SOUTH ASIAN FOLKLORE

Vessantara Jataka

Cambodian folklore

When Gautama Buddha visited his father's kingdom for the first time after he achieved the supreme enlightenment, arrogant elders of the ruling dynasty denied to respect as they were older than 'Siddhartha Rajakumar'. The Buddha made a miracle by appearing in the air above his relatives. His father was the first to bow down and admitted that this was his third time to pay respect to his own son. Members of the dynasty then bowed down and accept the religion. Suddenly, rain clouds gathered and a red-drop rain appeared. This miracle led to his followers' question of 'what is this rain?'. He then explained that there was once that this rain appear, way back to his last life before his present life. Hence;he told the story of King Vessantara, his previous life.

King Vessantara was the son of Sañjaya, king of Sivirattha (Sivi-Rashtra), and was born in the capital city of Jatuttara as a Bodhisatta.
His mother; according to the belief, was a princess who made a great merit with a wish to become a mother of a future Bodhisatta who will be the next Buddha. After she died the princess ascended to the Celestial Kingdom and became one of God Indra's consort. She lived happily until the day she had to rebirth again as human. Indra gave her 10 boons and one of them was 'Let me become the mother of Bodhisatta, who in his next life will achieve enlightenment'. She descended to human world, was born to the court of a king, and later married to King Sañjaya.On the last day of her pregnancy, the Queen wished to sightsee the capital city. Her husband granted her that wish. She visited several district and people were delight by their queen. Until she was in the merchant quarter that she needed an emergency deliver at the bazaar, the heart of the city. Hence; the new-born prince and heir was named Vessantara, which mean 'Born in the merchant quarter'. As soon as he opened his eyes, the infant-prince asked his mother for money to give to the poor. One the same day; a female elephant brought her new born cub to the royal palace. The cub was pure white.

Vessantara grew up to be a kind person and willing to give away his belonging to others. His parents were delighted by their son's character and supported the prince's charity with their treasures. Vessantara married princess Maddi. They had 2 children: the Prince Jali and the Princess Kanhajina. Sañjaya retired and Vessantara was crowded King.

One day Vessantara gave away the magical white elephant which brought rain to his kingdom to envoys from Kalinga, a neighboring country which was facing a drought. The citizens of Vessantara's kingdom were distressed by the fear of drought because of the loss of the elephant. Thus, they convinced King Sanjaya to resume control of the kingdom and banish his son Vessantara.

The former king readily gave away his kingdom to his father. Before leaving the city and going to live in the forest as a hermit with his wife Maddi and their two children, he also gave away his wealth.
One of his loyal courtiers suggested that the family should live at Vamka Mountain. They left the city on a four-horse chariot. Along the way; Vessantara gave away his horses and four deities appeared in stags form to pull the chariot. Then he gave away his chariot (stags disappeared) The family walked on foot through a forest. The young prince and princess saw wild fruits hung on high branches but their parents could not reach those fruit. Miraculously; all trees bended their branches for them.

The family then arrived at their neighbour's kingdom, Ceti. King of Ceta was informed of their arrival and rushed to greet the prince. He was touched by their story and offered his throne but the prince denied, they also denied to stay in a palace. King of Ceta ordered a hunter to patrol the entrance to Vamka Mountain, to prevent anyone to disturb the family.

Meanwhile Jujaka, a greedy old Brahmin who lived as a beggar, had a very young wife, Amittada, who was also very beautiful and hard-working. During the drought Amittada used to regularly bring water from the well for her old husband, and the husbands of the other women in the village put her as an example of a good industrious wife. Jealous of her, one day all the village women gathered by the well and beat up the Brahmin's young wife, tearing her clothes.

From that day onwards the girl stubbornly refused to go to the well any longer. Amittada harassed Jujaka telling him to find her some servants in order to spare her more ridicule. She didn't give her husband any peace.

Jujaka met the hunter and tricked him. He met a rishi and also tricked him as well. Finally the Brahmin Jujaka went to the forest to prince Vessantara at a moment that his wife Maddi was away. He asked him for his two children, which Vessantara readily gave away. Jali and Kanha went to hid in a lotus pond. Their father found them and asked if they will help their father achieve his highest goal. Both agreed and became Jujaka's slaves. Vessantara told the Brahmin to bring his children to their grandfather, "The king will reward you for bringing their beloved grandchildren back to them". Jujaka disagreed, stating the Sunjaya will execute him for this. The Brahmin tied both children with vines and dragged them like cattle. Both children begged their father to help them while the old man scolded and beat them with his stick. Vessantara could not stand this scene and reached for his weapon he kept in his hut. However; he overcame all anger and let his children be taken away.

Maddi's return passage to their resident was blocked by tigers (gods in disguise). When she didn't see her children, she wandered around all night looking for them and finally collapsed before her husband. Vessatara thought she was death so he lamented of his lost. He put her head on his laps and realised that she still breath. He revived Maddi with water. She woke up and rose immediately as the couple had take a celibacy vow and will not touch each other. Vessantara told her the truth and Maddim after she had learnt that her husband gave away their children, she praised him for his greatness.

Fearing that Vessantara would have given away his wife as well, God Indra intervened and in disguise, asked for his wife Maddi, which Vessantara readily gave him as well. Then Indra gave Vessantara Maddi back as a trust, for all his acts of benevolence and generosity had been perfect.

A god and a goddess felt sympathy to young prince and princess. They disguised as their parents and helped nursing Jali and Kanha. They made Jujaka took a wrong turn and led him to Sivi Kingdom, finally, through the palace gate. King Sanjaya saw two familiar faces and ordered royal guards to bring them to him. He recognized his grandchildren and paid for their price. Kanha price was higher than her brother as her father want no one to buy her from Jujaka. In fact, both Jali and Kanha's price are so high that only the wealthy king Sanjaya of Sivi can pay.

Jujaka became extremely rich. At his first meal as a richman, he ate too much. His digestive system failed and he died upon his plate. King Sanjaya sent his men to find Jujaka's family to inherit his wealth; however, his wife and in-laws were too afraid of the punishment for Jujaka's treason so they escaped.

Sanjaya arranged a grandeur procession to meet his sons and daughter-in-law. Kalinga Kingdom also return the white elephant after Kalinga became prosperous again, which lifted Sivi people anger. Jali led the army and men to his parents residence and the family reunited. After the most happy moment, all six of them collapsed.

Heaven poured the red rain, which will 'soak one who want to be soaked, will not soak those who want to stay dry' (same red rain to the beginning) , to revive them. Vessantara was crowned as king again and returned to his Kingdom. Indra blessed Sivi Kingdom with a seven-gem rain. Vessantara allowed people to keep those gems for themselves and the leftover will went to the Kingdom treasury which he will use for his charity. He was also given a boon of never run out of treasure for his charity.

Lord Buddha explained that each figure had rebirth as people surrounded him. His parents were Vessantara's parents. Maddi was reborn as his former wife. Jali became Rahul, his son. Kanha became Ubolvanna, the Bhikuni (female monk). The loyal courtier who informed him of the place he should stay became Anada, his cousin and attendant. Jujaka became Devadutt, his arch enemy. The white elephant became Maha Kassapaya.

Puthisan Neang Kong Rei

Once Upon a time, There was a Rich man who turned to a poor man because of his Twelve daughters, So he abandoned his daughters in a deep forest. There the giant Neang Santema took the 12 foundlings to be the servants of her daughter, Kong Rei.
Eventually tiring of the toil of their lives under the terrifying giants, the 12 fled their bondage and made their way to a neighboring kingdom where they were wed en masse to its king, Preah Bath Rothasith. But the giant Santema was unwilling to allow the dozen former servants of her daughter to live in even the relative freedom that polygamous relationships of the time allowed. Instead, Santema concealed her identity - not a small matter considering her physical stature and reputation - and charmed Rothasith into making her his 13th wife. Once she had gained the trust and sympathy of her new husband, Santema feigned a deadly illness, one that all the doctors and medicines of her husband failed to cure.Santema capitalized on Rothasith's growing desperation and informed him that only a potion concocted from the eyeballs of her 12 pregnant co-wives would save her life. Entranced by Santema's wiles, Roth-asith ordered his soldiers to carve out the eyes of 11 of the 12 women, with wife Neang Pov allowed to keep one of her eyes. After their ritual mutilation, the now blind or nearly blind women were confined in a cave, where they were forced to consume their newly born children one by one. Only one-eyed Neang Pov was allowed to let her son, Puthisan, survive. In the darkness of the cave with his blind, grief-crazed aunts, Sen quietly fortified himself with dreams of revenge as he nourished himself with the flesh of his dead cousins.
When he became an adult, the evil Santema began to fear the consequences if Puthisan became King. To circumvent any possible acts of revenge by Sen, Santema sent him a letter instructing him to use it for passage into the Forest of Giants. In fact, the letter was a death warrant that stated "When Pothisan arrives, eat him".

But the letter was cunningly altered by a hermit living in the forest to read : "When Puthisan arrives, marry him to my daughter."

Thus when Pothisan entered the Forest of Giants, the letter was read and its instructions obeyed by the sentinel giants. Unbeknownst to Santema, her beloved daughter Kong Rei became the adoring wife of her greatest enemy.

After their married, Kong Rei had told Puthisan all about the magic thing in her Kingdom including the Eyeballs that belonged to Puthisen's mother and aunts. Predictably, rather than fulfilling his conjugal duties Puthisen took advantage of his new position to steal back the eyeballs of his long-suffering aunts along with some magical potions designed to facilitate his escape. When a stricken Kong Rei attempted to pursue Sen, he used the magical potion to turn the land between them into water, allowing him to flee. Kong Rei cried and begged him to come back to live with her but he refused cause he should thought of his mother stronger than wife. Kong rei cried until she died and became the Mountain called Kong Rei Mountain at Kampong Chhnang.
When he arrived in his kingdom, he made his mother and aunts have their eyeballs again and killed Santema. Finally, Putisan, his mother and aunts lived happily in the royal palace with Santema's body turned to stone and abandoned in the deep forest.