The Prince and the Zombie (9 page)

While on the road, the young beggar began wondering what had become of his friend, the son of the wealthy family. So he decided to go and pay him a visit. But when he arrived in the area where this friend lived, he found a situation analogous to the previous one. This friend had also been maltreated by his wife's family. Starting quite soon after the wedding, he had had to endure a great deal of suffering. The beggar promised to come to his aid and restore the situation to how it had initially been. He went about it in the same way as he had with his own wife and the wife of the king's son. He made himself invisible using the hat, entered the house, and transformed the wicked wife into a monkey by touching her with the red flower.

Once again the beggar then appeared in the guise of a spiritual master in the midst of a family in a state of shock. And as before, he promised to save the young woman if she and her family treated her husband properly. Thus it was that after the young man had regained his respected place, the false spiritual master used the yellow flower to turn the monkey back into a woman. The woman, overjoyed, thereafter treated her husband with due honor and respect. Despite a difficult leave-taking, the two men separated very pleased with their deep friendship.

The beggar removed his disguise and departed in search of his third friend, the orphan. But he also had suffered the same treatment as the others. After a short period of happiness in the bosom of his family, he had been forced to tend the asses, had received little to eat, and had been obliged to dress in miserable rags. When the friends were reunited, the beggar promised to devise a trick that would help him. Exactly the same things happened as the previous times, and soon enough the orphan had regained his status in the family as well as a wife who was prepared to accord him due honor and respect.

The beggar had been able to help his three friends. Using his clever tricks and with the power of his magical objects, he had been able to restore their honor as well as make peace within their respective families. Feeling well satisfied with all of this, the beggar set off as before on his travels across the high Tibetan plateau.

Under the spell of the beggar's personality, yet again the prince let all caution fall and cried out: “But this beggar is a true bodhisattva!”

The moment he said this he bit his lip—but it was already too late.

Instantly, the sack on the prince's back opened by itself and released its prisoner, Ngödrup Dorje. Gloating hugely, the zombie declared, “Here's the blow you deserve for talking back!” and he disappeared in a puff of wind.

The prince was very discouraged with himself, but he knew that neither anger nor tears could change a thing. Without a pause, he set forth once again for India, for the place called Silwaytsal, to capture “He Who Fulfills All Dreams.”

19

Hunting Down the Zombie Again

O
NCE AGAIN
Prince Dechö Zangpo, filled with a sense of perseverance and determined to get Ngödrup Dorje back, traveled across the entire kingdom until he finally reached the place in India where the dead dwelled. Very soon he spotted the zombie that was quite different from all the others who were crowding around him. The zombie was gold on the top, silver on the bottom, and had a mane of pure turquoise.

Ngödrup Dorje did try to take refuge in the top of a sandalwood tree, but Dechö Zangpo, using his ax, quickly convinced him to come down. He caught the zombie, put him in the sack, and tied it securely closed with the magic rope.

On the twenty-seventh day, the prince was crossing the great barren plain. He was exhausted and feeling pain all over when Ngödrup Dorje began speaking to him in a very sweet and soothing voice:

“In this desolate region, there are no people and you will not find a place to rest, not even a place the size of a prairie-dog dropping. So to make this long journey a little more pleasant, I propose two solutions. Either you, a living being, will tell me a story, or I, who am a dead being, will tell you one.”

He knew that the prince, being very much on his guard, would not reply, so without waiting he began telling him another one of his very beautiful and amazing stories.

20

The Darpo Brothers

O
NCE UPON A TIME
in a remote corner of Tibet, there was a very poor peasant family with many children, among which were two sons, both named Darpo. One of them had been born in the summer and the other one had been born in the winter. The two Darpo brothers got along very well, and their particularly close relationship was most clearly noticeable when they were playing. If you saw one of them playing, the other could not be far away.

One day their mother died in childbirth. Alas, shortly thereafter, the father also died as a result of a terrible accident that occurred while he was working. The younger brothers and sisters were taken in by their uncles and aunts, but the two Darpos were already grown up, so they were obliged to fend for themselves. As they were rather talented at entertaining people as storytellers and singers, they left their home village and took to the road, where they could offer their services in exchange for food, lodging, and a modest fee.

One very hot summer day, the two brothers stopped on their journey not far from a small village. As usual, they sought out the village well so they could refresh themselves by drinking a little water. But the Darpo who was born in the summer, rushing to the edge of the deep well, lost his balance and fell all the way to the bottom. His brother, totally stunned and extremely agitated, could not think of any way to save him.

Darpo Born-in-Winter tried all kinds of ways over the next hours to get his brother out. He was without success. The well was much too deep for any ladder to be of help. After some time, Darpo Born-in-Summer shouted up from the well that he was hungry and asked his brother to get something down to him that he could eat. Not having money to buy food from the market, Darpo Born-in-Winter looked around him and saw some apricot trees not far away. He hurried over to them and was able to gather a large number of apricots. Taking half for himself, he threw the other half down the well so that his brother would not die of hunger. Weeks and then months passed, and the Darpo brothers remained inseparable: one at the bottom of the well and the other one, keeping his brother supplied with food, never far away.

At length it happened that a pit from one of the many apricots that had been thrown down the well sprouted. It grew so fast one could see it growing, until it became a very tall apricot tree. This was quite a miracle, but Darpo Born-in-Summer had been at the bottom of the well so long that he did not stop to ask questions. Overjoyed by this miracle of nature, he gathered all his courage and all his strength and climbed the tree, higher and higher. In this way, after all this long time he was able to get out of the well. He was saved. Above, his brother Darpo Born-in-Winter, who had been waiting impatiently, hugged him in his arms. The two brothers laughed and wept at the same time for joy and happiness. At last they decided to continue on their travels. On the road they recounted and sang about what had befallen them in their lives to whomever they met, and in exchange for this entertainment, they were lodged, fed, and given a bit of money.

Naturally, Prince Dechö Zangpo, who was an only child, experienced strong feelings listening to the story of the Darpo brothers, and without stopping to think, he said, “Oh, how touching it is to hear about that kind of strong love between brothers.”

Then the sack on his back released its loquacious prisoner, Ngödrup Dorje. Gloating hugely, the zombie declared, “Here's the blow you deserve for talking back!” and he disappeared in a puff of wind.

The prince was about to be seized by a fit of anger, but taking into account the experiences he had had, he restrained his temper and immediately set off again on the way back to India to recapture Ngödrup Dorje, “He Who Fulfills All Dreams.”

21

Hunting Down the Zombie Again

H
ARDLY HAD HE
arrived at Silwaytsal, the place where the Indians leave their dead, when the prince was surrounded by numerous dead beings who crowded around all talking at the same time, crying, “
Halala!
” and “
Hululu!
” and saying, “I'm the one you're looking for. Take me! Take me!” But he quickly forced them aside with the help of the red cone-shaped object, all the while scanning the area for Ngödrup Dorje. Spotting a body that was quite different from the others, he recognized the zombie he had to capture—gold on the top, silver on the bottom, and with a mane of pure turquoise. The prince tried to approach him, but Ngödrup Dorje fled into the top of a sandalwood tree, exclaiming, “I am not the right one! I am not the right one!”

All the prince had to do to convince the zombie to come down was to touch the tree with his ax. It came down quickly and the prince nimbly caught it and put it in his sack, which he tied up securely with his magic rope.

On the thirtieth day, when the prince was once again crossing the same immense barren plain in silence, Ngödrup Dorje began speaking to him in a very sweet and soothing voice:

“In this desolate region, there are no people and you will not find a place to rest, not even a place the size of a prairie-dog dropping. So to make this long journey a little more pleasant, I propose two solutions. Either you, who are a living being, will tell me a story, or I, who am a dead being, will tell you one.”

Confronted by the prince's silence, the extremely sly zombie began telling him what had become of the Darpos, the brothers linked by profound fraternal love.

22

The Darpo Brothers and the Sick King

O
NCE UPON A TIME
in a distant country there was a king who continually suffered from terrible, barely tolerable headaches. No doctor or shaman in his country had succeeded in curing him. The king had tried all means available to him to find a cure, but to no avail.

In despair, the king resorted to having his men put up thousands of little notices in all of his towns and villages—on tree trunks, in the marketplaces, and in places that merchant caravans passed by. The words on these notices were always the same: “The person who succeeds in curing the king's headaches will receive half of his kingdom as a reward.”