Folktales from Malaysia

Folktale is also called folk story or folk tale. Folktale is a very old traditional story from a particular place that was originally passed on to people in a spoken form. It is considered to be false or based on superstition. Folktales from different countries show different themes. They can be themes of beauty, brotherly love, cleverness, disobedience, greed, happiness, love, lying, patience, and helping people.

The Son of The Turtle Spirit, a folktale from China, shows the theme of love. The turtle when caught the first sight of the daughter of a nobleman, he fell deeply in love with her. And because of the power of love, he, at any will, turned himself into a young man to court her. When he died, the mistress, wept out of sadness. She couldn't bear to leave her husband's bones to lie and rot. She later commanded her seven-year-old son to put his father's bones in the dragon's mouth. She loved her husband and she wanted the best spot to bury his bones as well. The son, respected and loved his mother, obeyed her and followed her instructions. Eventually, he became the Emperor.

Below are three well-known folktales from Malaysia, of different themes.

1. Young Man Shows True Love (Theme: Love)

    Retold by K. Y. Chin

This is the story of a young man's true love for his girlfriend, who he loved so much that he was brave enough to risk his life, fighting a dragon.

Two hundred years ago, there was a princess named May Yee. She was born in Malaysia. She wanted to get married to a young man, but he was very poor.

Her mother was very angry because she wanted to marry the young man. Her mother said, "Are you sure you want get married to him? You know, you are the prettiest girl in world." To that the princess said, "I know him. He is a good man. He loves me very much, and I love him too."

One day, a fierce dragon appeared in their town. It killed a lot of the villagers. Then the Queen said whoever killed the dragon would get his wish granted by her. The young man said to the Queen that he would go. After that, he took a sword and went to kill the dragon. He was afraid, but he wanted to marry the princess. He said to her, "Don't worry about me. I plan to kill the dragon. After that we can get married." Then he went to kill the dragon.

The dragon was very strong, and they fought a great battle. Fortunately, the young man killed the dragon, but not before the dragon injured his hand and leg. The princess was so happy that she cried.

After that the queen agreed they could get married, and they became a couple.

This story tells about a young man who loved his girlfriend so much that he would do anything for her. He didn't even care if he would die.


2. Outwitting a Crocodile (Theme: Cleverness)
    Retold by Chok Yoon Foo from Malaysia

Sang Kancil is a clever, tricky mouse deer who is always finding himself in predicaments with animals that want to eat him or harm him, but he cleverly manages to escape each time. In this story, Sang Kancil outwits a big, bad crocodile.

Sang Kancil was a clever mouse deer. Whenever he was in a bad situation, he always played a clever trick to escape. In this story, Sang Kancil outwitted Sang Buaya, a big, bad crocodile, who wanted to eat him. There were many trees where Sang Kancil's lived along the river, so he never had trouble finding food. There were always lots of leaves. He spent his time running and jumping and looking into the river.

Sang Buaya, the big bad crocodile, lived in the river with other crocodiles. They were always waiting to catch Sang Kancil for dinner. One day when Sang Buaya was walking along the river, he saw some delicious fruit on the trees on the other side the river.

Sang Kancil wanted to taste the tasty-looking fruit because he was a little tired of eating leaves. He tried to think of a way to cross the river, but he had to be careful. He didn't want to be caught and eaten by Sang Buaya. He needed to trick Sang Buaya.

Sang Kancil suddenly had an idea He called out to the crocodile, "Sang Buaya! Sang Buaya!" Sang Buaya slowly came out of the water and asked Sang Kancil why he was shouting his name. He asked Sang Kancil, "Aren't you afraid I will eat you?" Then he opened his big mouth very wide to scare Sang Kancil.
 Sang Kancil said, "Of course, I am afraid of you, but the king wants me to do something. He is having a big feast with lots of food, and he is inviting everyone, including you and all the other crocodiles. But first, I have to count all of you. He needs to know how many of you will come. Please line up across the river, so I can walk across your heads and count all of you."

Sang Buaya was excited and left to tell the other crocodiles about the feast with all the good food. Soon, they came and made a line across the river. Sang Kancil said, "Promise not to eat me because or I can't report to the king how many of you are coming. They promised not to eat him.

Sang Kancil stepped on Sang Buaya's head and counted one. Then he stepped on the next one and said, "Two." He stepped on each crocodile, counting each one, and finally reached the other side of the river. Then he said to Sang Buaya,"Thank you for helping me to cross the river to my new home."

Sang Buaya was shocked and angry. He shouted at Sang Kancil, "You tricked us! There is no feast, is there?" All of the crocodiles looked at Sang Buaya angrily. They were angry because he let Sang Kancil trick all of them.

Sang Kancil loved his new home on the other side of the river because he had a lot of tasty food to eat. Poor Sang Buaya was not so lucky. After that, none of the other crocodiles ever talked to him again.

3. The Story of the Coconut Tree (Theme: Disobedience)

    Retold by Nurhayani Abu Bakar from Malaysia

This is the story of a beautiful moon princess, but it is also a story about bamboo, a plant which was once believed to be sacred.

There was once an old man. He was very, very old. Some people said he was a thousand years old! He was also very wise and he knew many things. Many people came to visit him in his cave near the sea. They always asked him to help them.

One day, a young man came to see this wise old man. "O wise father," said the young man, "I want to be useful to people. I want to serve them all my life. How can I do this?"

"That's very good," said the old man. "Here is a magic box. Do not open it until you reach home. If you open it now something will happen to you.

"Thank you, wise father," said the young man. He took the box and left. When he was out of the cave, he stopped. "I wonder what is in the box?" he said to himself. "I'm going to look."

He opened the box and at once he turned into a tall tree—a coconut tree. That was his punishment for disobeying the old man, but his still had his wish because the coconut tree is very useful to people.

How are the stories? Very familiar, especially the Sang Kancil and Sang Buaya, isn't it?