So the next day the king disguised himself as Jaw Pha La Phan Chung and went to plow the field.
Dangbo..o..o Dingbo..o..o.. in a small house nearly falling apart with age and neglect there lived an old couple. The old man would sit by the hearth rubbing his swollen right knee and moaning and groaning in pain. The old woman did all the work in the house. One day she was rather tired and not in a very agreeable mood. While she cooked at the stove she asked the old man to pass her the ladle which was hanging near him but the old man would not even do that. As usual he just sat there rubbing his knee and moaning away. Irritated by his behavior, she said sharply, “Move this knee away, it’s in my way.”
But the old man did not pay any attention to her request. So she took up a ladle and struck the knee with all her strength. They were both equally shocked when the swollen knee burst with a great splosh and a big ugly frog popped out. The old woman caught it by its hind legs before it could hop away and, dangling it in the air, she said, “So you were the cause of all my old man’s problems! Now, if I don’t kill you who will I kill?” She was ready to throw him into the fire when the frog croaked miserably, “Please, I beg of you, don’t kill me, I’ll be useful to you.”
The old woman laughed and asked, “What, a frog be useful? I have never heard of such a thing. How can a frog be useful?”
“I’ll bring home a bride,” promised the frog.
“Ya, ya, if you can bring home a bride I’ll spare you,” agreed the old woman.
The frog immediately went to the king’s palace. He hid under a big slab of stone and shouted, “Oh, king, I want one of your daughters as my bride!” The king asked his oldest daughter Langyamo to go and see who was shouting. She looked out and reported, “The chickens are scratching in the dirt, the pigs are browsing around and there is nobody else.”
Again the frog called. This time the king sent his second daughter, Khempamo, to see if there was anybody outside. She too went out and came back, saying, “The chickens are scratching in the dirt and the pigs are browsing around other than them there is nobody.”
The frog called for the third time and this time the king asked his third daughter Phurzamo, to go out and see who had called. When she looked around, she saw a big ugly frog sitting on a slab of stone. She came in and said, “There is a frog on the stone slab.”
The king said, “Call the frog in, perhaps he has something to tell us.”
The frog hopped into the palace and stood in front of the king reverently but boldly stated, “I would like to take one of your daughters as my wife.” The king was greatly insulted and angrily said, “You lowly, impudent, ugly frog, what makes you think that one of my daughters will agree to marry you?”
The frog warned, “If you don’t give me a bride I’ll cry.”
“Go ahead and cry. I am not afraid of a crying frog,” said the king. The frog began to cry. His tears flowed like two great rivers and the king’s palace shuddered and shook as if it was going to be washed away.
“Please stop. You may have a bride.” The frog stopped crying and everything became normal.
“Now who will come as my bride?” asked the frog.
“None of us,” replied the girls haughtily.
At this the frog began to laugh in a deep throaty croak-like laugh. As he laughed the entire palace began to tremble and shake. The walls began to crack and the beams caved in. “Please stop at once and take the bride of your choice,” pleaded the king.
The king turned to his oldest daughter and asked her to go as the frog’s bride but she refused condescending, stating, “Rather than marry a frog I’ll go to the bear,” and she went and married a bear.
The second daughter said, “I’ll marry a leopard instead of the frog,” and she too went off.
The third girl had no choice but to agree to become the frog’s bride. The frog led his bride home. The two old people, who were so feeble with age and weak with hunger that they could not take the shock of seeing the frog with a princess, both swooned and died of bewilderment.
Now the frog and Phurzamo lived together for many days. One day Phurzamo saw that her frog husband was not really a frog. As she secretly watched him he took off the skin and out came a very handsome young man. She at once ran to him and picked up his frog skin but he cautioned her, “Don’t destroy it. It is useful.” He then instructed her on what she should do with his frog skin. According to his instructions she shook the skin in all the rooms of the house, around the house and across the valleys and on the sides of the hills.
“Now burn it,” he cried. And so she did.
The next morning when Phurzamo woke up she was pleasantly surprised to see herself in a beautiful palace with everything that she could dream of. There were jewelry and clothes in her rooms. The granaries were full. Servants stood around waiting to do as she would bid them. The valleys were full of crops and cattle and horses grazed on the hillsides. She could not have asked for more. They lived happily together for many days.
Soon Phurzamo’s sister Khempamo heard what had happened and she became very jealous. So she visited her sister with the intention of killing her and marrying her husband. She carried her leopard babies on her back wrapped in moss and tied with creepers. She invited her sister to go for a walk and to bathe in the stream. They walked away from the house and as soon they reached a stream, Phurzamo said, “Let’s bathe here.”
But the sister said, “A kha khai, don’t you know this is an acchu? Let’s go a little further.” So they walked on until they reached another stream.
Again Phurzamo said, “This looks like a clean stream, let’s bathe here.”
But again the sister said, “A kha khai, don’t you know that there is the cremation ground just up the stream?” So they walked on until they eventually reached a lake. The sister pointed to the lake and said, “This is where we will bathe.” So the girls took off their necklaces, unhooked their komas, and let their kiras, fall off their shoulders and hang down from their waists. They were bare up to their waists and they began to wash themselves by the side of the lake. Then Khempamo said, “Here, let me rub your back for you,” and began to do so. After a while she tried to push her sister into the lake. Phurzamo was startled and asked, “What are you trying to do, are you trying to push me into the lake?”
At this Khempamo apologized, saying “No, no, of course not. It’s this little finger of mine,” and she ate it up, for she was a demon. After a while she gave one big push and Phurzamo drowned in the lake.
Khempamo then put on the necklace and the komas of her drowned sister and returned to the palace, pretending to be her sister. Although the king did not see a difference the child at once saw that this was not her mother and began to cry and fuss. Many days passed and the king began to realize that there was something different about his wife but he was still not sure. Before long it was too late and he was completely under her control.
Now it happened that the king owned some fields near the lake. One day one of his servants called Jow Pha La Phan Chung was plowing around the lake when suddenly a tall bamboo grew out of the lake. A bird sat on the top of it and began to sing. It sang, “Jow Pha La Phan Chung, J ow Pha La Phan Chung, how is my child, what does the demoness feed my child? What does she serve Gyalpo Migkarla and what does she give you?”
Jow Pha La Phan Chung at once recognized the bird to be Phurzamo and replied, “The demoness feeds your child ash, the king karmatekpa and me rice water.”
On hearing this the bird quickly disappeared into the water.
When Jow Pha La Phan Chung returned home in the evening he told the king about his encounter with the bird. So the next day the king went to plow the field near the lake, but the bird did not come out. Disillusioned the king told Jow Pha La Phan Chung that the bird had not come out of the lake. “She probably recognized you. You had better disguise yourself tomorrow,” he suggested.
So the next day the king disguised himself as Jow Pha La Phan Chung and went to plow the field. After a while a tall bamboo grew out of the lake and a small bird sat on it. Again the bird sang the song asking after her child and Gyalpo Migkarla. The king spoke to the bird and said, “If you are indeed my wife fly onto the back of my ox.” The bird flew onto the hump of the ox. Then the king again said, “If you are truly my wife fly onto the horn of the ox.” The bird flew onto the horn. The king then picked up the bird and took it home. He put the bird in a golden cage and looked after it lovingly.
One day the king had to go on a journey and when he returned he realized that the demoness, Khempamo, had eaten the bird. “Please tell me, is there nothing left of my bird?” pleaded the king.
“There may be some bones in the refuse behind the door,” replied Khempamo. So the king patiently sorted out every bit of the refuse behind the door until he found a tiny bird bone. The bone spoke saying, “Sang tang, sur tang, dhar dang gochen nang la pud. (Burn incense and other offerings to the spirits and wrap it in brocades and silk).” So the king washed it, burnt incense, wrapped it in silk and brocade and put it in a small container. Every day he repeated the same procedure, each time increasing the size of the container and each time the bone would grow bigger and fill the container so that eventually he placed the bone in a clean room, burnt incense, and covered it with silks and brocade. When he went into the room the next morning he was filled with immeasurable happiness when he saw wife standing there more beautiful then ever.
The royal couple beseeched their tsawa lama to come to their palace and perform the rites of subjugation to subdue the demoness Khempamo. The demoness was thus vanquished and the king and the queen could now once again live in peace, prosperity and happiness.
(We often refer to a person as being mikarla or white eyed if they do not see the obvious flaws in a person.)