Week 7 Essay: Llama vs. Lama

Llama. Not to be confused with lama.
Source: wikimedia commons

            In this week’s readings I noticed the element of the supernatural for the first time. In previous weeks, there had been peculiar events that happened, but it had always been a result of the characters’ actions. Sometimes the characters were foolish and landed themselves in a sticky situation, other times the characters were tricksters and took advantage of their foolish counterparts.

            In the Tibetan Folk Tales, the lamas, or Tibetan holy men, were commonly associated with the supernatural. For example, in The Ingratitude of Man, the king summoned his lamas to explain the supernatural activities that happened. In this particular story it was a snake that took on a supernatural role by turning into a ghost and choking the king. I thought it was very interesting to see an animal play the part of the supernatural, because in today’s culture, especially in horror films, it is usually humans that are the source of supernatural activity.

            The supernatural elements that I am more familiar with can be seen in The Story of Drashup and the Goddess. In this story, there is a man who has neither a family nor a wife. Being all alone in the world he decides to sleep away his troubles under a tree. While asleep under the tree he overhears a goddess telling the fortune of a little girl who was just born. Much to the man’s surprise, the goddess says that he, Drashup, will be the one to marry the little girl. Feeling that this is very irrational, the man attempts to kill the girl at a young age so as to avoid marrying her. However, through the supernatural power of the goddess, she does not die. In the end, in spite of his best efforts, Drashup ends up marrying the young girl.

            Interestingly enough, in addition to predicting whom the young girl would marry, the goddess also told the fortune of how she would die. Drashup also overheard this fortune. The goddess said that she would die by eating the shoulder of the mutton. Since he had not been successful in killing the girl before, Drashup knew that the goddess must be right about how the girl would die. So after they were married, he always made sure to eat the shoulder of the mutton himself. Nevertheless, one day while he was gone, the girl ate the shoulder of the mutton. As a result, she became very ill and died.   

            Although the supernatural was a recurring motif in this unit, it appeared in many different ways. More specifically the supernatural could take on the form of an animal, a human, or a goddess. Also, the supernatural was commonly associated with the lamas. Overall, the supernatural elements not only provided interesting elements to the story, but they also helped the stories progress.