Reading Notes: Tibetan Folk Tales, Part A

This week one of the stories that caught my eye is a Tibetan folk tale, The Man and the Ghost. This comes from Tibetan Folk Tales, by A. L. Shelton. It’s about what happens when a traveler meets a ghost on his journey.

Reading Notes

• A man was walking along a road when a ghost suddenly started walking along beside him; the man was scared, but did his best not to show it.
• Soon they came to a river that they had to swim across to get to the other side.
• The man was very noisy when he swam of course, and the ghost made no noise at all, being a ghost.
• The ghost asked the man why he was so noisy, and the man replied that he was a ghost too, and therefore could be as loud as he wanted. 
• The ghost proposed that in that case, they should become good friends so they could help each other if need be.
• As they walked along, the ghost asked the man if he feared anything; the man replied he didn’t (and lied through his teeth).
• When the man asked, the ghost said the only thing he feared was the sound of the wind blowing through a barley field.
• As evening fell they came towards the outskirt of a city; the ghost decided to go into town, while the man said he wanted to sleep in a barley field on the edge of town.
• The ghost went into town and wrecked havoc, including stealing the soul of the king’s son.
• He bound up the soul in a sack, took it to the edge of the field where the man was sleeping, and left the sack there, telling the man to attend to the soul because he had business elsewhere.
• The man disguised himself as a holy man and took the sack into the city with him. 
• When he arrived he heard that the king’s son was very ill and about to die, and he knew at once what was wrong.
• He went to the palace and, out of desperation, the king and his advisors asked for his help; in fact, the king promised half of his wealth to the man if he could cure his son. 
• The man sat down and put on a show of performing some holy rituals, and opened the sack to let the soul out.
• The son recovered, and the king was so grateful he did keep his word to the man.
• The ghost never returned, and the man thought this must be customary etiquette between a ghost and a man.

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