumang with an arrow and brought home his heart.
Dayang Sumbi flew into a rage! Sangkuriang had killed his own father! She grabbed a spoon and beat Sangkuriang's head with it until he was wounded very badly. Even so, the wounds in his heart were greater. He ran away from his mother's cottage.
When she realized that she had hurt her child and caused him to run away, Dayang Sumbi felt very sorry. Sangkuriang was her only child, and now her only companion as well. She was all alone. In her isolation, the gods took pity on her and granted her a long life and a beautiful, youthful face. For her whole life, she remained beautiful and never appeared to age.
Meanwhile, Sangkuriang spent his years roaming the forests. He studied with various magicians, and he gained many powers. He became great and mighty and defeated many of the spirits of the forest that he met in his wanderings. He defeated them with magic, and he became the ruler of them all.
One time, as he roamed the forest, he met Dayang Sumbi. Sangkuriang was amazed by her beauty and fell in love with her. Dayang Sumbi felt the same. Eventually, they got married. One day, Dayang Sumbi was coming her new husband's hair, and saw a big scar on his head. As she gazed upon his face, she finally realized that she had married her own son. Sangkuriang didn't know that his wife was his mother.
Dayang Sumbi tried to tell Sangkuriang that he was her son. But Sangkuriang couldn't think straight, and he forced Dayang Sumbi to stay married to him. Dayang Sumbi had to find a more subtle way to escape from the marriage. So one day, she told Sangkuriang that she would honor their marriage if he would do one thing for her - make her a lake complete with a boat in one night. Dayang Sumbi thought this would be impossible for Sangkuriang to do. And if Sangkuriang didn't uphold his end of the deal, then the marriage would be over. Dayang Sumbi thought that Sangkuriang wouldn't even try. But unexpectedly, he did!
That night, Sangkuriang worked on making a lake and boat. He used a tree to make the boat, and then he called the spirits of the forest to help him build the lake. Dayang Sumbi saw his progress halfway through the night, and she grew scared. The lake was nearly finished! She took the cloths she had woven and spread them out to the east. She prayed to the gods to cause Sangkuriang to fail. The gods heard her prayers. The cloth she had spread out began to glow red. The glow caused the roosters to wake up, and they began to crow, thinking it was already morning. The spirits of the forest heard the roosters crowing and, thinking that it was morning, disappeared into the earth. Sangkuriang was left alone to finish building the lake, but he felt that he had been tricked, and he grew very angry.
With a mighty roar, he threw the boat he had made. It flew quite a distance and landed upside down. In the blink of an eye, it changed and became Mount Tangkuban Perahu. Sangkuriang chased Dayang Sumbi, who had run away. When Dayang Sumbi saw that Sangkuriang was gaining on her, she once again asked the gods for help. They turned her into a flower. Sangkuriang searched and searched for Dayang Sumbi until he got lost in the spirit world.
The End.
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