Archives for March 2012

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.