Wednesday, March 2, 2011

A Story to share "The fearless princess"

The fearless princess
(Mindanao)

 Who had a beautiful daughter named Princess Yimbungan, whose beauty was so breathtaking that all the handsome gods of the lakes and mountains vied for her affections and wanted to marry her. But her father loved his daughter so much, that he did not want to give her hand in marriage to any suitor, for he could not bear the thought of her leaving home.
      The handsome god of Mount Apo loved Yimbungan very much and was angry when the Manobo Chief refused to allow him to marry his beautiful daughter. Now it was an age old tradition that the Manobo chief was obliged to give a large going to the god of Mount Apo after the yearly harvest. Because the god was so angry at not being allowed to marry yimbungan, he ordered her father the chief, to deliver the gong seven days before the usual. If this gong was not delivered on time, then the Manobo chief and his people would suffer a terrible fate a t the hands of the god of Mount Apo.

The anxious chief gathered his councils of advisers together to discuss how could they passively find a way of making the large gong on time. Work on the gong began immediately. A huge fire was built with a large cooking suspended high above it. Into the pot, which was high above their heads, the villagers threw metal trinkets and pots and pans. The chief and the council of advisors chanted and prayed around the blazing fire, as it grew in intensity and melted the metal inside the cooking pot.  Once the metal had become boiling liquid, it was poured from the pot and into a clay mould in the shape of a huge gong. Which was the size two men in diameter.
      When the metal had set and the gong and the gong was removed from its mould, the chief struck the metal from the large stick. But to his horror, the gong did not produce a sound! They would have to start it all over and make the gong again.
      But the second gong turned out as disastrously as the first gong because this time, when the villagers removed the villagers removed the gong from its clay mould, it shattered into ten thousand tiny pieces. Time was now running for the delivery of the gong. The worried chief called  his shaman and asked him to find a way in making a gong which would produced a beautiful sound and which would not break in pieces.
       The old shaman closed his eyes and went into a deep trance so that he could communicate with the gods to find a way of making the gong. After several hours, the shaman awoke from his trance, with a worried look on his face. When the chief ask the shaman what advice the god had given him, the shaman began to shake and tremble. He told the chief that he was unable to repeat what advice the god had given him. No matter how many times the chief ask him, still the shaman trembled and refused to reveal whatever the god had told him during his trance.

      Princess Yimbungan saw that the shaman was trembling and refused to speak of his ordeal during his trance and so she took him aside and begged to tell her what the gods had said to him, for the sake of his father and the tribe. At first he was hesitant, but eventually the shaman agreed to tell the secret to Yimbungan, as long as the promised not to tell her father or any of his advisors. Yimbungan agreed to the shaman’s terms and he whispered to her the advice that he had been given the gods.

Yimbungan went to her father and asked that she be allowed to supevise the next casting of the gong because she was the only one who knew the secret of how to produce the perfect musical instrument. Her father agreed and Yimbungan immediately ordered the villagers to stoke up a huge and prepare the large pot high above it, into which they threw hundreds of trinkets and pans and pots.

When the boiling, molten was at just the right temperature, Yimbungan asked for a ladder so she climbed up to the top of the cooking pot to check the mixture. When Yimbungan reached the top of the ladder, she stopped for a moment and looked down at her father below. “I love you, father” she whispered. And then to everyone’s horror, Yimbungan leaped of the ladder and plunged into the bubbling, liquid metal where she was consumed in an instant in flames. Her father and villagers cried out in dismay but could do nothing to save the beautiful Yimbungan.

As the grief-stricken chief fell to his knees with his head in his hands, the shaman came over to him and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “Do not be sad,” said the shaman. “The gods told me that the only way to produce a perfect mixture for the gong was if the flesh and blood of a beautiful princess was added when it reached just the right temperature. Your daughter sacrificed her life to produced the most beautiful musical instrument in the land.

The beautiful gong was offered to the god of mount Apo within the deadline he had given. He was surprised at the beauty of the gong and at the sweet sound it made when it was struck. But he became sad when he learned that the beautiful Princess Yimbungan, whom he loved so dearly, had sacrificed her life to produce the gong.
From his domain, high above the clouds, the god of mount Apo declared, “this gong contains the blood and flesh of my beloved princess Yimbungan.” I will turn this beautiful gong into a beautiful river which will sustain the people of the land surrounding it, for eternity. In return you must always remember the courage and the sacrifice of the beautiful princess Yimbungan that she may live forever in your hearts.”
 The god of mount Apo threw the gong from up above the clouds to the land below. As soon as the gong struck the land, there was a blinding flash and in an instant, the gong had become a flowing river which sparkled in the sun.


Ever since that day, the yimbungan River, which has since become known as the yimbungan River has provide the Manobo people with an abundance of fish and means of transportation, so that they will never forget the ultimate sacrifice made by their beautiful princess.  

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