Folktale of the Yeti Jyamphi Moong from Sikkim:
This is a folktale from Sikkim ,a state in the North East of India. The story goes that a rich man owned a cattle farm on the foothills of the Himalayas. He was from the Lepcha tribe. He lived there alone. One summer, he decided to meet his family and he decided to employ a fellow tribesman, Atek Lepcha to take care of the cattle farm while he was away.
Atek did a very good job of managing the cattle farm. During the day he took the sheep out to pasture land to graze. He got the cattle back into the farm by evening and settled down for the evening. As days rolled on, he became a little bored. He was all alone and he had nothing to do.
One night, he decided to play the flute. The flute was made of bamboo and had four holes. He was an amazing flute player. After playing the flute for a while, he would have his dinner and sleep. This was his usual routine
One night, something strange happened, as Atek was playing the flute a female Yeti known as Jyamphi Moong got attracted to the music and came straight to the cattle farm. She was huge and had a hanging bosom and her legs were reversed. She liked the music and stayed till dusk forcing Atek to play till dawn.
The yeti kept coming back everyday. She would come at dusk and force Atek to play till dawn. He could not stop playing even for one minute. The yeti would get aggressive and hit him. So, Atek had no choice but to play all night long.
Atek was very tired because he had to work in the morning and he was not getting any sleep. He began thinking about how he could get rid of the problem. One night as the Yeti was approaching, Atek took a lot of butter and rubbed on himself. The yeti copied the same thing. Atek gradually started moving toward the campfire. The yeti also copied him, but she was not careful and she slipped and fell into the fire, because she had added a lot of butter.
Finally Atek was free and he slept through the night.
Moral of the story:
This story is a great reminder to children, that we can overcome any difficulty if we apply our mind to it. It is a story of determination.
This story is told in folklore to ensure flutes must not be played at night. A way to ensure that animals are not disturbed in the night.
What is a Yeti?
The Yeti is an ape-like creature said to inhabit the Himalayan mountain range in Asia. It originates in folk lore there are no proofs of its existence
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