Reading Diary B: The Life of Buddha

The Life of Buddha was a great read from beginning to end! I can't believe that I never really knew much about Buddha before this. I am very glad that I chose this as my reading diary this week.

Siddhartha and King Vimbasara: This story really stuck with me after reading it. I really liked how Siddhartha is trying to escape from his life of royalty to pursue his path of enlightenment, but he is not able to shake that essence from him. People all across the city would follow him around thinking that he was a god. The hero is able to remain focused and humble despite having all of the temptations around him to return to a life luxury. I really enjoyed that King Vimbasara was so enthralled by him. Even though he is a king, he knows he can learn Siddhartha. I am thinking about writing about King Vimbasara for my storytelling assignment now. He seems like a very interesting character, in my opinion. I also really enjoyed the part about him going to see such a revered hermit only to find out that he did not actually know anything. That did not phase Buddha, he continued on his path and was able to gain some disciples from it.

(Siddhartha and his disciples)

The Tree of Knowledge: This was one of my favorite stories from this section. It really demonstrated how Siddhartha was on the cusp of becoming Buddha. Sakra, a god, offered  to clean the shroud for burial; Buddha refused and opted to do it himself since he knew what a monk must do. I also liked how he knew that he was about to achieve his enlightenment throughout this story. It was not just one case of subtle foreshadowing either. He even threw a bowl in the river and said if it flowed upstream that he was going to be Buddha. He also said Buddha's from the past ate out of gold bowls before gaining supreme knowledge. I loved how focused he was and that nothing was going to stop him.

Reading Diary A: The Life of Buddha

This week I decided to read The Life of Buddha. I have always wanted to learn more about Buddha since he is a very foreign figure to me. I really enjoyed learning more about him!

Birth of Siddhartha: This was such a great story to start with. The way that the world sounded when Siddhartha was born was mesmerizing. It sounded like pure poetry and bliss. Everything in the world was good at that exact moment. That really does show the significance of his being from the beginning. Saying that he gives happiness is the perfect way to describe his aura in this story. It seemed to just be electric to everything on Earth. I also liked how all of the gods came to sing and rejoice in the birth of a child being born. He was royalty, but I like that he was not born to the gods. It truly shows how enthralled they were by him since he was not their own.

(Buddha's Birth)

The First Encounter: This was another great read from this book. It is such an interesting thought for someone to never be exposed to old age or illness. It would be such a hard thing to grasp if you had never seen it before in your life. The hardest part of it would be realizing your humanity and that you have a finite time of living. I really enjoyed the part about it him asking to see if he would one day look like that. That is a life-changing thing to hear. I can see why this would haunt a young Siddhartha so much. Being purposefully shielded from all of that would cause quite a deep reflection when you finally did see it. I think this story could be a possibility for my story this week. I would most likely focus on the old, decrepit man that Buddha saw in the streets.

Extra Reading Diary: Khasi Folktales

I chose to read Khasi Folktales for my extra reading diary this week. It was a great read with very rich, and unique stories. I do not believe that I have ever read any Indian folktales before this week.

The Tiger and the Monkeys: I was excited to read about a story that featured a tiger in it. I had grown so accustom to reading about lions being the king in stories. The tiger seemed like such an interesting character. He was in his own universe at all times. His title being his downfall is such an interesting concept. He was too involved with himself to actually notice his subjects. The monkeys were also a very interesting opposition to have against the mighty tiger. None of them seemed bold or wise enough to plot well enough to defeat the tiger.They illustrated that a group is greater than one. It was also a really great way of explaining the brazen attitude that monkeys have towards tigers.


(tiger)

How the Dog Came to Live with Man: This was an incredible story, I loved everything about it. My absolute favorite part was where it explained why dogs can smell and track other animals. Saying that they stepped in such a smelly substance that it would stay with them forever was brilliant. The pig being explained did come as a bit of a surprise to me. It was very interesting to see the dog have such a negative light cast upon it. He tricked man into trusting him. The dog just seemed like such a bad character. I also really like how it made sense of why pigs eat slop and like it.

Storytelling Week 4 - The Frog General

Off in a distant pond lived a frog named Winston. Winston had dreamed of joining the mighty frog army since he was but a wee little tadpole. All he ever talked or thought about was military tactics; he was enthralled by the subject. All throughout his life Winston was one of the smallest frogs in his group. The other frogs often teased him about his size and his lofty aspirations of holding the highest title a frog can get, General. He could not jump the farthest or croak the loudest, but he would not let anything deter him from his dream.

He trained day and night in preparation for boot camp. Not only did he workout his body, but he did something that no other frog did, he worked out his mind. He read any piece of literature that he could get his hands on. It was not just military books, it was also mentally enlightening books so he could adequately handle any sticky situation that he might come across. He was instantly at the top of his class in boot camp. He excelled in every facet of the program; his determination had paid off! All of the drill instructors quickly took notice to the tenacity and resolve that Winston had. They honored him with the top of the class title at the boot camp graduation.

Winston was finally in his dream field now. He had proven himself in boot camp, and now it was his time to shine and climb the ranks to reach that highly coveted General position. Winston knew that the title would not be given to him, he would have to earn it. He continued to do all of the training that he did in boot camp so he could always be improving. He was not going to let any other frog outwork him, period. Times were changing around the pond. A hostile group of toads were trying to takeover the entire pond; It was time for war. Winston had been training for this scenario his whole life.

The toads proved to be a worth advisory for the army of frogs. They had such a size advantage over the frogs that they were able to start dwindling down the number of the regime. Nothing that the frogs were doing was working. They could not defeat the toads in one-on-one combat. Winston was witnessing carnage from all angles. His comrades needed his help badly. Suddenly, Winston had a stroke of genius.

Being smaller than everyone growing up made him adapt to different ways of combat. He knew how to use size as a disadvantage. He commanded the rest of the frogs to start targeting the lily pads that the heavy toads were perched on; Winston lead the charge. The toads began to topple over quickly, losing their leverage. Their large frames made it nearly impossible for them to keep balance when the lily pads would start to shake beneath them. The frogs took all of the momentum and were able to push the toads all the way out of the pond.

This frogs began to cheer in victory. They had defeated the ferocious  group of toads and take back control of their home. All of the frogs quickly took notice of Winston's valor and leadership. He was everyone's hero. Shortly after the war, Winston was brought in front of all of the frogs and named General. His dream had finally come true.


(the pond)

Author's Note: This story was based off of The Frog, the Bee, and the Bird from The Tales of a Parrot. That story starts out with a Saweh, a small type of bird, having its eggs knocked out of a tree and destroyed by an elephant. The tiny bird realizes that it needs to get help if it wants to have revenge against the enormous animal. The Saweh quickly enlisted the help of her friend the Longbill. The Longbill knows that they need to consult with his friend the Bee. The Bee has a friend that can formulate the perfect strategy, the Frog. All of the animals collaborate together and are able to defeat the Elephant in the end.

I chose to go with a third person storytelling approach to tell the tale of Winston the frog. I thought this was the best way of documenting his feats and climbing of the ranks amongst the frogs. The Frog in the original story is a wise General for the army of frogs. I really fell in love with his character when he was able to develop a tactic to take down an elephant. It made me wonder how he was able to become so wise in military strategy and what kind of back story he could have.

Bibliography: The Tooti Nameh or Tales of a Parrot, by Ziya'al-Din Nakhshabi (1801) 

Reading Diary B: Tales of a Parrot

I finished reading Tales of a Parrot, and it was a superb read! I am really thankful that this class exposes me to stories from other cultures that I would probably never know to read.

The Frog, the Bee, and the Bird: This was a grand story. I love how the parrot can talk about a story organically in all of his conversations. He has such a great way of relating stories and the lessons they teach to any interaction that he has. He makes it very relevant. This story brought so many interesting characters to light. My favorite was the general of the frog army. He had such a great plan that came from collaborating with all of the other animals. I also enjoyed the fact that all of the animals knew that they could not accomplish the feat of taking out a massive elephant by themselves. It was also great to see how all of the other animals were able to unite even though the Saweh was the only animal that had a grievance with the elephant in the story. I think this will be my writing story for the week since there is such a great cast of characters to incorporate into it.
(the elephant)

The Elk and the Ass: This was another great story from the wise parrot. I really enjoyed how there was a story within a story on this one. The Elk is able to tell a story that directly relates to the situation that they are in, but the ass is too stubborn to adhere to the sage advice of the elk. The moral of this story was also very interesting, in my opinion. It is different to read about circumstances when conformity are seen as the right thing to do, especially when all of the examples used are about devious acts to start with.

Tales of a Parrot - Reading Diary A

I chose to go with Tales of a Parrot for my reading this week. I thought it sounded like a very interesting series of stories since it is not an animal that I am used to reading stories about. I can not believe that I had never heard of these before; they were great. It really made me start to wonder what countries have never heard the stories I was taught growing up.

Khojisteh and the Parrot was a great story. There is one line that really stood out to me from the story, "The soul took flight from the body, and she expired." This was such a poetic way of describing death. I will definitely remember that phrase now. I really like how intriguing the parrot is. Everything the parrot says makes me want to know more about his back story and all of the lessons he has to teach. I also liked how he stayed calm and collect even when he was staring death down.


(Khojisteh and the Parrot)

The Old Lion and the Cat  was another story that really resonated with me. I love the descriptive words that helped paint the outline of the lion. It was easy to picture the lion with the large chunks of food still left in his teeth. It was also very interesting to have the mice become such a burden on the lion that he alone can not stop them from stealing the food from him. My favorite character from the story was the cat. The cat was so wise in the way it analyzed the situation. It was such a clever way of keeping a job by not fulfilling all of the duties of the job. The mice had to be around to keep the job. I am thinking about making the cat the focus of my story this week.

Tales from the Inuits: Styles Brainstorm

Topic: My storybook will be based around stories from Knud Rasmussen's Eskimo Folk-Tales and any other sources I find. My goal will be to take four different tales from across the Inuit culture that deal with the animals that inhabit the vast amount of land that spans the Inuit culture. Two stories that I want to use are When the Ravens Could Speak and The Giant Dog. There is a trove of rich stories by Rasmussen to choose from for this project along with stories by Henry Rink and Waldemar Bogoras. My main criteria for choosing the stories will be to just make sure that the animals featured are all starkly different from one another. By that I mean I do not want to have a story about a dog and a story about a wolf. I want to try to get the most out of showing the difference between all of the animals and the moral of their stories.

Bibliography:

1. When the Ravens Could Speak, from Eskimo Folk-Tales, by Knud Rasmussen (1921).

2. The Giant Dog, from Eskimo Folk-Tales, by Knud Rasmussen (1921). There are a ton of great stories to choose from on sacred-texts.

Possible Styles:

Tall Tales of Rasmussen. After reading about Rasmussen's adventures finding these stories, I thought it would be a fun idea to spin the tales as if Rasmussen were a larger-than-life character that has interactions with the protagonists of the different stories that he recorded. Stories would be told around a local watering hole of his most heroic deeds as he tangoed with some of the biggest creatures in the north.

Tales from the tail trail. Since dog sledding was such an integral part of transportation to the culture, I was thinking of having a map of Greenland with a dog sled trail leading to points where different stories happened. I'll just allocate different animal stories to different regions of the country since that is where Rasmussen's tales are from. The storytelling would be done through different sled dogs at the different points of the map. 

Campfire stories. Another format I was thinking about using is having a bunch of different young animals sit around a campfire and swap stories about their Inuit culture. It will be like a competition for each of the youngsters to outdo one another with their stories, but it will also be a learning experience for all of them.

Summer with Grandparents. My last style approach would be to have an animal from another land, like North America, come to visit his grandparents in an Inuit rich area, like Greenland. The grandchild could come visit his grandparents for the first time with no knowledge of his cultures stories. His grandparents would be able to tell him fascinating stories about the rich culture that he came from. The grandchild could initially think that being up in the colder areas of the north is boring, but the grandparents could quickly change the perception of their grandchild and make become proud of his family's past.

(A hunter and a monster, source: Sacred-Texts)