Three Underrated Indonesian Folktales that Teach Us a Little More About Life
Among the many aspects that
determine contemporary life, popular culture – in particular, American popular
culture – is without a doubt one of the most omnipresent and abiding feature. Certain
fairy tales like Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid and
Cinderella have been told and retold so often in many parts of the
world that they’re deeply etched in all of our minds. They are inherent,
and it is safe to say that everybody knows what they are.
Beauty and the Beast, which
remains renowned as a full-length animated film, has even been recreated by
Disney as a live action fantasy movie due to come out in March.
But while so much effort
and dedication is devoted to reproducing these treasured tales, there are a
multitude of other Indonesian, complex and culturally fraught folktales out
there that we’re truly missing out on. These tales might lack attention, but
they are not merely unrecognized yarns that we’ve never heard about—they are
infinite, fascinating and unconventional variations of those excessively
commercialized popular tales we’re used to hearing or watching. They tell us
more than what their narrative suggests and provides us with guiding morals and
meaning that we, as readers, can relate with throughout our whole lives.
That being said, the following are
three Indonesian folktales unique in their own ways.
‘Princess Sumur Bandung’
In discussing this Indonesian
folktale, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED Talk entitled “We Should All Be
Feminists” comes to mind. In her discourse, she asserted, "We raise
girls to see each other as competitors — not for jobs or for accomplishments,
but for the attention of men."Princess Sumur Bandung, which
originates from West Java, transgresses that very female stereotype that
Adichie censures in her monologue.
In the story, Princess Sumur
Bandung of Bintung Wulung captures a big white buffalo on her own. The
buffalo was believed to help thekingdom of Kutawaringin get out
of its wretched state and return into its former state of greatness. As
mentioned in the narrative, Sumur Bandung “wished to help the unfortunate
neighboring country. She felt it was her duty to help other human beings who
suffered. She was known among her people for her advanced way of thinking and
attitude, not like other princesses of royal or noble descent.”
Despite the buffalo-catching
competition being only open to males in the society, Princess Sumur Bandung
went out of her way to find one and gained recognition after she succeeded and
eventually allowing her take over the throne of kingdom Kutawaringin. Hence,
what sets this story apart from other fairytales is that the female protagonist
stayed true to her convictions and exceeded her own as well as everybody’s
expectations.
The moral that the story carves
out for its readers is that of immense determination. It provides us an
ending that is much more than the mainstream happily-ever-after where
princesses get liberated and finally get to marry the man they rightfully love.
Instead, it gives us real closure and a resolution that the main character is pursuing
a responsibility that she is passionate about because her hard work deems that
she deserves it.
‘Cindelaras’
Bearing a striking similarity to
‘Cinderella’ in terms of name, but not plot, this Indonesian folktale that
originated from East Java unravels a story of Prince Cindelaras and
his adept rooster.
Cindelaras was the son of the
Queen of the Jenggala kingdom who was sent away to the jungle by the king
because his jealous concubine told him that the queen was plotting to
poison him when she was actually innocent. Nonetheless, the king was unaware
that when he disposed of the queen, she was pregnant with Cindelaras. Growing
up in the woods with his mother, Cindelaras stumbled upon an egg, which hatched
into a chick that became a strong rooster.
The rooster was skillful and
would triumph over fights with other roosters. It would even sing a certain
song which revealed that Cindelaras was the son of the king, Raden Putra. After
hearing the song, Cindelaras confronted his mom and asked her about his father
whom he subsequently went on a mission to meet.
Allowing his rooster to triumph
over fights with other roosters along the way, King Raden Putra heard about
Cindelaras’ rooster’s adeptness and asked him to put their roosters
together in a fight. Predictably, Cindelaras’ rooster won and sung his song,
which made the king find out that he was his son. King Raden Putra, the Queen
and Cindelaras was then unified once again as a family after it was found out that
the queen never did try to poison the king. The concubine was later sent to
jail for deceiving Raden Putra.
The messages that are important
to take home from this folktale are that unjust conspiracies will somehow be
revealed in the future and what is rightfully yours will find its way back to
you. There is also an overarching theme of karma and the karmic cycle, in that it
strongly supports the basic premise of “as you sow, so shall you reap”, which
is why the immoral concubine went to jail at the end of the story. Last, it
tells us that no matter how many curveballs life throws at us, there will
always be a light at the end of the tunnel.
‘Ringkitan and the Cuscus’
The story of Ringkitan
and the Cuscus explains that women in fairy tales aren't the most
beautiful or the "fairest of them all" and that men aren't always
handsome and "the bravest in all the land". In short, it could teach
the all-singing, all-dancing, damsels-in-distress and square-jawed heroes— that
are often projected in Disney animations—a thing or two.
In the story, Ringkitan—who
has eight older sisters, agrees to marry a Cuscus (a type of possum).
Contrary to what her sisters believed, Ringkitan was strong in her opinion that
“he may be a cuscus, but he is kind and loving”. All her other sisters were
asked to marry the cuscus but rejected the offer because they thought they were
too beautiful for him. Her sisters perpetually teased her for marrying him but
after a while Ringkitan finds out that her husband is actually a handsome young
man who is just disguising as a cuscus. She confronts her husband about this
and he comes clean to her revealing his true human form to her and telling her
that his name is actually Kusoi.
Envious of their sister’s good
fortune in marrying Kusoi, Ringkitan’s eight sisters plot to get rid of her by
hanging her from a tree with her own hair. Ringkitan eventually finds a way out
and tells Kusoi, after he comes back from a work trip, that her sisters tried
to kill her. Thinking that Ringkitan is no longer alive, her sisters are made
to confess of their misdoing by Kusoi later that night during dinner. In the
end, Ringkitan and Kusoi live a life of happiness and no disturbance.
In retrospect, this particular
tale teaches us how it is perfectly fine to be imperfect, and how being modest
does the trick. Moreover, it suggests the need to be more agreeing and less
stubborn as we lead our lives. This is because opportunities that come our way
might seem intimidating and hard to accept at first, but we might learn to
enjoy it in the future. Thus, if we neglect them, we might start regretting—
just like how Ringkitan’s sisters did—and they manifested their remorse in the
form of their jealousy and misdeeds.
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