The Legend Of Lake Toba

There was a poor fisherman lived nearby the river in North Kalimantan. He went fishing early every morning and always returned to his home at night time. One day, he set up his net and caught a big golden fish. He fell in love with the beauty of the fish that he decided not to kill the fish, and made it as a pet instead. So, he took the fish home, cleaned a fish tank and put it in his humble kitchen.

Starting that day, things changed slowly. Every morning the fisherman went out for fishing, no matter how he left his home in a mess, when he returned home, the house would be tidy again. Furthermore, there was always delicious food served on his dining table. The fisherman never knew how it happened, and where the food came from, and who prepared them for him. It brought enormous curiosity to him that he decided to search for the truth.

That morning, he went out as usual, but right when he set out his feet outside, quickly and quietly, he made a turn back to his house. Hiding behind his own window, he took a peep of what happen in the house soon after he left it. Suddenly from inside the kitchen, he could see a bright light shining, and soon after the light disappeared, he could see the fish tank was empty, and a beautiful lady was standing inside his kitchen. The lady quickly got some vegetables and did some cooking. She even cleaned the whole house, sweeping and washing the fisherman's clothes. The fisherman fell in love at the first sight. Before the lady could runaway, the fisherman grabbed her hand and proposed to marry her.

At first, the lady refused for she was just a fish rescued by him. Her deed was a grateful act to repay the fisherman's kindness for not killing her. But since the fisherman time and again persuaded her to marry him, the lady could not refuse him. She agreed to become the fisherman's wife with one condition, that the fisherman promised not to tell anyone - not even his own family - that she was just a fish. The fisherman promised her.

Years went by, the fisherman lived happily with his wife, and changed his work and became a farmer. His wife soon became pregnant and delivered a baby girl that they named "Samosir". Samosir grew up into a pretty girl and obedient as well. She loved to help her parents working in the house or in the farm. One morning, her mother asked her to send lunch to her father in the farm. Samosir was glad to help her mother that she immediately got the basket and headed to the farm.

It was such a long way to got to the farm, that Samosir who had not had any breakfast before, grew tired and hungry. So she stopped to eat a little food from her father's lunch to ease her hunger. Afterward, she continued her journey, however, she became hungry again and had to eat a little food again. This happened again and again till finally her father's lunch was finished. When Samosir gave the basket to her father, how angry her father was to get an empty basket.

"I'm tired working the whole day and expect you to bring some food from your mother, but you finish them all without even thinking of me. How could you? You! A daughter of a fish!" shouted her father in anger.

Samosir ran home crying and telling her mother what had happened. She even asked her mother why her father told her that she was a daughter of a fish. When the mother knew that her husband had eventually broken his promise, she was terribly sad. In tears, she packed all her daughter's clothes and asked her to runaway to the mountain, never look back, and stay there. Samosir did not understand, but she promised to obey her mother.

When the mother was sure that her daughter was safe, she whispered something and slowly she turned herself into a giant fish. The water from river was flooding her house and it came more and more and more that the whole village was flooded and finally disappeared from the earth.

From the top of the mountain, Samosir could only cry to see her village was drowned and the flood surrounded her hiding place. Since then, the place turned into a lake and we called it Lake Toba, and the island in the middle was named after the girl's name, 'Samosir Island'. We can still visit the lake now, and one of the most beautiful lakes in Sumatra island, Indonesia.

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The Legend Of Sangkuriang

A long time ago, the ancient land of Sunda was ruled by a king and a queen who had but a single daughter. Her name was Dayang Sumbi. She was beautiful and clever but also pampered and spoiled.

One day as she was weaving in her pavilion, she became moody and distracted, which caused her to keep dropping her shuttle on the floor.

Once when it fell she exclaimed she would marry the one who gave it back to her. At that very moment her dog Tumang, a demigod possessing magic powers, came up to her with the shuttle in his mouth. Dayang Sumbi had to marry him.

They lived happily together, and Dayang Sumbi gave birth to a baby boy, human in appearance but endowed with his father's magic powers. She named him Sangkuriang. As the boy grew up, he was always guarded by the faithful dog Tumang, whom he knew only as a companion and not as his father, Sangkuriang became handsome and brave.

One day his mother asked him to go hunting with the dog and bring her venison for a feast. After hunting all day without success, Sangkuriang worried about facing his mother empty-handed. Desperate, he took an arrow and shot the dog. He returned home and handed over the meat to his pleased mother.

Soon after the feast, however, Dayang Sumbi questioned her son about the absence of Tumang. At first he evaded her queries but finally told her what had happened. She was horrified and struck her son so hard on the temple that he collapsed. For that, the old king banished his daughter from the court and she was made to roam around the kingdom. Sangkuriang recovered with a large scar on his temple, and he too left the court to wander about the world.

Years later, Sangkuriang met a beautiful woman and instantly fell in love with her. It was his own mother-they did not recognize each other. He pro¬posed to her and she agreed to marry him. On the day before the wedding, as she was caressing her fiancee's hair, Dayang Sumbi detected the scar on the temple. Horror struck her, for she was about to marry her own son, Sangkuriang. Without revealing the whole truth to him, she tried unsuccessfully to dissuade him. Desperate to avoid the marriage, she set conditions she thought impossible to meet: Sangkuriang had to make a lake that filled the whole val¬ley and build a boat for the couple to sail in, all before dawn.

Sangkuriang started to work. His love gave him extraordinary strength, and he used his magic powers to summon the spirits to help him. With boul¬ders and mud they dammed the river in the valley and the water rose and began to form a lake. In the early morning hours he chopped down a huge tree in the forest and began hollowing it out to make a boat. When Dayang Sumbi saw that he was about to accomplish what she had thought impossi¬ble, she called on the gods to bring the sun up early and thwart Sangkuriang.

The cock crowed, the sun rose much earlier than usual, and Sangkuriang realized he had been deceived. In a fit of fury he cursed Dayang Sumbi and kicked the half-finished boat back into the forest. There it lies upside down today, forming the mountain Tangkuban Perahu (Upturned Boat). Not far away is the stump of the tree Sangkuriang had felled, now called Bukit Tunggul. The dam Sangkuriang had built caused the valley to become a lake, where both Sangkuriang and Dayang Sumbi drowned themselves. They were never heard of again.

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The Legend Of Malin Kundang

Malin Kundang is a tale that originated from the province of West Sumatra, Indonesia. Malin Kundang legend tells about a child who is rebellious to his mother and is therefore condemned to stone. A form of rock on the sweet water beach, Padang, said to be the remains of the ship Malin Kundang.

At one time, there is a family of fishermen in the coastal region of West Sumatra. Because the financial condition of the family concern, the father decided to make a living in the country by wading across a vast ocean. Malin's father never returned to his hometown so that her mother had to replace the position of Malin's father to make a living.

Malin including a bright child but a bit naughty. He often chasing chickens and hit him with a broom. One day, when Malin was chasing chickens, she tripped over a stone and a stone hit her right arm injury. Injury has become a trace in hand and can't be lost. Feeling sorry for his mother who worked hard for a living to raise themselves. Malin decided to go wander in order to become wealthy after returning to my hometown someday.

Initially Ms. Malin Kundang less agree, considering her husband also never returned after going to wander but Malin insisted that eventually he'd be willing to go wander off Malin with boarded a merchant ship. During his stay on the ship, Malin Kundang lot to learn about seamanship on the crew that has been experienced.

Along the way, suddenly climbed Malin Kundang ships were attacked by pirates. All merchandise traders who were on the ship seized by pirates. Even most of the crew and people on the ship were killed by the pirates. Malin Kundang lucky, he was hiding in a small space enclosed by the timber so as not to be killed by the pirates.

Malin Kundang float amid sea, until finally the host ship stranded on a beach. With the remaining force, Malin Kundang walked to the nearest village from the beach. Malin village where villagers stranded is very fertile. With tenacity and perseverance in work, over time Malin had become a very rich. He has many fruit merchant ships with the children of more than 100 people. After becoming rich, Malin Kundang marry a girl to become his wife.

News Malin Kundang who have become wealthy and married, also heard her mother. Her mother felt grateful and very happy his son has been successful. Since then, the mother of Malin every day go to the dock, waiting for her son who may return to his hometown.

After a long marriage, Malin and his wife make the voyage with the crew and a lot of bodyguards. Malin's mother who saw the arrival of the ship to the dock to see there are two people who were standing on the deck of a ship. He believes if that is standing for the child, Malin Kundang and his wife.

Mother Malin was heading toward the ship. Once close enough, his mother saw the scar right hand person, the more convinced his mother that he was approached Malin Kundang. "Malin Kundang, my son, why did you go so long without sending you?", he said, hugging Malin Kundang. But to see an old woman dressed in tattered and dirty hug, Malin Kundang became angry even though he knows that the old lady is her mother, because she was embarrassed when it is known by his wife and also his subordinates.

Get treated like that of her son, Malin Kundang mother very angry. He did not expect him to be rebellious child. Because of mounting anger, the mother of his son menyumpahkan Malin, "Oh God, if he my son, I sumpahi he became a stone. "

Not long after Malin Kundang again go sailing and on the way coming storm destroyed the ship master Kundang. After that Malin Kundang body slowly becomes rigid and in time they finally shaped into a rock. Until now Batu Malin Kundang can still be seen at a beach called sweet water beach, in the southern city of Padang, West Sumatra.

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