Saturday 20 February 2021

A Folk Tale of the Dolphin (Irrawady Dolphins in Kratie-Kampi)

Local Lore Stories in South East Asia is always intriguing. ^^ ... 

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Once upon a time, there lived a Theveda (A male Angel) on a huge scared tree and a girl in a nearby village.

The Thevada fall in love with the girl when he saw her bringing food to the spiritual tree to pray for happiness in her family and her community.

This was because he was her husband in their past lives.

The Thevada attempted to meet her again, but he could only go to her house during the night and had to transform himself into a python

The girl was frighten when she saw the snake for the first time, so Thevada decided to show her his real appearance and told her about their connections in the previous lives.

The Thevada python visit the girl every night until the girls parents discovered them together.

The Thevada described his story to them and guided them to a treasure location

The family found the treasure and became a rich household in the village.

The story of a girl getting married to a python and becoming rich spread rapidly to other village.

In another remote village, there was an envious couple with a daughter which heard the rumour and intended to replicate it.

Therefore, they decided to marry their daughter to a python too.

The father went to the forest and found a starving wild python.

He excitedly brought it home.

A wedding of the daughter and the snake groom was celebrated and attended by many relatives and friends of the family.

However, many guest were surprised at this wedding.

When night came, the bride was left alone with the hungry snake.

The python started swallowing's it’s prey, the girl.

She shockingly shouted out for help, but she was ignored by her parents

After a while, the parents became suspected when they no longer heard the voice of their daughter.

They immediately found only the snake with its enlarged body in the room.

They cut open the python to save their daughter.

Luckily, the girl was still alive, but sadly her body was contaminated with fishy smell remained.

She was so embarrassed and upset.

Hopelessly, she decided to kill herself by throwing herself into the river.

Suddenly her body turned into a dolphin and begin swimming in the river.

It was believed that the dolphin has existed since then.

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The local Lore of Irrawady Dolphins 



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