The Girl Langa Langchung and the Rooster is a Tibetan tale published as part of the compilation of The Golden Corpse (Tibetan: Mi ro gser sgrung), a compilation of tales popular in Tibet. Scholars relate it to the cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom or The Search for the Lost Husband: a human woman marries a supernatural husband in animal form and, after losing him, has to seek him out.
Origin The Golden Corpse is a compilation of Indo-Tibetan stories that was later brought to Mongolia and translated into Mongolic languages.Kára, G. "Mongolian Literature". In: Turkic and Mongolian Literature. History of civilizations of Central Asia, v. 5. UNESCO. p. 738. . The collection is known in India as Vetala Pañcaviṃśati, in Tibet as Ro-sgrung, in Mongolia as Siditü kegür, and in Oirat as Siddhi kǖr.Kára, G. "Tibetan and Mongolian Literature". In: History of civilizations of Central Asia. UNESCO, 2000. p. 386. .
In this regard, Mongolian linguist Tsendiin Damdinsüren noted the existence of two Tibetan compilations of Vetala tales, one with 13 chapters and the other with 21. Also, both versions were mentioned in the work The Book of the Son, written in the 11th century. Lastly, the divergence in contents between the Indian Vetala and the Tibetan versions, according to Damdinsuren, may indicate the latter were original works, instead of an adaptation or translation. In the same vein, according to Tibetologist Françoise Robin, there are more than 20 versions of the compilation in the Tibetan-speaking zone alone, and their common versions contain between thirteen and twenty-five stories, with some even reaching up to 75 tales.
Summary In this tale, an old couple lives with their three daughters and their flock of sheep. One day, the husband goes to graze the cattle, when a demon appears, kills the man, and wears his face as a disguise. The false husband goes back home with a story that he met a potential rich suitor for his daughters and gives the woman some fat to be cooked for their meal. Unaware that the fat belongs to her dead husband, the woman roasts it, but a voice warns her the fat is her dead husband's. The demon's next victims are the couple's elder and middle daughter, whom he kills on the hill and brings their fat for the woman to cook, lying that they are sheep's fat to celebrate their daughters' betrothal to rich men. After he brings the middle daughter's fat, the woman suggests they live with their youngest daughter, instead of sending her away to be married, but the false husband suggests she is married off before the couple dies. The next day, the false husband takes the youngest daughter, Langa Langchung, to the hill to be killed off, and tells her to wait there while he goes to search for her suitor. Suddenly, a little dog comes out of the bushes and asks to be given food in exchange for secrets: a mouthful for a secret. Langa Langchung shares with the dog the meal her mother prepared for her, and the dog reveals three secrets: the girl's father is a demon who killed her true father and sisters and hid their skulls nearby. In addition, the dog gives her a pot with instructions on how to escape the demon: roll the pot down a hill and follow it, paying no heed to the demon's calls for her to return.
Langa follows the pot until it stops by some sacks of cow dung. Underneath them, she finds a trapdoor, which leads to a ladder, and further down leads to a storeroom where a rooster bids her enter and sate her hunger and thirst. The next day, the rooster tells her to wear some fine clothes and enjoy herself at a nearby gala. She does exactly that and leaves the storeroom. After she leaves, the rooster removes its birdskin, becomes a youth, and joins the others at the gala. Langa celebrates with the other revellers and spots the youth among the guests. The youth then makes a return to the storeroom and puts on the rooster disguise to welcome Langa. The girl tells the rooster she met a handsome youth named Japho Tsilu at the gala, who greatly interested her. Some days later, the rooster tells Langa there is another gala which she should attend. Langa also attends the gala, and so does Japho Tsilu in human form. Langa returns from the second gala and comments that a "rooster" Tsilu was the most handsome man there, and she was the most beautiful woman. Later, the rooster announces there is yet another gala, which it bids Langa to attend. The girl, suspecting the rooster is "Tsalu" from the gala, pretends to go to the gala and hides in a corner: she watches as the rooster takes off the rooster's skin to become the human youth and goes to join the people at the fair. Langa, who stayed behind, burns the rooster's skin. Japho returns from the fair and finds that Langa burnt his rooster disguise. In despair, he tells her it could not have been burnt for another ten years and now they cannot be together, but there is something Langa can do: he gives her his tutelary deity and tells her to go to a house that lies facing the East, where its dogs will recognize her and his mother will welcome her in.
Langa does as instructed and walks to Japho's mother's house with the deity, introducing herself as a beggar woman whose father and elder sister were devoured by a demon. Japho's mother says her son has been missing for five years, and takes Langa in. Sometime later, Langa has a dream wherein a lama asks what Langa wants. She explains she wants the ability to reach out to Japho Tsalu, her husband, and the lama says he can help her. The next morning, she feels she is pregnant, and Japho's mother questions her about the child's father. Langa simply answers about her auspicious dreams, and none of the servants is her baby's father. Days later, a man in a red horse red garments and accompanied by a red dog appears at the woman's house: it is Japho Tsalu, who asks Langa if she has a soft pillow, a good blanket, and a good bed, and if she is eating nourishing food. Langa says she is sleeping on a belt pillow, with no woolen blanket, nor soft mattress. Japho Tsalu then explains that the demons caught his soul after the rooster's skin and made to be their servant, first their tea man, then their chamber master, until being demoted to horse herder. This new position allows him to meet with Langa away from the demons' view.
The next day, Japho's mother is informed by the servants there was some one in the room with Langa, and questions her about it. Langa admits she met a man she fell in love with, but her mistake separated them. Out of pity, Japho's mother moves Langa to better accommodations. The next time Japho visits her, Langa says she is sleeping in a soft and comfortable bed, and wishes he could be there permanently. However, Japho explains there is a guardian of the demons that is impossible to escape, but if one is to come for him, he can be saved. That same night, Langa has another dream with the lama, and he gives her a turquoise and instructions on how to rescue Japho Tsalu: she is to go to a hill and hold a stag's horn, place the turquoise on her mouth and keep meditating on the lama. She is to pay no attention to a hundred red knights galloping from the right and another hundred from the left, and a large red knight with a scorpion head that will come to hinder her.
The next day, Langa goes to the hill with the stag's horn and starts the ritual according to the lama's instructions. Meanwhile, the lama turns into a blue horse and goes to retrieve Japho Tsalu while the latter is fetching water from a pond. The lama takes Japho back home, while Langa holds the fort and meditates on the lama, the red knights and the scorpion-headed man trying to stop her, to no avail, since she keeps her concentration long enough for the creatures to cease their efforts and leave them be. After the demons leave, Langa reunites with Japho Tsalu, and his mother faints with happiness at seeing him safe and sound. Langa marries king Japho Tsalu and they rule the kingdom.
Analysis Tale type The tale has been related by scholarship to the international tale type ATU 425, "The Search for the Lost Husband", of the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index.Ralston, William. "Beauty and the Beast". In: The Nineteenth Century. Vol. 4. (July–December, 1878). London: Henry S. King & Co. pp. 1000–1001. Accessed 26 Mar. 2024.Lőrincz, L. "Les «Contes du cadavre ensorcelé» (Ro-sgruṅ) dans la littérature et el folklore Tibétains". In: Acta Orientalia Hungaricae 18 (1965): 312. These tales refer to a marriage between a human woman and a husband of supernatural origin that appears in animal shape. Sometimes the human wife tries to break the enchantment by destroying the husband's animal skin, but he vanishes and she must undergo a penance to get her husband back.Coxwell, C. F. Siberian And Other Folk Tales. London: The C. W. Daniel Company, 1925. p. 258.
Variants According to Hungarian scholar Lazsló Lörincz, variants of the story appear in Tibetan Ro-sgrung, either in compilations of thirteen tales or of twenty-one. Despite this difference, Lörincz considered both tales to be "identical". Accessed 27 Mar. 2024.
In the version with 21 tales, the story appears as tale nr. 9, Bu-mo Slaṅ-ṅa slaṅ-čhun srin-mo'i kha-nas thar-te rgyal-srid bzuṅ-ba'i le'u bzugs-so ("The Tale about how the maiden Slan-na fled the demon's mouth and gained the throne)": the heroine's father and sisters are devoured by a demon, but she escapes with the aid a dog and meets a talking rooster; the rooster is an enchanted human whose disguise she burns and causes him to fall under the power of demons; with the help of deity Rta-mgrin (Hayagriva), transmogrified to a horse, she saves her beloved. Accessed 26 Mar. 2024.
In the versions with 13 stories, it appears as tale numbered 7, titled Bya-šubs-čan-gyi le’u-ste ("The Tale of the Man in Birdskin"): the heroine meets the rooster, who is a man under the birdskin; she burns the birdskin and he comes under the power of demons; she fashions a new birdskin for him. Lörincz distinguished between literary and folkloric (oral) versions of this narrative: in the Tibetan redaction, the bird husband is identified as a rooster; in the literary versions, the three girls search for the lost cattle, whereas in oral versions the cattle just disappears.
The Feathered Prince