The Curse of Chima Singh: Agricultural Challenges and the Mysterious Ibex Fairy
Description
I am a 70 years old villager from Doro, a district in Kharmang and have heard this tale from my grandfather.
We had an old man named Chima Singh. One time, he went to the pasture and stayed there overnight in a temporary shelter made in the pasture for overnight stays khilas. While in the pasture, he encountered a markhor when suddenly, a woman who looked exactly like his wife appeared, which made him suspicious. He asked: Why are you here? She replied: I came here looking for you. When he looked at her feet, he saw they were reversed. This frightened him. To test her, he gave her a water bag with a hole and asked her to bring him some water. The woman, who was actually a fairy, brought water by sealing the hole with her finger. When she handed him the water, he struck her on the head with a large burning log from the fire, making her scream. When he looked at her, he saw her hair was made of gold. He took some of this golden hair and kept it. He then managed to capture the fairy, married her, and stayed by the fire all night, waiting for the morning. When dawn broke, he returned to his village, Doro.
Years passed, and he kept the golden hair by the stove because fairies are afraid of fire. His human wife even-tually became pregnant and gave birth to a child. After the birth, a special bed prepared for a woman after childbirth fhongma was prepared for her to rest on. This practice is still believed in and followed throughout Baltistan today.
While his human wife was resting on the fhongma, Chima Singh was working in the fields using animal traction farming, which was common then but is now largely replaced by machinery. In our traditional animal traction farming, a [wooden] yoke is used to attach to the animals. It is a wooden or metal frame that attaches to the animal's shoulders, chest, or horns and used to pull the plow or other farm equipment. While working, the yoke broke, so he went home to repair it.
During his absence, his human wife, who was jealous of the fairy wife, took the golden hair from beside the stove and gave it back to the fairy. The fairy then escaped. When Chima Singh returned home and discovered the golden hair was missing, he suspected what had happened and started chasing after the fairy on the large Khari-lungma Mountain of Kharmang. The fairy climbed the mountain and shouted: "Oh Chima Singh, do not come looking for me. You will not catch me now. I curse you that in your lineage, there will never be more than one child born to each generation." Defeated, Chima Singh returned home.
It is said that for five generations, no family had more than one [healthy] child. In the next generation, three children were born, but two of them were mentally abnormal, and only one was normal. To this day, this family still experiences mental abnormalities. This entire tale is true.
not here
2.7.2.1
Files
Document
Type
Size
License
Except where otherwised noted, this item's license is described as Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA