Tibetan Folk Tales | Page 9

to Heaven." "Well, that's all right," said the carpenter,
"but I want to start from my own field." The King gave him seven days
to get ready. The carpenter went back home to his wife and said, "That
painter has fixed a scheme to kill me, and I have only seven days to
wait to be burned up, so we must work, for I want a tunnel dug from
my house out to the field where the burning is to take place." They got
it done and put a few sticks over the opening where he could pile his
tools and sit on them. The King, as soon as the seven days were up,
ordered his people to bring several loads of wood, each to carry a load
and a bowl of oil. So the wood was piled four square around the
carpenter, the oil poured on and set on fire. While the fire was big the
carpenter slipped down in the tunnel. The painter exclaimed, "Look,
there he goes, riding the smoke to Heaven." They all took it for the
truth and went home.
Now, the carpenter had a dark secret room in his house and in there he
stayed, washing himself every day and having some clothes made like
the gods wear. At the end of three months, putting on these garments,
and with skin as white as a lily, he came out of his house and went to
see the King, bearing a letter to him from his father. Thus read the letter,
"My dear son Genchog, it is said that you are a good ruler and rule your

people wisely and well. Some three months ago you sent me a
carpenter to build a HlŠkŠng, and he has finished it beautifully, and I
want you to see that he has his reward on earth when he comes back.
Now that the temple is done I want the best painter that you have in the
kingdom to come and paint it for me. The same plan that you chose in
sending the carpenter will do very well for sending the painter." The
carpenter told him how rich his father was and of his adventures in the
sky. The King gave him great riches, making him happy for life. And
after reading the letter the King sent for the painter and said, "The
carpenter has just come down from Heaven, and has brought a letter
asking you to come and paint the HlŠkŠng for my father." The painter
looking at the carpenter, with his skin so white, dressed in such strange
clothes, with strings of coral about his neck, while he was still in his
old clothes, thought perhaps that it was all right to go to Heaven that
way, and half believed that the carpenter had really been there. So he
got all of his things together; as he had been given seven days to
prepare, the wood and oil had been brought with some things which the
King wished to send to his father. When all was ready the carpenter
said that they must make music for him as he ascended. So they got
drums, horns and cymbals, and as the fire started began to beat loudly
and made a great noise. As soon as the fire reached the painter he
yelled that he was being burned up, but the noise was so great he
couldn't be heard, so he really did go to Heaven.
***
TEN
The Story of Drashup and the Goddesses
In birth and death there is no fear, and in fear there is no doubt.
Tibetan Proverb.
ONCE, long ago, in this land of mystery, where men lived and loved
and wondered and died, lived a man named Drashup, who was all alone
in the world. All his kin were dead. He had no wife, no children, and he
was very, very poor. One day he wandered away upon the mountain

and lay down and went to sleep, grieving over his troubles.
Just at this time, in a small village far below at the foot of the mountain,
a little girl was born. In the tree under which the man was lying asleep
dwelt a goddess. All around him in the wood dwelt a number of
goddesses, and it was their duty to cast lots and foretell this new little
lady's future: who her husband would be, when she was to be married,
if she would live to be old, and the day of her death. The goddess who
lived in the tree under which Drashup was sleeping invited all the
others to come to her tree, as she had a guest asleep near her dwelling.
So they came and began to forecast the lady's future:--She would be
only middle-aged when she would die