Podcaster: Avivah Yamani
Title: Astro Folklore – The Birth of the Brightest Morning Star and the Evening Sparkle Stars
Organization: Planetary Science Institute; langitselatan
Link : http://langitselatan.com
Description: This is a story from Mongolia about The Golden Picket Star (Polaris) and the Seven God Stars (the Big Dipper). The Mongolian names for them are Altangadas and Doloon Burkhan). This story is part of the Stars of Asia Project during the International Year of Astronomy in 2009.
Bio: Avivah Yamani is a an astronomy communicator from Indonesia.
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Transcript:
Welcome to the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast. I’m Avivah, your host today.
This is a story from Mongolia about The Golden Picket Star and the Seven God Stars (Polaris and the Big Dipper, the Mongolian names are Altangadas and Doloon Burkhan). This story is part of the Stars of Asia Project during the International Year of Astronomy in 2009 and compiled by Altantsetseg Chimedtseren.
Once upon a time there was a king who never allowed his daughter to leave the royal palace until she was 25 years old. After her 25th birthday, the princess asked the king to let her stroll in the garden at least once. And as promised, the King gave his permit to the princess. But a tragic thing happened. Khangardi, the giant bird came and seized her while she was walking in the garden and then flew away.
The King was sad and devastated when he found out that his daughter is missing. Soon, The king gathered all of the wise enchanter, fortune tellers, diviner in his Kingdom and ordered them to let him know how to find and bring back his daughter. The Princess.
One by one .. all the clairvoyants try their best and come up with the answer. According to them, the only person who can bring back the princess is an old man who has eight children.
Listening to what they said, the King ordered his underlings to look for the old man. In short, they found him and took him along with his eight sons to the Royal Palace. Once they arrived at the Royal Palace, all of them were taken to the King. Then the King told them the story of his missing daughter. Listening to this, the old man asks his sons if they can find the missing princess.
They immediately answered to their father that they could save the princess. Listening to the answer, the King felt relieved and promised to marry the princess with the oldest son if they can bring the princess back, while the other seven will be appointed as lords in the kingdom.
Then the King asked each young man of their abilities and talents. And they answered:
I am the best archer said the first son.
I am the best runner said the second one.
Then the third said I have the best eyesight
Followed by the fourth who said I have the best skill for smelling.
I inhale any storm or wind, the fifth said
I can gulp up the ocean says the sixth
Then the seventh said: I am the strongest man, who can hold the Sun and the Moon.
Finally the youngest said:
I can grab anything, even if it is far away or invisible.
Satisfied with the answer, the King issued the order to look for the princess and the eight talented men started their quest.
They start from the garden where the princess was last seen. Each of them uses their ability to find the princess. First, using his smelling ability, the fourth son found out that a Khangardi had abducted the princess. Next, the third son looked for the direction headed by Khangardi using his eyesight.
Once they found the direction, the first son used his archery skills to shoot Khangardi bird with his arrow. In the end, the princess was released from Khangardi clutches and falls. So as not to get hurt from falling, and to get the princess return to the palace, the fifth child siphons a big wind to take the princess back to somewhere near the garden. Since all this searching process took some time, when they saved the princess, the sky was getting dark so the seventh held the Sun to keep light and delayed the night until the youngest one grabbed the princess before she fell to the ground.
In the end… the eight brothers bring back the princess as per their promised
The King was very happy to see his dear daughter coming back safe and sound. And as his promise, he will give the princess to wed the first son. And to fulfill it, he will hold a grand wedding as a celebration. Before the wedding, with the King approval, the first son went back to ask his father permission for this marriage
But instead of asking permission from his father, the first son actually pushes his father to reveal who among the eight brothers who will inherit his gold arrow. The old father doesn’t want to give the arrow without any effort from his sons so he comes up with a competition for them. The old man shot his golden arrows to the sky so only the quickest one could have it.
Of course this is the advantage to the youngest son who quickly caught the golden arrow and became the Golden Picket star or Polaris as he stayed in the sky. The other seventh chased the arrow but failed to catch it so they lost and stayed in the sky as a normal star and became the big dipper that surrounded the golden one.
This is the story about why the Northern Star sparkles brightly in the sky and is surrounded by the other 7 other stars. According to the ancients, it means that the seven older brothers look after the youngest one.
Thank you for listening. This is 365 days of Astronomy.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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