Reading Diary A: Tibetan Folktales

Tibetan Folktales

The Tiger and The Frog: There was a tiger who hadn't eaten for days. When he went hunting, he found a clever little frog who planned on eating. The frog challenged the tiger to see who could jump farther across the river. When the tiger was preparing to jump the frog grabbed hold of the tiger's tail with its mouth and sailed across with the tiger, letting go and landing further along the bank. The frog challenged the tiger to another challenge to vomit. The tiger could only throw up some water but the frog threw up some tiger hair that it had just swallowed. The frog explained that it had eaten a tiger the day before and the tiger went running. He ran into a fox who coaxed him into going back to the frog. They tied their tales together so that they couldn't run away. The frog asked the fox if he had brought the tiger as an offering and the tiger went running with the fox dragging along.

The Donkey and The Rock: There was king who ruled the land very fairly. There were also two very hardworking men who cared for their mothers. One was going to town selling some oil from a jar. He grew tired and sat down to rest. The other man was taking his donkey and two loads of wood to the market. The donkey was walking too close to the road and accidentally knocked over the jar of oil and broke it. The men quarreled over whose fault it was and took the argument to the king. The king decided to have a ruling and had the donkey chained and sent for the rock who was also to blame. People from all over came to see the case because they thought the king was crazy. When they arrived, he shamed them for coming to see a silly case and had them pay a half-cent before leaving. The money was collected and given to the man with the broken jar.

(Donkey and the Rock, Source: UnTextbook)

Covetousness: A bear was killed by a trap and when a fox was greedy and tried breaking the trap, it was killed too. A bunny was hopping around an elephant and it decided to hop around too. When the elephant was jumping around, a rock fell on it and it died. Seven robbers came by and saw the three dead animals and sat down to eat. Three were sent to get water from over the mountains. The four who remained were greedy and decided to poison the meat so that they could have the meat and ivory for themselves. The three who were fetching the water decided to poison the water because they were doing all the work. When they returned, the four men  gulped down the water and they died. The three men now had everything to themselves and ate the poisoned meat. They soon died as well. Everybody was greedy and ended up dead.