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    A Famous Malay Folktale: (The Devouring Rock)

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    Georsh Maluping
    Mak Minah is a widow who works hard to support her two children, but is devastated when she returns home to find that her young son Bulat ate all of the prized fish roe that she had saved for their meal. That night, she is called by the Batu Belah Batu Bertangkup, a rock that eats those who commit suicide, and in her despair she runs to the rock, leaving her children behind. The story illustrates the struggles of poverty and a mother's sacrifice for her children.

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    A Famous Malay Folktale: (The Devouring Rock)

    Uploaded by

    Georsh Maluping
    787 views2 pages
    Mak Minah is a widow who works hard to support her two children, but is devastated when she returns home to find that her young son Bulat ate all of the prized fish roe that she had saved for their meal. That night, she is called by the Batu Belah Batu Bertangkup, a rock that eats those who commit suicide, and in her despair she runs to the rock, leaving her children behind. The story illustrates the struggles of poverty and a mother's sacrifice for her children.

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    Original Title

    batu-bela (1)

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    Mak Minah is a widow who works hard to support her two children, but is devastated when she returns home to find that her young son Bulat ate all of the prized fish roe that she had saved for their meal. That night, she is called by the Batu Belah Batu Bertangkup, a rock that eats those who commit suicide, and in her despair she runs to the rock, leaving her children behind. The story illustrates the struggles of poverty and a mother's sacrifice for her children.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    787 views2 pages

    A Famous Malay Folktale: (The Devouring Rock)

    Uploaded by

    Georsh Maluping
    Mak Minah is a widow who works hard to support her two children, but is devastated when she returns home to find that her young son Bulat ate all of the prized fish roe that she had saved for their meal. That night, she is called by the Batu Belah Batu Bertangkup, a rock that eats those who commit suicide, and in her despair she runs to the rock, leaving her children behind. The story illustrates the struggles of poverty and a mother's sacrifice for her children.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    Here is another famous Malay folktale for you to

    read. This story was adopted as motion picture and


    TV drama in Malaysia, up to the extent of inspiring Process Questions:
    other versions of the story. Read the synopsis of the 1. What did the mother feel after knowing that her fish roe
    was eaten?
    Batu Belah Batu Bertangkup
    2. Why do you think it came across to the mother to commit
    (The Devouring Rock)
    A Famous Malay Folktale suicide?
    3. What does Batu Belah Batu Bertangkup represent? How
    did you say so?
    4. Does this story have similar themes with some of our own?
    Cite some famous folktales.
    5. Describe Mak Mina, Mawar and Bulat through
    characterization. How do they influence or affect the
    character of one another?
    6. What is the moral/lesson of the story? How does it affect
    you? Explain your answer.
     

    This story is about Mak Minah, a widow, and her two children,
    her daughter Mawar, and her young son, Bulat. Mak Minah
    would work hard at several jobs in a day. She would work in
    both a field and as a fisherwoman to support her fairly young
    children as best as she could.
    One morning, while fishing, she catches a tembakul fish
    (local river fish). She of course is really happy, and fantasizes
    all day about eating the fish with her children for dinner. At
    noon, Mak Minah goes home and starts to clean the fish, and
    is even happier when she realizes that there is fish roe inside.
    Fish roe back then was very, very expensive and was a
    delicacy, one that poor people like herself would very rarely
    be able to enjoy. She happily fries it before she goes to work
    in the fields and cuts it into three equal parts, one for her
    older daughter, one for her young son, and the other for
    herself. As she heads out the door, Mak Minah tells her
    children that they may each have their portion, but she asked
    them to leave her one of the pieces to eat when she comes
    home.
    Mak Minah spent the entire evening at the field thinking of
    eating the roe. When she came home, she finds all three
    portions eaten. Mawar explained to her that she and her
    brother had both eaten their portions, but after finishing his,
    Bulat demanded the other portion and threw a horrible
    tantrum when she said no, and that he had taken the piece
    anyway. Mak Minah was so devastated that she didn’t say
    anything and just went to bed.
    That night Mak Minah was kept awake by the calling of
    the batu belah batu bertangkup, the eater of suicides. She
    heard the rock calling her, saying “You never managed to eat
    your roe because as much as you desired it, it never desired
    to be eaten by you. This is the way of the world: what we
    desire to touch has no desire to be touched by us. But I am
    your death and I have longed for you since you were born.
    And now all I ask you is that you have the same longing for
    me.” She then snaps and runs to the rock.
    Mawar, hearing the commotion of her mother storming
    out of the house, wakes up Bulat and they try to chase her
    down. They called out after their mother, but it was no use,
    the voice of the rock drowned out everything else. Mak Minah
    stopped only once on her way to the rock, and just long
    enough for her children to catch sight of her, right in front of it,
    where she made a funnel and filled it with her breast milk for
    her young son. As she did so, the rock split, and beckoned
    her to enter. Mak Minah left the funnel on the floor and fled
    deep into the rock.

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