Coconut folklore history

There are actually a lot of histories about the coconut, mostly; the history is about his stories about the coconut. The coconut has been a staple source of food shelter and water for the people within the tropics, shores, and islands. There are great stories about the coconut but there is one story of the coconut that roots all those stories. The root comes from the origin of the coconut. Here will be the different kinds of stories about the coconut:

A Malaysian folk story about the coconut

There was once an old man living within a cave who was feared by the villagers. This old man was a very powerful wizard who will change people whenever he will be disobeyed or angered. 

One day, a young man came into the cave and asked the old man of the cave for a favor. The young man asked the old man how he can be useful to the people of the village. He was being useless to the people before, but now he wants to change for the good of the village. The old man gave him a small special box, designed beautifully. The old man told the young man that he only open the box when he gets home. 

The young man, being so curious about what is inside the box, he opened it. Suddenly, he transformed into a coconut tree, and box was dropped. He was punished for his disobedience to the old man. However, he became into something useful to the people of the village since the coconut has a lot of uses until now. 

The story of the Mischievous in the Kingdom of Burma (Myanmar).

The kingdom of Myanmar, which was once the kingdom of Burma, is full of sights and stories, among them are the golden pagodas and the story of the mischievous tree (Gon-bin tree of the coconut tree). 

One day, a raft drifted to shore carrying within it three people. Guards of the royal court were patrolling the area. They noticed a small raft, onboard were three individuals. By the time that the raft came to shore, they were arrested and were summoned into the royal court with the king. The kind asked them of their stories. Afterwards, the king learned that they came from another kingdom. They were banished for their criminal acts. The three onboard the raft before were a thief, witch and a person full of mischief. The thief told the king that if he had enough money to live with and sustenance, he can be a very loyal subject. In the meanwhile, the witch told the king that she was so envious of the people at her kingdom that she was so poor; she scared the people of her practices of curses. While the thief was silent, smiling and he told the king nothing. The king learned later on that the stories of the mischievous person reached their kingdom. The king learned that he was responsible of hurting the people within his kingdom for his mischief, false stories, and lies. The king thought for the moment. 

While the kind gave time for thinking, he came to a conclusion later on. He announced that a thousand pieces of silver to be given to both the thief and the witch and a place to stay within the kingdom. The thief was desperate that he resorted to stealing, while the witch was so poor that she became envious of the people around her. She resorted to hating the people whom she was so envious about and scared them by curses. As for the mischief-maker, he hurt people by telling lies and false stories. The king ordered that the mischief maker to be beheaded immediately. 

At the execution grounds, the mischief maker was beheaded. Later, a guard was ordered by the king to check on the mischief maker. When the guard was the mischief maker’s head, he was astonished to see that the mischief maker was still alive even though he was beheaded. The mischief maker told the guard to tell the king to bow down to him of he’ll knock the king’s head off. Hurriedly, the guard went straight into the palace to tell the kings of the unbelievable news. When the king heard the story, he sent a second guard to check on the head. The guard confirmed that the head was not alive anymore. So, the king ordered that the first guard to be beheaded for being a liar. The guard was beheaded right next the mischief maker. Upon seeing the execution of the first guard, the mischief maker laughed aloud that he can still make mischief even though he is dead. The second officer immediately reported to the king of what he just saw. The king was filled with grief and remorse that he ordered the head of the mischief maker to be buried deep into the ground. 

A few days later, a tree grew out from the ground. The king noticed that the fruits that the tree bore have the same features of the face of the mischief maker. Before, it was called “gon-bin” but through the years, I came to be known as “on-bin.” If one takes the coconut fruit (gon-thi) and shake it; it will create an unusual sound that will sound like the mischief maker trying to tell stories to the one listening. 

The Philippine folk tale of the coconut:

There are actually two versions to the story of the tale of the coconut in the Philippine version. The first talks about the friendship of the gods and their rivalry, and the second talks about the love story of a couple that became tragic. First, the story of the god and the second will be about the loving couple. 

One day, there were three lonely gods. First was Bathala, the god of creation, the second was Ulingkalulua, a large snake who was the god of the skies and clouds. Third was Galangkalulua, the god with a winged head. The three did not know each other. One day, Ulingkalulua met Bathala, unfortunately, Ulingkalulua was not pleased with Bathala and he challenged him to a duel. Both the gods fought and Ulingkalulua was defeated. Instead of giving his enemy a proper burial, he burned the body of Ulingkalulua. 

A few years later, Galangkalulua visited the temple of Bathala. Bathala welcomed Galangkalulua and treated him into his palace. In time, the two gods became close friends. But one day, Galangkalulua became fatally ill. He told Bathala to bury him next to the burned body of his very close friend, Ulingkalulua. 

A few months passed by, Bathala noticed a coconut tree grew from where both the two dead gods was buried. The tree had the features of the head of the snake god with similar facial features, round eyes, flat nose, and a round mouth. The leaves of the tree have the shape of the wings of Galangkalulua and the trunk of this enemy, Ulingkalulua. 

Later in the creation of the first man, the coconut tree served to be the tree for the soul until now. 

The next story will be about a loving couple whose live became tragic after the father found out about the man. 

In a village full of thriving activity, there lived a young beautiful woman, whose house was filled with a lot of suitors. Her father denied all of the suitors from visiting her. Little that he father knew that she was actually meeting up with another man behind their house, away from the attention of her father. Every night, the man would visit the Datu’s (Great Chief) house to tell her stories about his journeys around the forest and island. 

A few weeks later when the Datu was searching for his tools behind the house, he noticed footmarks below the stairs leading to the back side of his daughter’s room. He investigated the foot print and learned that the foot prints were not his daughter’s. He told his daughter that he will kill that man immediately when he will be visiting her. The father hid behind the stairs to wait for the man. When the night came, the man appeared, ready to climb the stair. The daughter shouted for him to run from her father. The man dashed into the forest but was outrun by the quick battle reflexes of the Datu. The Datu slashed and injured the man from behind. The man fell as the Datu came near. He was beheaded by the Datu; his head was buried on the ground. A few weeks had gone by; the daughter’s heart was broken. Just outside by the back of the house grew a tree bearing the fruit with the face of the man, whom the Datu killed.