Thailand
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Dao Jor Ra Khae
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Dao Look Gai
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Dao Khan Sarm Tar
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The Milky Way Legend
01
Dao Jor Ra Khae (Big Dipper)
As compiled by: Boonrucksar Soonthornthum and Siramas Komonjinda
There once lived a wealthy man who had no children, and he was worried about his money and treasures. One night, he said to his wife, “My dear wife, we have been married for a long time but there is still no sign of you bearing my child. I feel unhappy worrying about all of our money and treasures. Who is going to look after them when I die?”
The wife, being a good-hearted woman, replied in a cheerful tone,
“Don’t worry, my dear husband. Things will work out. Maybe I shall offer some of our wealth to those poor beggars who came to ask for food at our house every morning. I shall give some to the orphans. All the rest I shall offer to people who are really in need.”
Upon hearing his wife’s reply, the husband got more frustrated, because he knew then that he could not expect her to seriously manage his wealth.
From that night on, the wealthy man always kept to himself. It seemed like he was deeply pondering something. Two weeks passed by. The next morning, the man told his wife to find the town’s best carpenter as well as a master craftsman.
“A carpenter? A master craftsman? What do you want them for?”, his wife asked. She was surprised and a bit worried, because her husband did not look happy at all.
“Don’t ask. Just do what I told you”, the man insisted.
So the wife found a carpenter and a master craftsman. When they arrived, the husband ordered them to build a pier with four robust pillars on the waterside of the river that flowed in front of the house.
When the builders finished their work, the wealthy man put all of his money and assets in a lot of jars and buried them by the bridgehead. He did this in such a discreet way that nobody, not even his wife, realized what was going on.
From that day on, the wealthy man spent all of his time sitting at the pier, guarding his assets. The wife, not realizing why her husband was doing this, became worried. She pleaded in vain for him to come in, to have some food and to take a rest, but he would not listen. The wealthy man soon got ill, his condition deteriorated and he died.
Since his mind was fixed on his treasure at the moment of his death, his spirit would not leave. He was reborn as a crocodile that lingered around the pier, guarding his jars of treasures. The crocodile never showed any sign of harming anyone passing by the pier.
The wife became curious about the crocodile. She felt intuitively that it must have something to do with her late husband, so she ordered a male servant to look carefully around and below the bridgehead.
“Look carefully,” she said to the man. “If you find anything of interest, report to me before you do anything further.”
Eventually, the man found many jars. When the wife looked in those jars, she found her husband’s money and treasures. She then realized that the crocodile was, in fact, her dead husband, who was reborn as a crocodile because he was concerned about his treasures.
She decided to accumulate merit for her husband by offering all of the assets to priests and by following rules. When the husband learned about this he was very happy. He tried to swim to the temple alongside his wife’s boat so that he could get there in time to share the credit. But the temple was so far away that the crocodile became totally exhausted, he could not breathe properly, and he died on his way. But before he died, he told his wife to put a picture of a crocodile carrying a lotus in his mouth among the assets that she was offering to the priests.
This admirable deed was recognized. The divine wanted this to be the state of the world, so another asterism (constellation), a group of seven bright stars, appeared in the shape of a crocodile (Jor Ra Khae).
Dao Jor Ra Khae stimulates reflection about the principle of Karma, which has a strong place in Buddhist teaching. This concept interprets the effect of all deeds as actively shaping past, present, and future experiences.
02
Dao Look Gai (The Pleiades)
As complied by: Boonrucksar Soonthornthum and Siramas Komonjinda
Once there was a master who was famous for his skills in all kinds of arts and crafts. His reputation reached the ears of a king who, subsequently, decided to give him a princess.
When one of the master’s disciples heard about this, he felt jealous of his master. So he met with the king and performed all kinds of things in front of him, thinking that the king would change his mind and bestow the princess on him instead. However, the king still preferred the master.
When the master came to the court where the king and the princess were present, the disciple turned himself into a bee clinging to the flower that the princess wore behind her left ear. He then challenged the master, “Greatest master of all, catch me if you can.”
The master asked the princess for the flower. However, the bee turned himself into a grain lying on the floor. Again, he challenged his master, “Greatest master of all, peck me if you can.”
The master became a cock pecking at the grain. The grain transformed into a fishing cat*. The cock then changed into a tiger chasing the fishing cat. People were so alarmed at the sight of the tiger that they killed him. With the death of his master, the disciple took the princess to be his wife.
When he died, the disciple was reborn as a hen with six chicks. He belonged to a woodcutter in a small faraway village, and his owner also had a big stubborn dog. An old man and his wife lived nearby in a hut deep in the forest. They were both kind and hard-working, but life was hard on them. They were sad and lonely, because they had no children, and there was no one to take care of them.
One fine afternoon, the couple went out of the forest and headed to the village. While there, they saw a big dog barking and chasing a mother hen and her six chicks along the street. A young man was running after them, shouting and panting. So they asked, “What’s going on here, young man? Why are you running after that dog like a mad man?
The young man did not stop, but he shouted back,
“Oh, Grandpa, don’t you see? My dog is chasing my hen and chicks. If I don’t stop him, he will bite them to death.”
“Ah, what a shame. Those are your chickens?” the old man asked, pointing at the poor, small creatures, which looked very frightened.
“Yes. Would you like to keep them? If so, you are welcome to take them with you. If they stay here, sooner or later they will be bitten to death by this pigheaded dog.”
“Sure. Thank you very much, young man”, the old couple replied. Then they took the mother hen and her six chicks home with them.
The old man and his wife felt happy. Now their lives would no longer be empty. They made a small shelter next to their hut for the hen and chicks to stay in at night. Everyday, in the evening after a hard day’s work, the husband and wife would sit in front of the hut teasing and playing with the chicks. They felt relaxed and good.
In the evening two weeks later, a monk passed by the old man’s place. Since it was getting dark, the wife invited him to spend a night there. The next morning, the old man wanted to make a ritual offering of food to the monk, thinking that it would bless their lives. Because there was not enough food in the house, the wife suggested that they kill the mother hen and prepare some good food for the monk. The old man was reluctant and said,“I pity her. What about the little chicks? They would be very unhappy without their mother.”
Nevertheless, his wife persisted, “The monk will give us his blessings. We will make a fortune. Then you can have as many hens and chicks as you like.”
The mother hen overheard the conversation. At first and impulsively, she thought about running away to save her life. But, on the second thought, she realized that she really owed her life to the old man. She recalled, “If he hadn’t taken me and my chicks with him, we would all be dead by now. I should be grateful to him. I shall stay and forsake my life in return for his kindness”
The next morning, the farmer killed the hen and boiled her as food for the monk. When they saw what had happened, the six chicks jumped into the boiling water and died along with their mother. All of them were taken up into the sky, and they remain there as a group of stars, Dao Look Gai. However, the mother hen was punished and could not stay close to her chicks.
She had to go some distance away from them. So people only see a group of six bright stars and a dim, lonely star, a bit away from the group.
Didactically, the legend of Dao Look Gai reflects how the principle of Karma works according to Buddha’s teaching. The mother hen’s punishment was the fruit of her evil actions to the master in her former life.
* The fishing cat (Prionailurus viverrinus) is a species of wild cat native to Southeast Asia. Fishing cats are grey with black stripes running along the length of their bodies. Their bodies can reach up to 80 cm (32 inches) long and weigh as much as 11.7 kg (26 pounds). As the name implies, they hunt by catching fish in the rivers.
03
Dao Khan Sarm Tar (The Belt Stars of Orion)
As complied by: Boonrucksar Soonthornthum and Siramas Komonjinda
The legend of Dao Khan Sarm Tar concerns the people of a tribe that inhabited the most northern part of Thailand near the Shan district in Myanmar. This group of stars makes up Orion’s Belt, which is part of the constellation Orion; they are stars named Mintaka, Alnilam, and Alnitak. They separate the two stars Betelguese and Rigel, which lie opposite each other.
Betelguese has another name in the northern Thai language: Upem, named for the daughter of a hunter who lived in a village. Her mother had been pregnant for three years, and there was no sign of her giving birth. The whole tribe became frightened, because they thought that the child must have an evil nature. They decided to expel the husband and wife from the village. After three months of wandering in the forest, the wife, with much difficulty and pain, delivered a daughter. Quite soon after that, the mother died.
The father named the child “Upem”, which meant “the most beloved child of the father” in the old northern Thai (Lanna) language. The child grew up into a very beautiful woman. All the men who saw her wanted to have her for a wife, and they were eager to do anything to gain her love.
There was a young man, Khun Sarm Lor, who lived in another village across the river; he worked hard and was a good merchant. He always traveled to various places to both buy goods sell merchandise. One day he crossed the river to Upem’s village. He fell in love with the maiden at first sight. When she stopped to buy something from him, he got closer to her and whispered in her ear: “Be my wife. I am not rich, but I am young and strong. I will always treat you well, because I love you.”
The courtship began after that. They loved each other so much that they decided they would spend their lives together util death parted them. Khun Sarm Lor’s mother if her son had wanted to marry a girl from a prominent family in their village. In spite of her feelings, she went to see Upem’s father for approval of her son’s marriage to Upem. Upem’s father did not want his daughter to marry a man from a faraway village, but when his daughter insisted so strongly, he had to agree to the marriage.
After the marriage, the wife followed an old tribal tradition and moved to live with her husband’s family in the other village. However, the family did not treat Upem well. When Khun Sarm Lor was at home, everything was all right, but when he went away for business, the mother-in-law ordered Upem to do all kinds of housework and scoldes her with offensive words. Sometimes the mother-in-law slapped her face, even though Upem was pregnant.
Finally, Upem could not endure it anymore, and she left the house while Khun Sarm Lor was away. On the way back to her father’s house, she miscarried her child. Though weak and fragile, Upem managed to find her way back home and died in the arms of her father. Understandably, the father was furious.
Once Khun Sarm Lor returned and did not see his wife, he went directly to his father-in-law’s house. Once there, he faced anger and resistance. The villagers would not let him go near the house, and Upem’s father would not let him see her dead body. Khun Sarm Lor then threw a lot of coins away from the gate of the house. While people were busy trying to pick up as many coins as they could, Khun Sarm Lor sneaked into the house. Upem’s body was lying there. Overcome by sorrow and depression, Khun Sarm Lor committed suicide in front of Upem’s body. In his last words to her he said, “Beloved wife of mine, wait for me. Nothing can separate us. Not even death.”
Upem’s father felt great sorrow and bemoaned this tragic event. He then decided to bury the bodies of the couple next to each other so that they would remain together forever. According an old northern Lanna tradition, Khun Sarm Lor’s body had to be buried one hour before Upem ‘s burial.
Khun Sarm Lor’s mother followed her son to the other village. Filled with rage and hatred, she did not want to have her son’s body buried next to Upem’s. But it was too late; the two lovers had already been buried. With few choices left, the mother symbolically separated them by placing a three-jointed bamboo shaft, used to carry their coffins to the burial ground, between the two graves.
Therefore, northern Thai people call the three stars lined up in the constellation Orion the three-joint bamboo shaft stars (the Belt Stars); they partition off the red Upem (Beltaguese) Star and the bright blue Khun Sarm Lor (Rigel) Star that lie on each side of the shaft.
04
The Legend of the Milky Way
As told by an old native of Mae Sa Reang District, Northern Thailand
A long, long time ago, when northern Thailand had not yet been explored, the people of the Lua tribe lived deep in the forests on the mountain. They ranged over the vast northern region. They occasionally came down to the town at the foot of the mountain to trade wild animals that they had hunted for rice and other things.
At that time, a powerful man of Kachin origin ruled the town. The rulers of the surrounding lands feared him. When the formidable ruler demanded goods or anything else, the others sent them without question, because it was the only way that they could prevent him from going to war with them. However, one day his demands on the Lua became too much for them to bear. He sent a messenger, Minta, up the mountain with a message-stick demanding that every year the Lua send him a maid as tribute to honour him. “Why do we have to agree to such a disgraceful order?” the Lua asked themselves. “This is too much for us.” they said.
So they refused, the demand, and the mountain Lua were at odds with the Kachin of the lowlands.
Again, the lowland ruler sent the messenger Minta to deliver an ultimatum. Minta had fallen in love with a young Lua woman, but the marriage was forbidden in this situation. The couple was very sad, and Minta pleaded with the headman of the Lua but he was advised to return to his own people. The Lua tied his hands and feet and put him at the foot of the mountain to humiliate the Kachin.
Like so many disappointed lovers, Minta grew resentful and decided to retaliate against the Lua. He conspired with the Kachin in a plot to show the Lua a sacred cave where the bodies of their ancestors had been put in small openings in the cave’s wall waiting to commune with the Great Spirit. They formulated many plans held many consultations, and set up many tricks. Finally they agreed on a plan in which Minta returned to the Lua and pretended that he had given up the thought of marrying the girl.
Minta returned and sought the trust of the Lua headman. The Lua soon received him without suspicion. Having prepared everything according to the plan, he went to see his chosen girl and persuaded her to follow the path to the cave and wait for him. When the girl left, Minta ignited a bush as a signal to the Kachin hidden in the forest nearby, to come out and attack the Lua, who now came running out in panic.
Minta then met his girl at the sacred pathway and ran into the sacred cave. The only other people who saw them were women in a nearby sanctuary. They closely followed the two lovers along the path.
The fire came on and on. The Lua ran in all directions and many were brutally killed. Of those that were not killed was an old tribal shaman who went to the ancestral cave as soon as he could. He then put a thin white cloth soaked with holy water, which ran through the middle of the cave, around all of the bodies in the small openings in the cave’s wall. He whispered some prayers and cried out to the Great Spirit. The white cloth then stretched and extended into a path up to the sky. The old man climbed up first. Minta and his girl arrived almost at the same time as the women from the sanctuary. The girl was the second one to walk along the white path.
But Minta was punished for his evil plan to betray the Lua. The Great Spirit would not let him stay with his love as he wished. In their haste to escape, the women from the sanctuary shoved the man aside. The throng was climbing up the white cloth, but Minta was last. Alas! Minta was not able to stay next to his girl as he had wanted. They all climbed fervently, hoping to get as far away from the fire and fighting as they could.
Then the sky moved. In the darkness, with only a sliver of red light from the burning forest, the sky heaved and billowed. The white cloth also billowed and finally it split, dividing Minta and the rest, including his lover, never to be joined again. The old shaman chanted, and all of them were changed into bright stars. The Milky Way had come into existence.
