Two orphan brothers

Few decades ago, there were two brothers in a small village called Phanjong somewhere in the eastern part of Bhutan. Unlike the younger brother, the elder brother was stupid. He was called as ata yongba by everyone in the village. Their parents had passed away at their early young ages. They had only a small patch of land to work.

One day, the younger brother planned to sow maize seeds in their field. He borrowed oxen from the neighbor Aum Yangden to plough the field. Even ata yongba was taken to help him. The brothers were ploughing the field helping each other. It was almost lunch time. The younger brother sent ata yongba to get the pack lunch for him, “ata yongba, can you go home and get us lunch? I will continue working here.” Ata yongba nodded his head.

Ata yongba got home, packed lunch in a bangchung and walked off. He was walking freely murmuring words what comes on his thick lips. He was subconsciously lost in his worldly thoughts. Suddenly, he happened to step on a person’s stool and slipped off the way pouring out all the food over the stool. Ata yongba didn’t know what he should do. He recollected the scattered food and went near a river. He started washing every particle of food in water.

The younger brother was waiting for the lunch with extreme hunger, but he couldn’t see any vibes of his brother’s arrival. He decided to walk home and thought of eating food wherever he could meet ata yongba. As he was on half way, he could smell a fresh stool mixed with food. He suspected something strange. As he looked around, he saw ata yongba busy washing food and collecting back to bangchung.

He couldn’t imagine of ata yongba’s weirdness. He sent ata yongba to look after the two oxen unless he returned back from home. “Ata, don’t let the oxen move. Otherwise, they would become wild and run away,” the younger brother instructed ata yongba with body language.

The younger brother disappeared home for the lunch while ata yongba went to look after the oxen in the field.

Ata yongba was carefully watching the oxen if they were moving. The moment he saw the oxen moving any part, he began cutting off with the help of his patang (sword). The moment the oxen moved their ears, tail, and limbs, he cut them off. The oxen were collapsed on the ground.

When the younger brother was back, he saw ata yongba with patang in his hand with traces of blood on it. The oxen were lying on the ground with blood oozing out of their body. The younger brother become perplexed looking at the crazy behavior of ata yongba. He felt no use of scolding ata yongba. Rather he decided to flee to other village leaving his stupid brother behind.

The younger brother packed all his luggage in a tsem (traditional basket). In a little moment when the younger brother was nowhere to be seen around, ata yongba quickly took out all the things and got himself in the tsem. The younger brother came and quickly put tsem on his back. He walked away hiding from ata yongba.

The younger brother was on his half way to other village. A liquor started leaking from the tsem as he walked. He cupped his palm and started slurping it thinking it was his brewed alcohol dripping. It was ata yongba’s urine.

The younger brother continued his journey. On the way, he sat for a while for a drink. He opened his tsem. A big surprise for him was seeing ata yongba inside the tsem with smile.

Ata yongba was clumsily laughing at him. He couldn’t avoid seeing his elder brother again. As they went on walking, they reached the other village called Donpam. They found a small hut of two storeyed. They decided to halt a night there. They couldn’t see anyone in that hut. As the dusk enveloped them, still there was no sign of anyone in the hut.

As the dusk became thicker, they saw a black hairy creature with long tail coming toward the hut. The brothers quickly hid near the lower part of hut and watched with little fear. They knew that it was that demon’s house. The younger brother decide to run away as soon as possible. However, ata yongba didn’t give him any heed. Ata yongba said he will pull the demon’s tail which was kept hanging through a hole toward the down part of the hut. The younger brother was so scared that if they disturb the demon, it will eat them. He said repeatedly to ata yongba not to hurt them at all. Ata yongba didn’t listen. He grasped the tail of the demon and pulled garnering all his force. The demon escaped the hut with a loud cry.

The younger brother felt so proud of his ata yongba. He really appreciated ata yongba’s bravery and intelligence. Henceforth, the exchange of unfathomable love and care between the two brothers continued.          

Moral: Brotherhood.