Sumatra

Showing posts with label Sumatra. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sumatra. Show all posts

The Commander and The Youngman: Indonesian Short Story for Children

The story of Sekunca and the Youngman is from Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam. This children stories told about the brave of the Youngman and the tricky of the Commander Sekunca. There is a moral story in this Indonesian short story for children. An honest and courageous will win against a foxy plan.

Once upon a time in Tamiang land, there was a kingdom ruled by a king and his queen. Unfortunately, they did not have a daughter. The King and the Queen have been waiting for the baby for a long time.

In their desperation, the King, and the Queen make a promise. They swore that if the queen born a little girl, they would give the baby to the King of elephants.

Not too long after their promise, the queen pregnant. After nine months, the Queen born a little girl. The king had forgotten his oath to the king of elephants. The King makes the biggest mistake he ever did.

After the baby reached the age of forty-four days, the baby must go through a traditional ceremony. The traditional ceremony usually held in the Tamiang culture. The ceremony is for the baby to step on the soil for the first time and to cut child's hair for the first time.

Unfortunately, in the middle of the ceremony, came a group of elephants from the jungle. A group of this elephant took the baby away to the dark forest, the place where the Elephant King lived.

The king remembered his poor little girls After about fifteen years later. So, he announced to all the peoples in the country.

He said,"for those who could bring the princess back to the kingdom, would become the next king and the princess as the queen."

There is a well-known commander in the country named Panglima Sekunca. Panglima means Commander. There is also a handsome Youngman took part in this contest.

Sekunca Commander always underestimated this Youngman. The Commander thought that he was the strongest man in the country. He feels that the man was nothing but he is a weak and stubborn man.

But this young man was a patient man. He ignored Sekunca insignificance words. The man followed Commander into the jungle.

Sekunca arrived in the forest first. He found the big trees fell down on the ground. When Sekunca saw this,  he felt afraid. He felt something dangerous could happen to himself. Then, he decided to wait for the Youngman.

The man arrived next to the Commander. From this location, they walked together. In the middle of their journey, finally, they found the place. They saw the elephants gathered themselves. They also saw the princess was sitting in the midst of the elephant group.

Sekunca felt so afraid seeing this situation. He wanted to run away from this place. To hide Sekunca's fear, then he asked the Youngman to go first. He asks this man to fight with the elephants first.
The Commander and The Youngman: Indonesian Short Story for Children Image Man vs Elephant Mammoth Fight Illustration Art by steenhuisen.deviantart.com
Man vs Elephant Mammoth Fight Illustration Art by steenhuisen.deviantart.com


This Youngman has a magical power. With all his braveness supported by his supernatural power, he fought with the elephants. This young man also had a magic sword. With his sword, he can kill the elephants including the king of elephants.

But during the Youngman's fight with the elephant, the Commander ran. He moved from the arena and left the man fighting alone.

After the big fight, the princess still sitting in the middle of the elephants' dead bodies. This Youngman saved the princess. He took her back to the kingdom.

In the middle of the Youngman and the princess' journey, they met Panglima Sekunca. Panglima Sekunca felt envious to the Youngman's successful. Sekunca could not accept this reality. He does not agree if the Youngman marry the princess.

Sekunca wanted to make an evil plan to the man. He attacked the Youngman. He pushed him into the deep pool in the middle of the jungle. In this way, Sekunca can substitute the man and brought the princess back to the Kingdom. He will proclaim himself he can kill the King of Elephant.

When Sekunca and the Princess arrived in the kingdom, the peoples and the King were so happy. The palace made some ceremony for the princess and Panglima Sekunca.

The King thought, "This is my hero, and he will become the next king for saving my beloved princess."

The King announced to his peoples that soon Panglima Sekunca will marry the princess. At the same time, in this ceremony held a coronation for Sekunca Commander.

In the coronation royal day, the princess speaks. The Princess told that Sekunca was not the person who has saved her. In fact, the person who has saved her is the young man.

The king confused. The King decided to cancel the ceremony for seven days until the Youngman could proof himself. The King will wait for the Youngman present in seven days.

In the jungle, the Youngman could save himself from the dark well. During his return to the castle, he fought with many wild animals. These wild animals are such as rhinoceroses, tigers, and lions.

Until the seventh day, the Youngman couldn't reach the palace but the next day. But when the wedding ceremony between the princess and Panglima, Sekunca arrived.

The Youngman showed himself in the middle of the crowded. This attendance of Youngman stopped the wedding ceremony. The Youngman tried to convince the King. He said that he was the real hero, but Panglima Sekunca still insisted that he was the man who saved the princess.

There is a debate between Sekunca Commandeer and the Youngman. The King stops the debate. The King announced a duel between Sekunca and the Youngman.

The fight took a whole day for three days. Finally, Panglima Sekunca lost in the fight considering he was wrong, bad-hearted, and tricky. The Youngman man won the fight because he was honest and brave.

After all, the Youngman married the princess and became a good king. They ruled his kingdom wisely, and they lived happily ever after.

Orang Minangkabau History

Traditional Roof of Minangkabau from Pasaman Barat Regency Office Building West Sumatra (image credit scopophilia.net)
This Indonesia myths and legends is one of the famous stories in Minangkabau People. This fairy tales explains the origin and the meaning of Minangkabau words.

The old name for Minangkabau is Alam, or "the world." The people of Alam are well known as clever and hardworking people. The country was green and beautiful.

About six hundred years ago, the king of Java sent an army to Alam. The military tells the people that the king was the king of all the golden island of Indonesia.

The army commander said to the leaders of Alam when that reached Bukit Batu Patah.

"You had better surrender. The king of Java is mighty. Otherwise, we will attack your country and kill many of your people."

"To fight is easy," replied the wise men of Alam.

"But who knows who will win? Why should we kill each other? Let's find a better way."

"Very well,” said the army commander. "What do you suggest?"

"Let us each brings a buffalo to fight. Your buffalo can fight with ours. If your Buffalo wins, then we will surrender to the king of Java. If our Buffalo wins, then we will continue to be free."

"Excellent,” said the army commander.

After a few days, he told the wise men of Alam that he had found a buffalo to fight for the king of Java. Their buffalo was big and frighten.

The wise men of Alam saw this buffalo and said, "Oh, we will lose. Where can we find a buffalo strong enough to fight with it?"

Then Alam people held a meeting. After talking for many hours, they made a plan. One of the men took a young buffalo calf from its mother. Another man fastened nine sharp pieces of iron to the tips of the calf's horns.

They did not allow the calf to drink any of its mother's milk for a day and night. Then, they went to see the army commander.

"We have found our buffalo," they said.

 "We are ready."

There was a great shout of laughter when the king of Java's soldiers saw the little calf. The wise men of Alam and all the assembled villagers kept quiet. The battle began.

The calf go ran towards to the frighten buffalo. This little calf thought it was his mother. It pressed it into the stomach of the big buffalo, looking for milk.

The big buffalo gave a great cry of pain. The sharp pieces of iron fastened in the tips of the calf's horns stuck into the big buffalo stomach. The little calf pushed back this big buffalo. The big buffalo run away as fast as it could from this little calf.

The people of Alam shouted, "Minangkabau! Minangkabau!

Minangkabau meaning is “Our Buffalo has won.” Minang is Menang (win). Kabau is Kerbau or buffalo.

The king of Java's soldiers stopped laughing. They had lost. There was nothing left for them to do but to exit the country.

The people of Alam were still free. However, they changed the name of their land to "Minangkabau" or "The buffalo's Victory."

That is why to this day the roofs of their houses made to look like buffalo horns.

The Tiger People, Indonesian Children Myths from Sumatra

Long ago, there are many tigers in the forest of Sumatra. The Tigers have always stolen away the villagers’ cattle and frightened them. The villagers never called this tiger by its real name in their conversation about the tiger.

The villagers thought that the Tigers could understand the human language.  They would feel insulted if weak creatures like the human if they called them by their real name. The villagers knew how big a tiger could be.

The villagers believe that some Tigers could change themselves into the human being.  They also believe that there were people who could turn themselves into a tiger.

These tiger’s people had a double life. In the daytime, they were the ordinary peasant. At night, they would leave their huts and creep into the forest to change themselves into tiger. There are many stories about such tiger people and here is one of them.

Indonesian Children Myths from Sumatra: The Tiger People

Once, there was a sales man who used to travel from village to village to sell cloth. One day, he was on his way on the road. He carries big bundle of beautiful woven, fabric, sarongs, and headscarves. Finally, he arrived at a crossroad.

The left the road was broad and smooth. The right it was narrow and full of stones. After a while, he decided to choose the left road. He thought that a good road would lead him to the real and generous customers in the village.

He walked on this road. The further he walked the bush becomes the trees which grew on each side of the road.

When dusk feels, there was still no sign of a village. The sales man did not meet a single person too. There were only monkeys on the trees and lizards hide in the grass.
Green Fire Tiger Spirit With Little Boy Illustration Credit littletiger488.deviantart.com
A long last, he could hardly see the shadows of the trees. It started to be dark in that forest. Then this sales man saw a big house.

When he knocked the door, an old woman opened the door and asked what he wanted. He said that he wanted to sell a cloth, but he could not find any village.

The man asked if the old woman allowed him to stay in her house. He just needs for one night because the forest was full of tigers. He was afraid if those Tigers would eat him.

The old women feel sorry for the sales man, but he could do nothing. She said that her husband, brother, and son were all Tigers. If they found the sales man in the house, they would kill him.

The man felt frightened, and he did not know what to do. Finally, the old woman felt sorry for him. Then she allowed the man entered the house. She warned the man not to make any noise while her family was at home.

This woman gave the man meal. She took the bundle of cloth from him and hid him in a small room at the top of the house. Then the man growling and scratching in the room downstairs.

The tiger’s man had come home. As soon as they were inside, those Tigers said, they smelt a man inside the house. The old woman said that there was no man in the house. She told those Tigers people that a half an hour ago, a man trying to sell cloth.

He left his cloth and sarongs behind, and then went to the forest to sleep under the tree. Tomorrow he will come back for the bundle. The woman showed the Tigers people a bundle of cloth.

Those tiger’s people were interested in the fabric and sarongs. They wanted to have one. Every one of them chose a sarong and a headscarf. Those Tigers paid for those things with big pieces of gold since they did not have money at all.

After dinner, they decided to go back to the forest to look for the man and frightened him. It would be fun to scare the daylights out of him, they thought.

The next morning, the old woman woke up the man. She told him to go as fast as he could before the tigers' people came from the forest. She gave him the pieces of gold. The old woman showed him the nearest way to the village.

This salesperson thanked the woman then he walked away as fast as he could. He did not stop until he arrived on the main road and knew that he was safe.

When he looked at his bag, he saw that gold. He found that they were worth a thousand times more than the cloth the Tigers people had bought. He returned home as a wealthy man. How happy he was.

After a year's latter when he had forgotten about the bad night, he decided to go back. He wants to go to the house in the forest with some expensive woven cloth and jewels to sell to the tiger’s men.

When he arrived at the place where the crossroad used to be, he found nothing. The broad and smooth path had disappeared. For days, he walked around the whole area. However, he could not locate the way to the old woman's house.

The Legend of Lake Toba Indonesia

A long time ago, there was a wanderer, named Sibuatan. After wandered over so many places, he finally decided to stay in a single location. It was on the riverbank near the valley.

Sibuatan was pleased staying in this new place. This riverbank has beautiful scenery, fresh air, and the most fertile land. His daily works are cultivating the land, collecting vegetables and firewood. He was also catching fish for his meal.

One afternoon, when Sibuatan went fishing, he caught a big fish with golden scales.

"Hurray! I got a giant fish. I will have a big dinner tonight!" said Sibuatan happily.

Sibuatan walked home quickly to cook the fish. When he arrived at his house, he put the fish on the table in the kitchen. Then he went down to get some firewood underneath the house.
Traditional Court Hall and Traditional House in Toba North Sumatera Indonesia credit Husni Scopophilia.net

However, when he came back from collecting woods, Sibuatan was so surprised. He finds a beautiful woman in his room instead of the fish.

Sibuatan’s heartbeat gets fast. He knew he fell in love with this cute girl. He soon learned this woman was a transformation of the big fish he had caught that day.

Without a second thought, Sibuatan proposed her to marry him. The woman agreed to marry him with one condition. Sibuatan would not ever mention her origin (she was a fish) to anyone. Sibuatan agreed about it. He was too happy to have such a beautiful wife.

A year past and they had already a son named Sam. Since he was a little, her mother spoiled him. So, when he was big enough, his behavior was bad.
Ulos Batak Colorful Traditional Clothes Market in Lake Toba Indonesia credit scopophilia.net
Sam was a lazy boy. He just played around the river and never helped and respected to his parents. This boy was good at swimming and diving. He did it every day. Then Sibuatan asked Sam to help him in the field.

One-day Sam's mother told him to deliver his father's lunch. Unfortunately, Sam ate his father's lunch little by little while he walked. When he arrived at the field, the rest of the food was leftover.

Sibuatan got angry finding this fact. Every day Sam's is only playing, playing, and playing around.  When Sam got his first-time task, he failed. Sam asked to deliver his father's lunch.

Sam did not only arrive late but also had eaten the meal. Sibuatan could not control his anger anymore. He smacked and cursed his son.

"You are the son of a fish! You cannot teach well. All you want to do is playing in the river like fish. Get out of my sight!" he was furious.

The boy ran home and cried. Then Sam told his mother that his father cursed him as a son of a fish. His mother was sad to know that his husband had broken his oath.

Sibuatan told about her origin to their son. The woman then told Sam to climb the hill behind their house as high as he could. Without asking anymore, Sam went away.

When Sam's mother saw his son had climbed high the hill, she walked to the bank of the river. Then, thunder is strike one after the other. The woman jumped into the river. She transformed back into a big fish.

The rain came down hard with thunder rumbled. The river overflowed so fast and kept overflowed. The water fills the big valley circled the hill. Sam climbed this hill and covered by water.

Sam cried when he watched from the top of the hill, what had happened. The overflow from the river became a big lake with an island in the center.

That lake is known as Lake Toba, meanwhile, the hill named as Samosir Island. The name came from the words "the son (Sam) that chased move away (diusir)".

Children Stories With Morals: Do Not Eat If Hungry

Children stories with morals entitled Wa Lancar with good stories. This Free fairy tales and folk tales for children stories come from North Sumatra – Indonesia.

Wa Lancar was a poor man. He has desperate to learn how to be a good and religious man, and he wanted to learn and study as much as possible. However, since his father had passed away, his mother was not able to support him in his quest for knowledge.

Despite in desperate situation, Wa Lancar tried not to let that situation prevented himself. He tries to get a better for himself. He always tried and tried found out how he could learn free. Thus, he could get his idea. He decided to find a teacher who would teach him free without payment.


Wa Lancar finally found a teacher who wanted to teach him without care for the payment. The teacher asked him with a stipulation that he should carry out. Wa Lancar agreed with this stipulation. Therefore, that teacher would teach him.

After a long time, he received just one lesson, which was quite strange. The lesson was "Do Not Eat If Hungry.”

He was not satisfied and tried to go looking for another teacher. The second teacher gave him the same advice with the first one. He was still not satisfied and found the third teacher.
Amazing Blue Knife Stone (Facebook Amazing Geologist)

The third teacher gave him the same advice as the two former teachers. The third teacher gave him with a further lesson “Take a Stone and a Knife and Sharpen the Knife."

Wa Lancar realised feeling disappointed again. He decided not to learn from further teachers. He feels always got the same lesson from his master.

Wa Lancar still enthusiasm to have more studies. He tries to learn from his friends who have already finished studying religion. After a while and got the knowledge from his friends he went travelling.

When he arrived in a faraway kingdom, he asked permission to live at the royal mosque. During his free time, he taught some children to read the holy book at the mosque. Seeing this, another teacher felt jealous with Wa Lancar. This teacher reported him to the king that Wa Lancar was misleading the children.

The king was angry. He punished Wa Lancar to have married with the princess.

The princess has already married for several times. However, her husband has always died unexpectedly just they got married. Because of this unfortunate situation, nobody wanted to marry the princess.

Therefore, Wa Lancar marries with the princess as his punishment. The wedding party began. The man who reported him to the king sees among the guests. Seeing the meals were serving, Wa Lancar started to feel starving.

Suddenly he remembered his teacher who taught him not to eat when he was hungry. Thus, he did not touch the food. In fact, his food had poisoned and would have killed anyone who ate it.


Then, some people who asked him to get some stones from the river who visited Wa Lancar. First, Wa Lancar did not want to make that request.

After thinking for a moment, finally, he made that offer. On the way to the river with the soldiers, he felt tired and stopped walking. At that moment, he remembered what his teacher had said. The soldiers keep step ahead.

Suddenly Wa Lancar heard people screaming. It was the soldiers. They had stepped on water mines. Then Wa Lancar, returned safely to the palace.

After he arrived at the palace, without thinking anything he went straight to his Wife's room. In that room, he saw his wife sleeping soundly. He did not wake her up, but he ground the black stone. Suddenly he saw a centipede try to bite him. However, he killed a centipede with the sharp stone. Wa Lancar survived.

The morality of this story is no matter how simple a knowledge if you should learn it seriously. The knowledge should be useful for the future. Such as in this story Wa Lancar had felt useful of the knowledge that he got from his teacher.

Both of these lessons help Wa Lancar escaped from the danger. The first, he did not eat even thought he was hungry Then he was safe from the poisoning meal. The second, Wa Lancar also escaped from the danger. He had killed the centipede with the stone, so finally he will survive.

Legends & Myths from Minangkabau: Goa Si Bincik


Minangkabau is the term or the place name for the area of West Sumatra Province, Indonesia. The capital city of Sumatera Barat is Padang city.

Legends & Myths from Minangkabau: Goa Si Bincik


Once upon a time in the land of Minangkabau, lived a rascal, which feared by the people. He was call as Bincik, since he was dwarf.

Bincik means small or little. Among the gangsters, Bincik is well known as a good gambler. He often won the gambling. Whenever there was a crowd, Bincik was there, gambled with other players.

Bincik had used to bring a little amount of money, but when he bet and put his money at the stakes. Bincik always won much money. Then his money became greater. He used it again to set another chance. He only stopped to play when the operator of the gambling asked him to stop playing.

When he lost in the gambling, Bincik robbed people and stole money from others. If the people seized him, many beat him, but it seemed that he was invulnerable. That was why then among the bandit's lie he pointed to be the leader.


Bincik got more followers from the gangster friends over the village. It made the other villages around them, experienced more robbing. People suspected Bincik and his friends who had to blame in doing such criminal deeds.

Traditional Minangkabau House by Ricky Purnadi Riqua


The villages around, hate Bincik's village. When the others faced many robbing, Bincik's village was the only safe, peaceful community. Thus, the nearby people did not want to make any contact. They refused to the deal with the people from Bincik village.

It was, of course, not a good thing for the people in Bincik village. Then the people went to meet Bincik. They asked him to stop robbing, or another village would burn their village.

Although Bincik is a bandit, he still had a healthy mind. He gathered his friends and asked them to quit from robbing people.

"My friends, I want you to stop robbing people, and front now on steal no more!" Bincik spoke before the bandits.

His friends stared each other. They could not believe what they had just heard and then laughed together.

"Is that you who've just spoken, Bincik?"

"Ha...ha...you must be kidding, don't you?" one of the robbers questioning Bincik's words.

"I say to you once more; do not rob the people again. Just stop it right now, ok? We may put our village into bigger trouble if we don't stop it." told Bincik emphatically.

All the bandits were silent. Nobody has dared to say anything. Suddenly, there was a big, solid guy rose up Bincik. Without any word he lifted Bincik up and threw him to the valley.

He was Koduk, the strongest robber that did not agree with Bincik decision.

Bincik fainted for a moment, and when he woke up, it was already dark. He did not know where exactly he was. Bincik tried to shout for help, but there was nobody down there.

Finally, he heard a voice, whispered to his ears, "I will help you, young man, if you want to do me a favour."

"Who are you? I can't see you at all?" Bincik tried to look around.

"You don't need to see me, just find my daughter. My daughter has buried under the ruins beneath the place you are standing now. If you find my little girl alive, take her as your wife, but if she has dead, you will be the next to die."

"What if I refuse your demand?"

"You will die by the wolves attack in this valley," the voice explained.

After took a little time to think about this challenge, Bincik went down to find the girl under the ruins. He dug in and found her alive. In fact, she was an extraordinarily beautiful woman.

Bincik married her. They lived together in the cave that formed by the ruins that Bincik dug in.

One day, Bincik wanted to see his parents and planned to go home to his neighbourhood. But as he arrived at the village, he found nobody in the village. The village was so quiet. Then Bincik went to the people in the next village.

He asked the next village what had happened to the Bincik village.

"Your village has left, nobody dwells in since it was attacked and robbed by Koduk, your former man. And Koduk is the leader now. He is the king of the bandits." An old man gave Bincik explanation.

After that, Bincik tried to find his parents. But he discovered that they were already dead, murdered by Koduk and his gangster. Bincik made up a promise to take revenge and to kill Koduk someday.

The bad thing happened to Bincik when he went home to his cave. He shocked to see Koduk had been there and captured his wife.

A battle fight began between Bincik and Koduk. At the end of the fight, Bincik killed Koduk. The other bandits gave up to Bincik. They promised not to rob and steal again.

A few years later, there was Paden War or Padri War (Perang Padri). The people of Minangkabau fought against the Dutch, who came as the coloniser.

The Dutch used the bandits to bring up chaos and triggered terrors to the people. Bincik that heard all the things, then he came forward with his friends and the people of Minangkabau. They altogether defend their country from the Dutch.

At that time, Bincik became a dangerous enemy for the Dutch.

One day, the Dutch besieged the cave where Bincik life. After a long searching, they failed to find Bincik. He disappeared. Even until the war had finished, nobody knew whether he had killed or still alive.

However, the people of Payakumbuh know that the cave was the place where Bincik lived with his wife. The people of Payakumbuh called that place as Ngalau Si Bincik or Goa Si Bincik (Cave of Bincik).