Once upon a time, in the valleys of the highest snow covered mountains of the world, there lived a shepherd.

To keep his goats happy on the snowy mountain side the shepherd played his flute

As he was playing his flute one evening he was shocked to see a giant female Yeti.

She had backwards feet and was covered in thick hair.

The Yeti was very interested by the sound of the flute and came closer to hear the music.

The shepherd was very frightened and stopped playing, putting his flute down, but the Yeti picked it up and put it back to his lips and made him play it again.

The Yeti continued to listen and made the shepherd play his flute for the rest of the evening and the whole night long, until she left quite suddenly, at sunrise.

The next evening the shepherd did not play his flute for fear that it would attract the Yeti.

Unfortunately he was not in luck, as the Yeti returned when the sun was going down and picking up his flute she made the shepherd play it for her again.

So it continued for many nights; the shepherd always playing his flute for the Yeti, fearing that if he stopped she would take his life.

Once when the shepherd was so tired he dropped the flute and the yeti picked it up and tried to play it herself, but she could not make it work, so she again made him play it for her.

The shepherd began to believe that his life was terrible as he could never sleep and always lived in fear.

He had to think of some-thing to do to save him or surely he would go mad or even worse be eaten by the Yeti. So he devised cunning a plan.

The next evening the shepherd built a large fire and taking a large pot of butter from the farm he began to massage his body.

As normal the Yeti arrived as the sun was dropping over the horizon and she was very curious to see what the shepherd was doing with the butter.

As normally the shepherd played his flute for the Yeti, but this time he stopped from time to time to massage himself with more butter from the large pot.

To the delight of the shepherd the Yeti began to copy him, slowly covering her whole body with lots of butter.

In time the Yeti was covered in so much butter that she was shining in the moon light, so much so that she started to admire herself.

Next the shepherd picked up a lighted branch from the fire and mimicked toasting himself. However when the Yeti copied him her thick hair caught on fire!

The Yeti jumped about and fled into the mountains covered in flames and she never returned to the valley from that day till this.

The End.

This is a Lepcha Fairy Tale of the Yeti. It was told to The Fairy Tale Hunter by the Lepcha people of Dzongu, in the ‘Māyel Lyāng’, in North Sikkim under the shadow of Kanchanjunga, which is the big rock of the Himalaya and founder of all things.

The Lepcha believe that because of the events in this story the Yeti chooses only to live high in the mountains, away from the troubles caused by shepherds, butter and fire. It is said that the Yeti always remembers the beautiful sound of the flute and thus whistles as it is out hunting for food in the twilight. Therefore it is totally forbidden for any human to do this during the dusk or dawn. It is also said that the female Yeti is the largest and most fearful of her clan and that the only way to escape her is to run down hill (I wonder if you know why?).

Discovering this fairy tale of the yeti marks the culmination of our adventure to the Himalayas. The Fairy Tale Hunter would like to express his great thanks to the other members of the Guild of Fairy Tale Hunters, imagined and ancient, young and not so young, which he has met on his adventure and pursuit. You can find them all in The Guild of Fairy Tale Hunters pages on the web-site.

Welcome to the peaceful abode that is Shantiniketan and the home of the schools of Visva-Bharati created by the artist and educational visionary Rabindranath Tagore. You can find us here about one hundred kilometres North West of Kolkata and it is my last stop before Kolkata on our adventure discovery fairy tales.

A little dip into the world of this educational haven will open a world of the imagination for here is where the most farsighted and radical methods of the world of childhood are nourished and brought to life. Classes are centred on children’s experience and are taken outside with nature at the heart of experience.

I met many teachers and students in a day full of stories. Here they have whole lessons centred on storytelling each school week and every history lesson begins with the teachers and students telling their own stories of life.

We are very fortunate to arrive now as it is the 150th anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore’s birthday and it is celebrated with an enormous gathering of previous students and teachers celebrating creativity. The evening of three day festival cumulates with a grand drama play, written by Tagore called Mayar Khala and is broadcasted live on Indian television.

Today is also the spring full moon Holi festival. On this day spring cleaning is all the rage as colour is brought to life! Join in and be drenched in colour as you become the work of art.

Song and dance encircle the out-door class rooms and adorned cows wonder past as travelling holy minstrels weave their magical stories in song and drama.

We have been invited to return to the school in the future and work with the children so welcome aboard to the classes and teachers of the school and university of Visva-Bharati in Shantiniketan and we hope that you have as much fun as us spreading imaginative children’s story telling across the world.

Oh and guess what! We have been found by reporters of The Anada Basti Patorka and The Indian Statesman newspapers. They both interviewed me at the festival and will include us in their articles. Maybe you can find them and stories about our adventure in their papers on the internet.

Spring is with us and the temperature is rising fast. I am jumping aboard the early morning train and will dive back into the heady heat of Kolkata. I look forward to bringing to you my final articles as we tread lightly on the final pages of our magical fairy tale adventure in the land of story-telling that is India.

Welcome and great salutations to all Fairy Tale Hunters of the world. This time you find the hunter gliding across the slopes of West Bengal, finding shelter amongst palm groves and dining with the company of Nordic map makers, supreme princely Indian sons in the lap of golden thrones discovering lost orchids and American astronomical cosmic robot creators. How true it is that we are never stopping learning no matter where we land in time. Can you imagine the imaginative and inventive table talk as the peacocks chatter outside?

Here we are high above the churning Relli River in the city of Kaliimpong resting in the saddle of the Deylo mountain range. This is a famous centre of education and a teaming market town full of a cosmopolitan history built in the centre of the ancient trading route north to Tibet.

I’ll soon be crossing the plains of Darjeeling, saying farewell to Sikkim and heading south away from the Himalaya. We will remember our adventures in the roof of the world as I plunge back into the melting pot of the stories of India on my way home. Never fear though for the hem lines of the snow peaks of Kanchanjunga still have tales left to tell us. I’ve even discovered lost songs of the steaming monster that is the toy train of Darjeeling and how once the local armies whisked a yeti off in a helicopter! Keep track of all these stories by finding them on the website. Now for some special story telling surprise!

We have a new school aboard our magical journey! We welcome the students of The Indo-Tibet Buddhist Cultural Institute. They will be contacting as with stories of the yeti for our bookshelf over the coming weeks. The students are from many places such as Bhutan, Nepal, Sikkim and cities in India like Luxor and Kolkata. Their school is the oldest Tibetan Buddhist Cultural Institute in the whole of India and they are very happy to share their stories with us. Have a listen to them below.

The following three stories were told to me by: Pem Lamu Sherpa, a student of The Indo-Tibet Buddhist Cultural Institute.

Her first story is called Supandi, a funny story. She told me it in Nepali and then in English.

Her next story is called The Hidden Treasure and Pem said that it had a moral reminding us that being rich in money means nothing in real life. I wonder if you can understand what she means by listening to her story below.

Pem’s final tale for us is the story of the Quick Witted Frog. It would be extra fun if you could draw a picture to go with these stories. Next it’s easy! Once you have made them please send those to me via the contact link on the site and I’ll add them to the story.

The following story was told to me by Chungda Bhutia (Student of The Indo-Tibet Buddhist Cultural Institute) and it is a ghost story in Nepali. I wonder if you can understand what she is saying. Perhaps you are a translator. If you are maybe you could help me decipher what Chungda is saying.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A massive giant thank you to the student of The Indo-Tibet Buddhist Cultural Institute and we look forward to hearing from you again soon.

I must back my bag of tricks once more for I am off to the home of Rabindranath Tagore. So long for now and I will speak to you all again soon.

To help us remember the magical stories of Nepal below is a wonderful montage of pictures and music compiled by Lakhpa Tashi, who is a senior student of The Indo-Tibet Buddist Cultural Institute in Kalimpong. He told me that he took all the photos himself for a project promoting his village of Humde in the district of Mangang, Nepal last year.

These are the children of Mayel Lyang Academy, in the Lepcha valley of Dzongu and this is how they helped us in our great search for fairy tales in the Himalayas. The story went something like this.

Let’s begin by by drawing ourselves.

Now let’s try to imagine a creature on the land…

Now one from the sky…

And finally one from the water.

Just imagine what a magical creature would look like if it had been made up from the pieces of all those!

Now let’s tell our story…
It all started when the amazing magical creature left home and went far far away. So far it went to another land.

When it go there it discovered a friend who gave it some treasure.
After some fun the magical creature turned for home, but found there was a big problem.

Thankfully the friend helped and solved the problem.

And at last the creature made it home safely.

Now let’s act our stories out for everyone to enjoy…..

I am told by Eszter that the students are very good at dancing and singing Lepcha songs, and they know loads of stories about local demons, dragons, yetis and ghosts.

It will be great to keep in contact with them and hopefully visit them again in the future. How lucky we are to have met them. They would like to know all the other schools involved in Hunting for Fairy Tales of the Yeti. You can find them all on their facebook site. Try looking up mayellyang@facebook.com

“Cumree, Dashi-deli and Sewaroo” global fairy tale hunters and followers of our quest. Just in case that’s all a bit double-dutch, then it’s a big hello in the local languages of the Lepcha, Bhutia and Limboo nations. Wow what a journey we continue to have! I had a whirl-wind jumble-ride of night buses, tuc-tucs and rick-shaws, cycling over the Nepalese boarder in the twinkling dawn, to then climb higher and higher through West Bengal in sardined jeeps and finally through the gates of Sikkim. Here my base is inside the Hidden Forest clinging to the cliffs of the cloud mountain city: Gangtok.

Sikkim is a very special port-of-call during our journey of discovery; it was even called the “land of fairy-folk” by travellers from Europe, who visited here over one hundred years ago. Can you imagine the journey they had to take?

If you are following the blog missions I am getting from fellow fairy tale hunters, you will know that I got my walking books on and headed for Dzongbu.

Here you will hear the mighty river, which travels from Kongchen Kongchlo (Mount Khangchendzonga) all the way to the Bay of Bengal. Do you remember when I sent you video from the banks of the Brahmaputra at the start of our adventure? Amazingly it’s the same river. Look out for the river at the end of this article.

The Lepcha people have many stories to tell us. Story telling is very important to them. Some of the tales are very scary. Look out for Ajengarr tales coming your way soon!

I was helped with my searching by all the family at mayallyang.com see if you can find them on the internet.

We went from splashing in the crystal river that brings life to the valley, to gazing at the “Big Stone” that is the home of creation from lofty temple summits.

 

The country side here is teaming with amazing animals. You can hear them calling across the jungle.

I can tell I will find lots to do here, if the guardians will let me and my permit lasts long enough.

Guess what! I was very fortunate to meet the students of yet another school. Take a look at the Mayel Lyang Academy school workshop article to find out more about them and what we got up to. This is the river at the bottom of their magical gardens.

Under water spot. Welcome fairy-tale hunters to the secret bit, under the whirl pools…..I have a giant enormous clue for you. If you search hard enough you mind find the treasure we have been looking for buried in the web-site! Try looking for “Jyamphi Moong”, and remember not to whistle late at night.

Welcome back Fairy Tale Hunters. I hope you have enjoyed the last few articles I have put on the web-site. What a great time we have had discovering lost stories of the yeti and meeting master fairy tale hunters.

Not to mention tracking goats, tigers and wolves. Take a look at the school workshop articles to find out more about them.

As an extra treat I joined in with the celebrations of reading Swastani. It has taken people a whole month (full moon to full moon) to read this story and I visited them on the final day in the river village of Sanku. The story is Hindi and involves a princess turning into mud! I wonder if you can find it on the internet.

The reason for the festival every year is that the story reminds us to connect with relatives, which we have been separated from for a long time.

The last few days I have spent dashing about saying good-bye to everyone. Can you remember all the amazing people I have met? Kathmandu is a city over flowing with changes and growing bigger every day.

Can you remember all the amazing story adventures we have had? Here are some clues: The Woodcutter, the river Princess and Mani, King’s Castles, the Flute and the Talking bamboo, the strong horse called Lung ta, A Dancing yeti and the Yeti’s Coat.

Can you also remember all the places I have been on our missions to hunt for Fairy Tales and what I did? Here are some more clues to help your memories: Bumpy bus rides, Stars over Everest, thousands of steps and footprints in the snow, the many dragons and did I mention the football pitches (maybe I forgot to tell you about them?).

So it’s back on the buses and over the mountains, but this time it’s good bye Nepal and soon it will be hello Sikkim. I must go and pack up my bag of tricks for the ride through the night, further east and further back in time.

The Fairy Tale Hunter says a massive “thank you Nepal, for your rich treasure trove of fairy tales”.

The students of Life Vision Academy spent their final workshop day with Andy remembering all the fun we have had together. We wrote down our memories and ideas for future work and then we celebrated with one final fairy tale story! It went something like this…..
The Yeti’s Coat. A Fairy Tale of the Yeti.
Below the snow covered mountains there once was a girl who said she was old enough to clean and cook potatoes. At bed time her grandmother said she would tell her a fairy tale, but she complained that she did not believe in fairy tales and that they were for only for babies.

The next morning the girl decided to go out collecting fur from the thicket at the end of the track so she could make a coat for the winter.

Not far down the path the girl met a furry thing and it said:
“If you walk with me I shall show you where you can find lots of fur”.
So they went on together side by side.

When they came to a bend in the path the girl heard great and terrible shouting of all kinds. The girl did not like the shouting putting her hands to her ears saying:
“Ohhhhh what a horrible noise! I wish it would go away”.
The furry thing said “here take my ears”. So the girl put the ears on her head and then all she could hear was beautiful bird song. After this they went on their way.

Not much further along the path they came to another bend, the girl said:
“Poooooooor! What a terrible smell! I feel sick; I wish it would go away”. The furry thing said “here take my nose to wear instead”. So the girl put the nose on and then she could only smell beautiful flowers. “oh that’s so much better”, she said to the furry creature and they continued along the path.

Soon enough they came to yet another bend in the path. Here the girl said “Baaaaaah! What a terrible taste! I will surely be sick if it does not go away”. The furry thing said “here please take my tongue” and when the girl put it in her mouth all she could taste was sweet honey. “Oh that’s so much better” said the girl and the two of them continued along the path.

Not much further down the path they began to walk through some tall plants. “Owe, owe, owe! These plants are stinging me” said the girl “I wish the pain would go away”. The furry thing said “here take my fingers”. After the girl put the fingers over hers all she could feel was soft grass and she said “oh that’s much better, thank you very much”, and they continued to walk further along the path.

Finally they came to the end of the path where there was a large clearing but what the girl saw did not please her. As far as she could she everything was burnt and the ground looked black. “Oh no” the girl said “what a horrible view. I wish I could not see it”. The furry thing said “don’t worry, here take my eyes”. After the girl put the eyes on all she could see was beautiful flowers, which made her happy again.

The girl said that she was very tired after walking so far and that she would lie down to sleep for a while and that she could collect fur from the thicket when she woke up.

When she woke up the furry thing was no-where to be seen. She found to her surprise that she had been sleeping on a lovely bed of fur, it felt very cosy indeed. She decided to take the bed of fur home with her as it would be perfect for making a coat.

Back at home she started to make a coat and soon discovered that there was enough fur to make a big coat, a hat, some gloves and even some shoes.

Once she had finished stitching she tried everything on at once. She smiled, as it felt very warm. She was so happy that she went out of the house and played in the snow at the bottom of the mountain, running up and down with her arms in the air, jumping about making big foot prints.

When she got home she hung up her clothes in her cupboard and went down stairs for some tea. All the adults of the village were there talking very quickly waving their arms in the air.
“We saw a Yeti! A Yeti! It left giant foot prints everywhere”.
The girl listened to their stories of the yeti far into the night, as they all kept warm safely by the fire-side.

Thank-you Life Vision Academy for all your hard work over the last eight weeks.
This story has been written by Andy Comley (2012), who is a member of The Guild of Fairy Tale Hunters, during his research. To find the full story with his illustrations it is published as a story article on yetifairytales.com

 

The Wolf and Goat Stories. A workshop at Life Vision Academy.

The Story
Once upon a time there lived a father and his only daughter, her mother having died.

The father decided that it would be a good idea to get married again.


When the new wife arrived to live with them she brought her daughter with her too. The two children were about the same age, but soon it was clear that the new mother did not like her new step daughter.


One morning the new mother sent her step daughter to pick the fish shaped sweet bread from the special bread tree.

As the daughter was collecting the sweet bread she heard the voices of an old man and woman below her calling to her:
“Give us some sweet bread”

She gave the couple bread, but they said that it tasted of mud. Again the couple asked for sweet bread, but again when the daughter gave them some bread they said that it tasted of mud. For a third time they asked for sweet bread, but this time when the daughter gave them bread the caught hold of her and took her back to their house as a prisoner!



What the girl did not know was that the old couple were ghosts.

During the day the ghosts made the girl cook and clean their house whilst they went to the river to sharpen their knives. At bedtime the old woman ghost called to the girl to come and sleep in her bed as she would be warmer beside her. However as the girl slept the ghosts cut her with their knives and ate pieces of her.

In the morning the girl felt itchy and thought she had been cut but she could not find any wound.


So it continued until one day while the daughter was making bread a mouse came into the kitchen and said “sweak sweak…give me some bread and I will tell you why you feel pain”. So the girl gave the mouse some bread, but the mouse said nothing. The mouse stayed in the kitchen and said again “sweak sweak…give me some bread and I will tell you why you feel pain”. So the girl again gave the mouse some bread, but the mouse said nothing.

Again the mouse said “sweak sweak…give me some bread and I will tell you why you feel pain”. But this time the girl said that if she gave him some bread but he continued to say nothing then she would hit him with a stick. The mouse took the bread and said “sweak sweak…you feel pain because the old couple are ghosts and that they are slowly eating you as you sleep in their bed at night”.


“What shall I do?” asked the girl.
“Next-time the ghosts go to the river take their jewels in your pocket and then take some charcoal from the fire place. Chew the charcoal and then spit on each step as you leave the house. Lock the door tight and them run to your home. This the girl did.

When the ghosts returned from the river they found the door to their house locked shut and they called out “let us in”. From inside the house the fire called back in reply “I’m coming”.

The ghosts repeated their call to be let in, and the fire wood continued to reply that it was coming. This continued all day long. They girl made it back to her home safely and told her story to her step mother showing her the jewels.

But she forgot to mention the mouse or that the old couple were ghosts.


The step mother was very impressed with the jewels and decided to send her own daughter to pick some sweet bread. The step mother’s daughter went to the tree and started to collect sweet bread.

Before too long she heard the voice of an old couple below her asking her to give them bread. In the same way as before the old couple kidnapped the girl and took her to their home. In the same way as before they made her work in their home cooking and cleaning whilst they went to the river to sharpen their knives. In the same way as before they invited her into their bed and she awoke feeling pain.

One morning the mouse came into the kitchen and said “sweak sweak…give me some bread and I will tell you why you feel pain”. So the girl gave the mouse some bread, but the mouse said nothing so the girl killed the mouse.

At home the step mother waited for her daughter to return home with lots of jewels.

Whilst she was admiring herself in the mirror she began to wonder why her daughter was taking so long to bring her the jewels. A crow landed outside the window and said:

“I have seen her daughter, but she was only bones”.

The mother did not believe the crow and went to the sweet bread tree.

But all she found there were bones.




The Game of Dho-cholecha or Bak-choy.

Draw the grid pattern. Find 4 Wolves and 20 goats.
Wolves can eat goats (goats can’t eat wolves). Wolves eat goats by “leap frogging” them if there is a clear space.
Game starts with Wolves (or Tigers) already waiting in each corner. Goats go first by placing a goat on any intersection. Then a Wolf moves one place away from where it is lurking.
Goats must add a new goat each turn after that, taking turns with the moving wolves, until all goats are on the board.
If the wolves can-not move the goats have won (which can happen at the point when the last goat goes on the board).
If the wolves eat 5 goats it is impossible for the goats to win and the wolves have one.
Have fun………
This story article is the result of a combination of recording the story telling of Sareeta Sanu of Patan and Keasr Lall of Kathmandu. The images are from the adventures of hunting for fairy tales in Nepal and those at an art workshop at Life Vision Academy School, Kaushaltar (09.02.12) and the theme music is from a live musician on the streets of Dakshinkali who knew the story as well. The game at the end of this article is also Dho-cholecha and it can be found all over Nepal usually drawn on the ground in public spaces. Dho-cholecha is also commonly known and interchangeable as Bak-chi, which is “tiger and goat”.