I would like to see/hear some of the folklore stories that was told to you from your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles. I think it would be interesting to see/hear the different stories from all the different tribes/clans.
Hmong Folklore – A Hmong Folk Tale Provided by Maysua Her | In every culture, there are always stories told from one generation to the…
Npoj Thaub (Bao Thao) Va Yang Xiong told this story, and Ted Yang translated it. The lessons of this story are not to lose hope…
The Blossom, the Humming Bird, and the Bee This is a Hmong folktale similar to the Cinderella story. It was brought to us by Nhia…
Buffalo Woman, A story of Magic www.firstpeople.us Snow Bird, the Caddo medicine man, had a handsome son. When the boy was old enough to be…
Being part of a family has always been important to the Hmongs and it is one of the basic parts of a Hmong life. They…
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Well, for the Hmong people, there are many folklore featuring an orphan boy as the protagonist. The most well-known among Hmong people in Laos and Thailand would be Orphan Boy and Niam Nkauj Zuag Paj (pronouced Nia Gao Zhua Pa, who is Orphan Boy’s wife). The story goes that Orphan Boy, being an orphan with no family whatsoever is lonely and sad. He goes to cry by the lake, crying about how poor and unfortunate he is with no one to love him. Niam Nkauj Zuag Paj, who lived in the lake, hears his cries and feels sorry for him. She emerges out of the lake and agrees to become his wife and love him. Using magic, she created a nice house for him and created household items from her jewelries. And together they lived a happy life. Little did they know that their happy lovebird life would be ruined by an unsuspecting neighbor Niam Nkauj Kus Kaws ( I call her the Toad Woman in English) The Toad Woman was jealous of Orphan Boy and Niam Nkauj Zuag Paj’s happy life so she decided to destroy it. She transformed herself in to a beautiful woman and seduced Orphan Boy when his wife wasn’t around. She told him that his wife was actually a monster who drank dragon’s blood, that he should leave her and be with the Toad Woman instead, for he’ll have a much better life with her. Eventually, Orphan Boy came to believe this and one day decided to get rid of his wife by forcing her back into the lake where she came from. Little by little she stepped into the lake, first the waters were up to her ankles. She cried for Orphan Boy to let her come back so they can be like they were before, but Orphan Boy refused and told her to keep on going. The waters were then up to her knees, again she begged but he still refused. The waters were up to her waist, again he refused. Further she went, the waters being up to her neck, she begged one last time but again he refused. And then, into the waters she went and disappeared. Orphan Boy went back to his home, thinking that he’ll be forever happy with the Toad Woman only to find out that he had been tricked, for all of his home and belongings all had disappeared with Niam Nkauj Zuag Paj. He went running to the lake, begging for Niam Nkauj Zuag Paj to come back and that he was sorry but no reply came. For days he waited by the lake, crying and begging for his wife to come back. A little frog near the lake heard his cries and went to ask him what was the matter. Orphan Boy then told him of how he sent his wife away due to his foolishness. Feeling sorry for the Orphan Boy, the frog agrees to help him see his wife again by drinking up all of the water in the lake. But there was one condition; the Orphan Boy must never laugh.
The frog began to drink up all of the water until the frog began to bloat. Looking hilarious, the Orphan Boy couldn’t help himself and started laughing. Immediately the frog’s stomach burst open and all of the water fell back into the lake. The frog was furious at Orphan Boy for not keeping his promise of laughing. The Orphan Boy begged the frog to try one more time and the frog agreed, warning that if he laughed again then he won’t help anymore. Orphan Boy then sewed up the frog’s belly and once again the frog drank up all of the water and there at the bottom of the lake was Niam Nkauj Zuag Paj. Orphan Boy jumped in to the lake to retrieve his wife, but she refused to go back with him. She told him that her father had already given her to someone else, the Sky Prince, and within a few days, he would come to get her. Orphan Boy cried, begged and apologized to her and then she said that if he really wants her back then before the Sky Prince comes to get her, he should take 9 giant jars to the highest hill and fill them with water. When she and the Sky Prince are on his horse galloping in the sky, Orphan Boy has to catch her reflection in the jars. If he fails then they shall never be together ever again. Orphan Boy then leaves to complete the task given to him. Then the Sky Prince came to take Niam Nkauj Zuag Paj and away they rode onto his horse, passing by Orphan Boy who had fallen asleep, tired from carrying water up the hill to fill the jars. Niam Nkauj Zuag Paj cries out to him that he doesn’t wake up then he’ll miss his only chance of ever getting her back. Hearing her cry, he immediately wakes up and tries to catch her reflection. But being too late, he miss her reflection every time. It is here that the ending changes. Some say that they never get back together again, while the ending that my mother told me was that Orphan Boy quickly grabbed the leaf of a palm tree and used it to whip the behind of the Sky Prince’s horse, causing it to buck and knock Niam Nkauj Zuag Paj back to earth, where they lived happily ever after.
There’s one with a girl, a warrior and a tiger but there’s a lot of different stories to it. There’s also a legend about a man who knows black magic and was turn into a tiger. Some say he still lives in the jungle of laos and thailand other say he was shot and kill. Hmong villages were always frighten of him because he would take the spirit of any young teens who was handsome, beautiful, and talented. He would take them to married him or make them his slave. People did not dare say his name out loud.
The Hmong people also have their own variation of Cinderella as well .
Here’s a story of what i was talking about was written by someone in Atown. It all started hundreds of years ago when the Hmong first resided into the Mountains of Laos. It was said that the spirit of the Mountains had never seen any human with any talent before and so the Hmong people interested them because of our Keng playing, flute play, ncas playing and kwv txhiaj, lustaum, pajhuam.
One day a woman went to the garden and started singing kwv txhiaj…the near by Spirit King(Tswv Xyas) heard her and wanted to hear more so it followed her home to the nearby village. As it entered the village, it morphed into the only animal it could copy, a tiger. And it stayed near the edge of town to hide itself from the Hmongs. It heard many many skills that the Hmong people had achieved and it wanted to posses the skills or the person with the skills.
Slowly, it started taking lives of the Hmong people. One by one, the talented Hmongs were dying of unexplainable deaths. The shaman finally saw the spirit Tswv Xyas and did battle with it. He lost but he found out what Tswv Xyas wanted and he inform all the Hmongs to stop using their talents in public for death will be near if they do.
It was new year and people gather around for the festivities…from another village lived a very skillful Keng player name Yob (Yaw). He did not know about the Tswv Xyas so he played his Keng on the way to the other village to enjoy the festival. On his way there, Tswv Xyas heard it and wanted him because he was the best so far. Tswv Xyas slowly watched this young man throughout the new year. After the new year, Tswv Xyas stole this man’s spirit and he became very ill and later died. But he didn’t die a normal death, for he was the very first to come back from the dead because he was to be Tswv Xyas successor. He scared the elders and soon after, they tied him down and burried him far far away. (This is what the movie was about, Yob (Yaw) is the dead guy chasing after Xab.)
After Tswv Xyas got this man, he put a curse on the Hmong people…Hmongs cannot put lub kawm(the ker or the bamboo basket they wear) over their head for they shall turn into a tiger and become Tswv Xyas’ minions. Over time, the Hmong Shaman got stronger and taught Hmong people of how to evade Tswv Xyas which made it weaker and weaker. Over several decades, it is still roaming the Laos mountain sides and is still seeking talented people but it only wants the best, therefore the elders banned us from:
* Whistling at night for it will attract poj ntxoog which will bring Tswv Xyas
* Playing dead tunes on the Keng while not in the funeral for it shall bring the dead to you.
* The drum that is played at the funeral shall not be played anywhere else and before somebody dies, it will play a loud three time booming sound in the house of the keeper of the drum.
* No crying at the burial site for Tswv Xyas is always nearby to take the weakest soul with him and crying shows that you are the
and here’s an example of how funeral are done in the old days this clip was from an old movie that is related to the story above. It is said that when it gets to the part where the guy is playing the hmong instrument qeej that you should mute your volume cause the tune that he is playing is to send the dead spirit to heaven and to ward off any evil spirit who would try to harm the spirit that is going to heaven. This tune can only be played at funeral or your spirit would wonder off listening to this tune.
“Zeb” Part III, I haven’t seen that one but the first and second one was pretty scary when we watched as kids. “Zeb” is pronounced as Ze and it is the name of the main character.