The book 'Fascinating Folktales of Thailand' is written with the aim of sharing ancient Thai stories with the rest of the world. Since the world is becoming smaller day by day, to know more about another countries’ culture and traditional values is a great asset. It is to be noted that while some stories are just folktales passed down by word of mouth, some stories such as Sriprach (not published on Chicky Net) have been mentioned in the Thai historical records as well. The stories have been translated and retold in English by the Thai author. From the 42 folktales, 5 are published here on Chicky Net.
Fascinating Folktales of Thailand
Chadchaidee, Thanapol (Lamduan)
1. The Rabbit and the Crocodile
Once upon a time the rabbit used to have a long and beautiful tail similar to that of the squirrel and at that time the crocodile also had a long tongue like other animals on earth.
Unfortunately, one day while the rabbit was drinking water at the bank of a river without realizing possible danger, a big crocodile slowly and quietly moved in. It came close to the poor rabbit. The crocodile suddenly snatched the small creature into its mouth with intention of eating it slowly.
However, before swallowing its prey, the crocodile threatened the helpless rabbit by making a loud noise without opening its mouth. Afraid as it was, the rabbit pretended not to fear approaching death and shouted loudly.
“A poor crocodile! Though you are big, I’m not afraid of you in the least. You threatened me with a noise not loud enough to make me scared because you didn’t open your mouth widely.”
Not knowing the rabbit’s trick, the furious crocodile opened its mouth widely and made a loud noise. As soon as the crocodile opened its mouth, the rabbit jumped out fast and its sharp claws snatched away the crocodile’s tongue. At the moment of sharp pain, the crocodile shut its mouth at once as instinct had taught it to do.
At the end of the episode, the rabbit lost its beautiful tail while the crocodile lost its long tongue in exchange for its ignorance of the trick. From then on, the rabbit no longer had a long tail while the crocodile no longer had a long tongue as other animals. For fear of danger from a crocodile, the rabbit never again drank water from the river or the canal. It has opted to drink dewdrops on the grass leaves instead.
The morale is: People should not provoke people and if they do so, they will get revenged.
2. Phikul Thong
Once upon a time there was a beautiful woman named Phikul. She was said to have not only physical beauty but good behaviour as well. Her mother died while she was very young. So she was looked after by her step-mother who also had a daughter named Mali. It was very unfortunate that both the mother and her daughter were wicked women. They forced Phikul to work hard every day.
One day after the job of pounding rice was finished, Phikul went to fetch water from a stream which was not far from home. On the way back, an old woman suddenly appeared in front of Phikul and asked water from her to drink. Phikul was very pleased to be able to help the old woman. She gave her water and told her to take more water to wash her face and body so as to refresh herself. Phikul told her not to worry if the water was not enough, she would go and bring it more.
The old woman smiled and said, “You’re beautiful and kind at heart. Even though I am poor and look shabby, you still treat me nicely.”
After praising Phikul with kind words, the old woman then gave a wish to her and by this virtue, the golden flowers of bullet wood (Tanjong tree or Mimusops), known in Thai as Phikul, would come out from her mouth whenever she felt sympathy for anyone or anything. Immediately after granting this wish to Phikul, the old woman disappeared in front of her eyes. Phikul knew at once that the woman was surely an angel in disguise who had come down to earth to grant her a wish.
After returning home late, she was scolded by her step-mother who thought that she had gone astray just to avoid daily work. Phikul thus told the whole story to her and feeling sympathy, many golden flowers of the bullet wood came out from her mouth.
The greedy step-mother quickly changed her mood from anger to greed and rushed to grasp them all while cajoling Phikul to speak more to satisfy her greed.
From that day onwards, the step-mother collected as many golden flowers as possible to sell in the market and got a lot of money. All of them now lived a happy life. Phikul did not need to work so hard as before but she was forced to speak the whole day so that more golden flowers would come out from her mouth.
Exhausted by her step-mother’s greedy demands, Phikul got a soar throat and became voiceless. She could not speak for a while. The situation upset her step-mother so much so that she started beating Phikul, trying to force her to speak but Phikul could not utter even a single word.
To satisfy her greed, the step-mother decided to send her own daughter, Mali, to do the same thing as Phikul did. Mali was sent to the same place as told by Phikul, but instead of meeting an old woman, she met a beautiful woman wearing an impressive dress standing under the shade of a big tree. The woman then asked for water from Mali to drink. Out of jealousy, Mali got angry and thought that the woman was not an angel so she refused to give any and used rude words to curse the angel in disguise.
The angel thus placed a curse on Mali that whenever she got angry and spoke, worms would come out from her mouth. Upon returning home, Mali told the whole story to her mother. From the anger of telling the story, the whole house was full of worms. The mother thought that Phikul was jealous of her daughter so she had distorted the story and that was why Mali did not meet an old woman. She beat Phikul and drove her out from home.
Overwhelmed by this grief, Phikul wandered in the forest alone. Fortunately, she walked in the direction of a young Prince who was enjoying a horse ride in the forest along with his soldiers. Upon seeing the young girl crying, the Prince asked her to tell the whole story. At the end of her narration the whole area was full of golden flowers.
The Prince was very pleased and asked for her hand. After marrying her, the couple ascended the throne and ruled the city happily ever after.
The morale is: In Thailand it is considered very inappropriate to raise your voice and express anger or frustration. This folktale shows the Thai strong value in compassion and kindness. Compassion is one of the Buddha’s most emphasized teachings.
3. Ungrateful man
Once upon a time there was a poor young man who aimlessly travelled from one city to another. One day he entered a small city and met a crippled beggar who asked for food from him. Out of sympathy, he gave the beggar some food and water that he carried with him.
While preparing to leave, the beggar seized his hand and said with a dry parched voice, “Young man! You’re very kind. Though you’re poor, you still give me some food. To reciprocate your generosity, I will give you one magic spell. Learn it by heart, some day it’ll be useful to you.”
With the power of the magic spell, a person who recited it would be able to stimulate any type of fruit to yield out of season, but that person had to bring a bowl of water and blow on it after reciting the magic spell, then pour the water on the root of the tree. However, the beggar set a condition that the young man had to respect him sincerely throughout his life, otherwise the magic spell would lose its power. The young man agreed unconditionally. He was very pleased and after paying a tribute to the beggar, he went on his way to other cities.
One day the young man happened to arrive at a big city where a soldier was making an announcement that anyone who could get a mango at this time of the year and present it to the pregnant queen would get a handsome reward. At the time of this announcement, it was not the season of the mango tree to fruit, so no one could get a mango for the queen. The queen was very eager to eat a mango.
Having heard of the announcement, the young man immediately volunteered to get a mango for the queen. He brought a bowl of water and after reciting his magic spell he blew on it. He then asked the soldier to lead him to the royal garden where he poured the water on the root of the mango tree. He then asked everybody to come the next day.
Surprisingly, the next day the mango tree gave plenty of fruit. The queen was very much delighted to be able to eat mangoes. She presented valuable gifts to the young man and asked him to live in her city.
The young man became rich overnight and lived a happy life in that city. He no longer needed to wander from city to city. However, one day out of curiosity the king asked the young man as to how he acquired the magic spell and who was his teacher.
When asked by this question, he felt too shy to tell the king that his teacher was actually a crippled beggar. So he informed the king that his teacher was a holy sage living in the far-away forest. A few days later, the queen again wanted to eat mango. So the king instructed the young man to bring mangoes to the queen.
The man then performed the ceremony as before, but this time the mango tree did not give even a single fruit. The king was very angry and demanded the man to reveal the reason. Upon learning the truth, the king condemned the ungrateful man and expelled him from his city. All of his property was ordered to be confiscated by the king. The young man became poor again. He realized that his magic spell lost its power because he did not keep his promise to his teacher. He felt sad but it was too late now.
The morale is: Don’t dishonour honour.
4. Diamond cuts Diamond
Once upon a time there was a poor man who travelled to visit his sick relative in another city. The distance was a one-day walk, so his wife gave him a lump of rice to eat on the way. As his family was so poor, so he could not afford to have curry or soup to eat with the rice.
The poor man happened to walk past the house of the millionaire whose cook was preparing curry for him. The smell of the curry was so nice that it made the man feel hungry immediately. He then sat under a tree and took out his rice to eat while taking a deep smell of the curry. He imagined that he was eating rice with the curry. The smell of the curry from the kitchen stimulated him to eat all the rice. Normally, it was very difficult for him to swallow rice without curry or soup.
After finishing his meal, he went to the kitchen of the millionaire to ask for water to drink from the cook. Before taking leave, he praised the female cook that she was surely a good cook as the curry produced a very delicious smell. He told her that he could eat all the rice without curry or soup because the smell of her curry helped him to eat it all. He thanked her and took leave. The cook was very pleased to hear it.
The cook smiled and then took the curry to serve her master. To her surprise, the millionaire tested the curry and complained that today his cook had prepared the curry poorly for him. The cook was afraid of her guilt, so she told him that the curry became tasteless because its smell had just been stolen by the poor man who happened to walk past this way. The poor man ate his rice only with the smell of curry spreading out from our kitchen.
The stingy millionaire was very angry to hear this. He told his servants to bring the poor man to meet him and enquired about the whole story. The innocent man admitted that he had taken away the delicious smell of that curry without permission. The millionaire then demanded compensation from the poor man who was relunctant to pay as he had only one small coin in his possession. He still had to travel a long way to visit his sick relative. He might have to use it at the time of need.
The millionaire arrested him and took him to be investigated by the village chief. After being told the whole story, the village chief instructed his servant to bring a bowl of water. He then asked the poor man how much money he had. The poor man told him frankly that he was so poor, so he could manage to have only one coin to be used while travelling alone.
The village chief then told the poor man to put his only coin in the bowl of water. While the stingy millionaire was very happy as he thought that he would get the coin in exchange for the smell of his curry.
“Thank you very much Village Chief. You have given a fair judgement. That’s why all people have great respect for you" , said the millionaire with a broad smile. The millionaire quickly stretched his hand to pick up the coin from the bowl of water, but the village chief suddenly took back the bowl of water and told the poor man to take his coin back.
“Alright! This man took away a delicious smell of your curry, now you can take the water of money from him in exchange for your loss. But you are allowed to take only the water. Don’t take the bowl because it belongs to me,” said the village chief to the millionaire whose face suddenly turned pale.
The morale is: Don’t be mean to others. Don’t own all benefit on your own and share with everyone.
5. The Story of Makatho
This story dates back to the time of the Sukhothai Period.
There was a young man named Makatho. He was a son of the Mon merchant who lived in Kohwan Village in the city of Mortama, a city in the present Myanmar. When he reached the age of 15 years old his father died so he had to continue his father’s business. One day he led his sales team comprising of 30 men carrying goods on their shoulders to be sold in the city of Sukhothai, a former capital of Thailand. On arriving at Matewa, one of his men suddenly felt sick. Out of sympathy, Makatho helped the man by carrying the goods on his shoulder. When he reached the top of the hill, there was heavy rain and a thunderstorm. A thunderbolt suddenly struck his stick used to carry the goods on his shoulder breaking it into pieces,but surprisingly he did not get hurt. Even though he changed the sticks three times, a thunderbolt struck it again and again. When he looked towards the west, in a flash of lightning there appeared perhaps a castle or a palace.
To know more about the strange occurrences, he went to see a fortune-teller and asked him to forecast what he saw. But the fortune-teller set a condition that he had to bring a huge sum of money equivalent to the heap which was to be as high as his head and then he would make a forecast for him. Though Makatho had a small amount of money equivalent to only a few baht, he was intelligent enough to place all the money he had on the termite hill and told the fortune-teller to look at it. The fortune-teller thought that this man was very intelligent. He thus made a prediction that Makatho was a man of great merit and he would be promoted to a high position in the direction of the west.
Upon arriving at Sukhothai City, he sold all the goods and told his men to return home while he remained in the city. He then went to seek shelter with the mahout of Phra Ruang who was the King of Sukhothai. By nature Makatho was an industrious man so he helped the mahout looking after the elephants day and night. In turn the mahout was very kind to him. When he received his own salary from the king, he would share it with Makatho every time.
One day King Ruang came to see his elephants in the pen. While looking at the elephants from the raised platform, he saw Makatho sweeping the floor of the pen. The king then asked the mahout who that man was. After being informed of the truth, the king showed his kindness to him and instructed the mahout to take good care of Makatho. While looking at the elephants, the king released the areca-nut from his mouth and spat the saliva on the ground so strongly that dust floated in the air. A money cowrie shell suddenly emerged from the ground. The king told Makatho to pick it up. Makatho paid respect to the king and then picked up the money cowrie shell.
Makatho was very happy, though the money was just a small amount. He thought that it was very valuable to him as it was given to him by the king. So to make it more valuable, he went to buy lettuce seeds from the market. The seller did not know how to sell them as the amount of money was too small to count in exchange for the lettuce seeds. So Makatho told the seller a way out. He then raised his finger to touch the saliva from his mouth and then touched on the lettuce seeds.
“Alright! I just wanted this much. Nothing more,” said Makatho.
The seller smiled and praised him for his intelligence, and thought that this man would surely become a great person in the future.
After getting the lettuce seeds, Makatho prepared the soil and planted the seeds nearby. He used the elephant’s dung as fertilizer to nourish the vegetable.
One day King Ruang again came to see his elephants. Makatho picked up a lettuce in a hurry and presented it to the king. To his surprise, the king asked where he got it from. Makatho told him the story. The king was very pleased and thought that this son of the Mon was very industrious and intelligent. Thus he was promoted to work in the royal kitchen. Makatho worked hard as usual. The king was very pleased with his performance, so he appointed him in the position of Khun Wang whose duty was to take care of the capital. Makatho worked hard and took his assignment seriously. The king treated him as his own son. Everybody showed him great respect.
Later Makatho asked permission to visit his home village. Since he was a good man, all people liked him and gave him due respect. The ruler of Mortama City named Alimamang was jealous of him and planned to eliminate him. However, Makatho knew about the plot, so he decided to get rid of Alimamang first and was then chosen as the new ruler. After his appointment, Makatho rebuilt the city of Mortama and sent offerings to King Ruang and informed him of the situation. To his pleasure, King Ruang gave Makatho a new royal name as Phra Chao Fa Rua or the King of the Leaking Sky. He expanded his territories far and wide.
The morale is: They who are smart, show initiative, creativity and have kindness will receive respect from everyone.
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