Legends Of The East

A Thai legend tells of a hermit named Phrom Ruesi who lived in the cave for 1000 years. After such a long tome he became so friendly with the “the-wadaa”, the Buddhist equivalent of angels that the wizened sage talked them into creating magical wonders deep in the caves.

So the “the-wadaa” created a stream that flowed out of the pedestal of a solid gold Buddha, a storehouse of divine textiles, a city of nagas, a mystical lake, a sacred immortal elephant and a tomb for Phrom Ruesi.

Has anyone ever seen the magical wonders of Chiang Dao cave? The locals say they are very deep inside the mountain … far beyond any passageways ever explored. Perhaps someday?

A second legend claims that anyone taking even a small stone from the cave will become forever lost in the underground labyrinth.

A third legend tells of how a soldier went into the cave and stole a marble Buddha statue and took the image to his house. Then he had to move and he moved the Buddha … but when he moved the Buddha, his son drowned. This frightened the soldier so he gave the Buddha statue to his brother who was an Air Force pilot.

After suffering two plane crashed the brother gave the statue to his superior. Very soon later the officer lost all his property, then died. Some people took the statue to the house of it’s final “owner.”

The father of this new owner decide the Buddha statue was good and made merit to it. Shortly thereafter, the new owner’s father dies and he wife became ill. The man was wise and read about the statue, and decided to return it. That very night he had a dream. In the dream, Phrom Ruesi appeared and told the man to return the statue by train as quickly as possible or he would be doomed.

Source : Guide to Thailand

Once upon a time, the Jade Dragon, a son of the Dragon of the Eastern Sea, lived in a cave on the upper reaches of the Daixi Stream. One season he decided to visit his family by way of the Yangtze, but shortly afterwards found him lost. Changing into the form of an old man, he asked his way of a herd boy. The boy pointed north with his sickle. The dragon rushed off in that direction but again got lost, where upon he flew into a mighty rage and rushed at the mountains, causing them to crumble and dam up the river, farmlands were flooded, earthquakes toppled houses, and men and animals perished. At this moment the Goddess Yao Ji rushed to the spot on a cloud. She rebuked Jade Dragon, but he was unrepentant. She flung a string of pearls into the air; it changed into a rope that bound the dragon to the stone pillar. Yao Ji then ordered the great Da Yu, controller of rivers, to behead the murderous dragon on the nearby platform. He then diverted the river by cutting the gorge. The people of this valley have lived happily ever since.

Source : Travel China Guide

According to local folklore, the formation of the Tangkuban Parahu volcano began with a young man SANGKURIANG who fell in love with his own mother, DAYANG SUMBI.

One day, when he was hunting, Sangkuriang accidentally killed his beautiful black dog (Si TUMANG). This dog is actually Sangkuriang’s father who had been condemned to live the life of a dog by his GURU. However, Sangkuriang never knew it.

Sangkuriang had been separated by his mother since childhood. Yet, he was destined to meet his mother again. When on his way home, he stopped at a small village and met and fell in love with a beautiful girl. He didn’t realised that the village was his homeland nor that the beautiful girl was his own sacred mother (remain young & pretty).

Their love grew naturally and one day, when they were discussing their wedding plans, Dayang Sumbi suddenly realised that the profile of Sangkuriang’s head matched that of her only son’s who had left twenty years earlier. How could shee marry her own son? But she did not wish to dissapoint him by cancelling the wedding. So, although she agreed to marry Sangkuriang, she would do so only on the condition that he provide her with a lake and a boat with which they could sail on the dawn of their wedding day.

Sangkuriang accepted this condition and built a lake by damming the Citarum river. Wiath a dawn just moment away and the boat almost complete, Dayang Sumbi realised that Sangkuriang would fulfill the condition she had set. With a wave of her supernatural shawl, she lit up the eastern horizon with flashes of light. Deceived by false dawn, the cock crowed and farmers rose for the new day.

With his work not yet complete, Sangkurinag realised that his endeavour were lost. With all his anger, he kicked the boat that he himself had built. The boat fell over and, in so doing become the mountain TANGKUBAN PARAHU (in Sundanese, TANGKUBAN means upturned or upside down, and PARAHU means boat). With the dam torn assunder, the water drained from the lake becoming a wide plain and nowaday became a city called BANDUNG (from the word BENDUNG, which means Dam).

Source : Tunggal Media

Khwaja Fariduddin Attar was once sitting in his shop, when a Faqeer came by and started staring at all the fancy glass bottles full of perfumes. When Khwaja asked him the reason to stare like this, he said ‘I am just wondering how will your soul leave your body when it is trapped in these fancy glass bottles here.’

Fariduddin Attar replied : ‘My soul will leave my body the same way that your soul will leave yours’.

To this, the faqeer said ‘My soul will leave like this’. Then he recited the Kalma  and lay down on the ground. When fariduddin tried to gently shake him, he realised that the faqeer’s soul had indeed left his body.

This incident was a turning point in his life and he then became one of the famous saint/scholars of all time.

This anecdote does tell us how precarious life is, but it also reminds us that really petty things can have a titanic influence on our lives.

Source : WikiPedia

 
According to tradition, the islands of the country were named by a legendary people known as Redhin. They were said to have inhabited the archipelago some time in the past. There is scant information regarding these people, except for references made to them in oral traditions and folklore. One thing is however certain, the archipelago was in the past inhabited by various peoples, about whom nothing is known today.

The Redhin were said to be large, fair haired and light skinned people who had long noses. They were said to be skilled masons, who built temples and shrines. They were also astronomers, able to foretell events by observing the heavens. The Redhin were master mariners, competent in both sailing and rowing. They worshipped the sun and fire. They were known to be a peaceful people, who shunned contact with others who inhabited the islands. They were known to get violent when they performed their devotional rituals, in which both men and women participated. Architecture attributed to these ancient seafarers is evident in ruins scattered all over the archipelago.

Source : Maldives Info

Legend has it that Hwan-ung, the son of Hwan-in (who was the God of All and the ruler of Heaven), yearned to live on Earth among the valleys and the mountains. His father sent him and 3,000 helpers to rule Earth and provide humans with great happiness.

Hwan-ung descended to Mount T’aebaeksan on the border between Manchuria and what is now North Korea. He named the place Shinshi, City of God. Along with his ministers of clouds, rain, and wind, he instituted laws and moral codes and taught the humans various arts, medicine, and agriculture.

A tiger and a bear living in a cave together prayed to become human. Upon hearing their prayers, Hwan-ung called them to him and gave them 20 cloves of garlic and a bunch of mugwort. He then ordered them to only eat this sacred food and remain out of the sunlight for 100 days. The tiger shortly gave up and left the cave. However, the bear remained true and after 21 days was transformed into a woman.

The bear-woman was very grateful and made offerings to Hwan-ung. However, lacking a companion she soon became sad and praved beneath a sandalwood tree to be blessed with a child. Hwan-ung, moved by her prayers, took her for his wife and soon she gave birth to a handsome son. They named him Tan-gun, meaning “Altar Prince” or sandalwood.

Tan-gun developed into a wise and powerful leader and in 2333 BC moved to P’yongyang and established the Choson (”Land of the Morning Calm”) Kingdom. Finally, at the age of 1,908, he returned to T’aebaeksan where he became a mountain god.

(Recently, in a move to try to legitamize itself, the North Korean government claimed it had found and excavated the burial site for Tan-gun.)

Source : Life In Korea