Putri Mandalika
Long time ago, there was a kingdom in Lombok Island that was
ruled by a king named Raja Tonjang Beru. He was a wise king. He had a queen
named Dewi Seranting. He also had a beautiful daughter named Princess
Mandalika. Everybody knew about Princess Mandalika’s beauty and kindness, even
the people from other kingdom around the island.
Princes from all over the place wanted to marry her. One by
one, they came to propose her. Princess Mandalika was a kind girl. She hated to
make people sad. So, when those princes came to propose her, she was very
confused. She could not decide, and she didn’t want to make them sad. She also
didn’t want to cause a war to happen because of her.
To solve the problem, Raja Tonjang Beru then held a
competition in Seger Kuta beach. He asked all the princes to take part in
archery competition. One by one, all participants tried their best. After some
time, there was no winner.
Because there was no a winner, all the participants started
to argue. They claimed to be the best. Finally, they all were fighting. Soon,
the fighting got bigger. It was like a war, because all the princes brought
their soldiers in the archery competition. Princess Mandalika was really
worried. She did not want the war to get bigger and hurt many people. Finally,
she had an idea. “Everybody, listen up! I know you all love me and want me to be
your wife. But I don’t want you to fight because of me. I want you all to have
me, but not as your wife. I want to be someone that everybody can have,” said
Princess Mandalika.
Raja Tonjang Beru and all other people in the beach did not
understand what she meant. The king then came to her. But suddenly, Princess
Mandalika jumped to the sea. She disappeared in the big waves. Everybody was
surprised. It was chaos on the beach. All the princes tried to swim to find the
princess, but they found nothing.
After several hours trying to search the princess, suddenly
they found a lot of colorful sea worms on the beach. Raja Tonjang Beru then
realized that his daughter had returned as sea worms. The worms were then
called nyale. Until now, people in Lombok always try to catch nyale. Nyale is
very delicious and that is why a lot of people come to Lombok to catch it.
However, they can only find it once a year, in February or March. The tradition
to catch the sea worms is called Bau Nyale.
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