Top 10 Mizo Stories - II

6. Raldawna leh Tumchhingi

Who would not like this story? It's got everything. There's the prettily decked out bride-to-be Tumchhingi that got eaten by an ogress. There's also the typical male who the ugly ogre fooled into believing that she was really the same pretty woman he was going to marry. (I don't even know if this is just stupid or kinda sweet. Stupid because hello! it's an ogre, not even an ugly human. And sweet because despite the horrendous appearance, he married her anyway because in his simple little heart he believed that she was the once beautiful girl he chose to marry.)

It's an interesting story because in one lifetime the heroine went through extremely uncommon and dramatical changes - first she was a pretty lady, then she became food, then she was shit, then a Mango tree, then again a Mango fruit, then a Mango seed - here she alternated daily between being a seed and a woman, then finally back into a woman for good.

There's also some gore. In the end there was a show-off between the Ogre and Tumchhingi - refereed by Raldawna who did not play very fair. He gave Tumchhingi a very sharp knife but a very blunt one to the Ogre. Tumchhingi cut off the Ogre's head with one blow. And Tumchhingi and Raldawna lived happily ever after.

Read full story here.

5. Kungawrhi

I like Kungawrhi because of her unusual birth. She was born out of her father's pus-filled thumb. She was a tiny baby that was fed half a grain of rice, then as she grew up, a full grain of rice and so on till she grew up into a beautiful young lady. It's a really long story so let's see which parts I don't want to miss out....

There was this young man visiting their village who fell in love with her and wanted to marry her but in fact he was a Keimi (Weretiger again :P), but no one knew that of course. He decided to smoke Kungawrhi's father's footsteps (?) and make him sick (how is this supposed to work? I suppose gather the sand under the footstep, wrap it up and hang it over the fire..?).

Kungawrhi's father fell seriously sick, and after he had given up hope in all possible cures, he sent out word that if anyone could cure him, he will give them his beautiful daughter's hand in marriage. The Keimi took down Kungawrhi's dad's footstep package :D from the fireplace, and the dad recovered from his sickness immediately and as promised, gave him his daughter.

The Keimi was taking Kungawrhi to his Keimi village but on the way, they came upon a flooded river making it impossible to cross (not for tigers though). So the Keimi turned into a tiger, told his wife to hang on to his tail and swam across with her hanging on for dear life. But there was a little old woman nearby who saw it all and ran home to report all that she had witnessed in the forest. (One also feels compelled to wonder what this little old woman was doing all alone so deep in the forest).

Anyway, when Kungawrhi's father realised that he had just married off his daughter to a Keimi, he sent out word yet again that anyone who rescue her daughter would have her hand in marriage. Two young men Pathira and Hrangchala (?) set out to rescue her and it's full of magical adventure - a trip to the Keimi village, there were also 'rock seeds,' 'water seeds,' and 'thorn seeds' that they used to ward off the pursuing Keimi while fleeing from the Keimi village.

On their way home to their village, Kungawrhi was stolen by Khuavangs (spirits) and was dragged below to their underground village. (See pic - this is called Kungawrhi's cave and is supposedly where the Khuavangs dragged her down. It is located between the villages of Farkawn and Vaphai in Mizoram)Pathira and Hrangchala once again ventured into the underworld to rescue her, and when they were getting out the cowardly Hrangchala cut off the vine they used to climb out after he and Kungawrhi got out, trapping Pathira in the Khuavang village. He stayed there and married and had kids while he planted a new vine and waited for it to grow.

When the plant was tall enough, he escaped and went back to their village, beheaded Hrangchala's head in rage while he was sitting right next to Kungawrhi. He married Kungawrhi since her husband was now headless :P The only thing that bothers me about this story is that Kungawrhi sounds like she may have been a bit retarded.

4. Chawngchilhi

And next, something a little scandalous. Chawngchilhi had an affair with a serpent and was so obsessed with her lover that she would even deny her little sister her food so the serpent could eat. Every day Chawngchilhi and her sister (who is disappointingly nameless by the way) would go to their farm, and when it was lunchtime she would send her little sister to go call the serpent. The sister would go out on the hill and call -

Rulpui aw, rulpui aw
Ka nu'n zuang rawh a ti, ka pa'n zuang rawh a ti

And the serpent would reply from the adjacent hill -

Ka zuang nang e, ka zuang nang e
Bahsam ka zial lai tak a Bah diar ka khim lai tak a

And then he could be heard slithering through the forest, closer and closer till he reached their hut and settled in a huge coil on the floor. Then they would eat, and when the little sister tried to help herself to the meat, Chawngchilhi would tell the serpent "Rula, bite her!" And so because she never got enough food she grew very thin.

Their father when he saw how thin his younger daughter had become was understandably concerned and asked her why. Because she was afraid of her sister and the serpent, she refused to tell him but in the end he managed to pry out from her the whole story about her sister and her illicit relationship with the serpent.

The angry father made Chawngchilhi stay home one day, telling her she works so hard on the farm every day he wanted her to rest. He went to the farm with the younger sister, and when it was lunchtime, he made the daughter call the serpent so she went to the hill and called him the usual way. The serpent also responded and came slithering as usual..only to have his head cut off by the father's waiting machete. He cut the snake up, left the head in the fireplace and went home.

The next day Chawngchilhi and her sister went back to the farm as usual. She was in high spirits as she missed the snake terribly. When it was time for lunch, she told her sister to call him. But when the snake did not come, she sent her sister out to call him yet again but when he still failed to show up, she decided to go out and call him herself.

When she stepped out, she suddenly saw all the snake's intestines wrapped around the brinjal plant outside their hut, and as she went around, she saw the entrails that her father had wrapped around other plants and over the roof I think...She realised that her father had killed her lover and weeping went back inside the hut where she found the snake's head on the fireplace.

Now comes the really weird part - she took the head and stuffed it up between her legs! She went home with the snake's head tucked in her crotch but she found her father lying across the front door. She asked her father to move and he said it was okay, she could just step over him. She then said she couldn't do that as she was menstruating, and the father said "Who cares if it's my own daughter's blood" (Very disturbing!)

Finally she stepped over her father, and the head fell out of her crotch and knocked out her father's tooth. The angry father then got up, grabbed his knife and cut open Chawngchilhi's stomach. Apparently, she was pregnant with the snake's babies and hundreds of baby snakes spilled out of her stomach. Everybody went about killing the snakes, but one snake escaped and grew big and..am I confused?..but I think this snake became part of another story..

(Interestingly, I once saw a Thai movie, at least I think it was Thai, that was almost exactly similar to this Chawngchilhi story, but in the movie the snake would turn into a handsome man.)

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Now compare these characters with the Snow Whites and Cinderellas and even their evil witches seem so benign and they all become so dull and uninteresting as compared to our stories :-)

*p.s - Kungawrhi hero khi Phawthira a ni zawk e (thanks to azassk). A dik lo chu rawn report zel rawh u.