Tibetan Folk Tales
A lot of the stories in the second half of this unit are not the happiest, but I still found enjoyment. The stories of animals doing bad things are not as bad as if people were doing them. This is because they are each other's food.
So far from this unit, it seems Lions and Tigers are only portrayed as dumb and powerful. On the other hand, Rabbits are quite the evil tricksters. The Rabbit knew his life would surely end if he did not lie to the Lion, so he made up a lie about a devil in the water that wanted to fight the Lion. The Lion went to fight this "devil" and saw his reflection, which he thought was the devil. Instead of telling the Lion it was just his reflection, he started shouting it was the devil, and the Lion drowned himself like a fool.
I really enjoyed this story because the greedy man gets what he deserves. The greedy man is terrible and breaks the legs of birds with an arrow and nurses them back to health just so he can get a golden squash to make him money. To the man's surprise when he opens the squash, he was taken by the neck and killed by a fierce old man. Money really is not worth it if you have to do terrible things to get it.
A Rabbit Story
This is another story of where a rabbit is cunning and evil, but takes it another step in this one. After his mother is killed and eaten by his neighbor mother bear, he promises himself to get revenge one day. That day comes and he shoots the mother bear's child in the ear with an arrow and kills him. Knowing the mother bear would try to find him, he convinced a nearby tiger to let him hide from her. The tiger suggested he hide in his ear, which didn't make sense to me. I doubt a rabbit could fit in a tiger's ear and even if it could, it would be extremely uncomfortable. The rabbit can't stop his trickery and decides to tell the tiger that he is eating his eyeball when it is really the roots he brought along. Interested in the taste of the eyes, the tiger asks for a taste and eats a root. The tiger then decides to eat his own eyeballs because the roots tasted so good and the rabbit promises to take care of him. Not surprisingly, the rabbit lets him do it, brings him the the edge of a cliff, and causes him to walk off the edge.
This is another story of where a rabbit is cunning and evil, but takes it another step in this one. After his mother is killed and eaten by his neighbor mother bear, he promises himself to get revenge one day. That day comes and he shoots the mother bear's child in the ear with an arrow and kills him. Knowing the mother bear would try to find him, he convinced a nearby tiger to let him hide from her. The tiger suggested he hide in his ear, which didn't make sense to me. I doubt a rabbit could fit in a tiger's ear and even if it could, it would be extremely uncomfortable. The rabbit can't stop his trickery and decides to tell the tiger that he is eating his eyeball when it is really the roots he brought along. Interested in the taste of the eyes, the tiger asks for a taste and eats a root. The tiger then decides to eat his own eyeballs because the roots tasted so good and the rabbit promises to take care of him. Not surprisingly, the rabbit lets him do it, brings him the the edge of a cliff, and causes him to walk off the edge.
No comments:
Post a Comment