JAKA TARUB
Jaka Tarub was a handsome young man. He was very popular in the village. Many young
girls fell in love with him. However Jaka Tarub thought
that they were not beautiful enough to be his wife. That's why he was still single.
He wanted to have a very beautiful wife.
As always, Jaka Tarub went
to the forest to collect some woods. Suddenly he heard some noise from the
waterfall. He was curious. The noise was from the girls taking a bath in the
waterfall.
Slowly, Jaka Tarub walked
to the area. When he arrived there, he saw seven beautiful girls taking a bath.
He was really amazed by their beauty. After they were finished, the girls
slowly took their shawls. Amazingly after they wore the shawls, they flew to
the sky. They were not humans. They were fairies!
After that Jaka Tarub went
home. He was very restless. He was still thinking about those seven beautiful
girls.
On the next day, Jaka Tarub then decided to go back to the
waterfall. When the fairies were taking a bath, he stole one of their shawls.
And that made one fairy could not fly back to the sky. She cried. Jaka Tarubthen
approached her.
"What's wrong? Why are you crying?"
"I lost my shawl. I cannot go back home.
All my sisters have left me. My name is Nawang Wulan. I will give you anything if you can
find my shawl."
"I'll help you. But if we can't find it,
you can stay at my house. You can be my wife," said Jaka Tarub.
Then Jaka Tarub pretended
to look for the shawl. And of course they could not find it. After that they
went toJaka Tarub's home. Later they got married.
They had a baby girl. They had a happy life.
They always had enough rice to eat. They did not have to work hard like their
neighbors. It was because Nawang Wulan used
her magic in cooking.
One day, Jaka Tarub asked
her about the magic. Nawang Wulan did
not tell him the secret and asked him not to open the cooking pan's lid. She said that if Jaka Tarub opened the lid, they had to work hard
to get a lot of rice to cook.
One day, Jaka Tarub was
really curious. He then opened the cooking pan's lid.
He saw there was only a small portion of rice to cook. When she got home, Nawang Wulan knew that Jaka Tarub had opened the lid. She was angry
because she already lost the magic in cooking. Now she had to take a big
portion of rice to cook.
Slowly there was not enough rice in the silo.
And when Nawang Wulan wanted
to take the last portion of rice, she found her shawl. Jaka Tarub hid the shawl in the silo. Nawang Wulan was really happy.
She then said, "I will go home now. Take
care of our daughter.
When there is a full moon, take her out of the
house and I'll come together." Nawang Wulan then
flew to the sky. Jaka Tarub was
really sad. And to keep the promise, Jaka Tarub always
went out of the house with his daughter when there was a full moon. But Nawang Wulan never came back