08/05/2018
The legend of Ami Dori : a miji folktale
Arunachal Pradesh - a land in the farthest northeast part of India just at the border with Tibet (China?) is a home to more that 70-80 tribes and subtribes (known and unknown) and with such a variety, it comes with a plethora of rich cultures.
Each tribe with its own roots, comes with their own stories or a variation of many Stories and we try to collect and bring those Stories for the readers to enjoy.
This, the legend of Ami Dori is one such story, popular among the Miji tribes. The story is a fascinating tale of a goddess hearted girl who sacrificed her life for protecting her moral integrity.
The story gives us a moral and cultural insight into the Miji tribe and the whole Tani tribes in general. It teaches us that no matter what happens and under whatever circumstances one should always maintain their own values and integrity. So enjoy the story -
Once upon a time, There was a young girl called Ami Dori. She was an extremely good person, who spoke kindly and never ever had a bad word for anyone. She was also very beautiful, of incomparable beauty. She was as lovely as the rising sun and the shining moon, a girl of good speech, thought and action. Because she was so perfect she was considered the elder sister of the god iipyo wi.
But her brotherโs wife became jealous of her perfection and began to slander her.
โEveryone says that your sister, Ami Dori, is good but sheโs not. Sheโs evil. Do you know what sheโs done? She had illicit s*x with Tadu and with Bume โ thatโs what they say, sheโs done bad things with them.โ When he heard all this about Ami Dori, her brother believed his wife and then he, too, began to speak ill of her. And when their parents heard what the brother had to say, they also started to call her names. Hearing what the parents said, others outside the family began to talk ill of Ami Dori.
When she heard all that was said about her, all this horrible talk, Ami Dori felt terrible, very bad inside, and said to herself: โAt first everyone praised me and said I was a good person, but now they say Iโm bad.โ Thatโs how she felt. โI am the sister of iipyo wi and so Iโve never had a bad thought in my heart, never done a bad thing. Not in the past, not even in childhood, not in the present and not in the future would I ever do anything bad. I never had and never will even entertain bad thoughts. You [her family] have prevented me from living my life as I wished.โ
Full of sorrow and pain, Ami Dori left her parentsโ house then went to a grove where she made the takun tree her mother and the sangko bacho tree her father. Why did she do that? You might ask. Well, her sister-in-law had slandered her, her brother had slandered her, her mother and father had slandered her, the whole village had slandered her. She was devastated and began to think: โIf my mother doesnโt act like a mother, and if I canโt consider her my mother; if she canโt think of me as her daughter, if my father canโt think of me as his daughter, if my brother canโt think of me as his sister, if my sister-in-law canโt treat me as a sister-in-law, if everyone calls me an evil person, then I donโt know how I can live on this earth.โ
Then she said to the creator god, โSince my birth, until this very day, I have done nothing wrong. I did nothing with Biilyi Tado and Bume Tah; I never even looked at them. To say I had illicit s*x with them is idle gossip. God, you know everything โ the stars, sun and moon, all the gods, souls, including the malevolent giirii wi; you created all the creatures, from spirits to humans and animals, all the insects and reptiles, the flora and fauna, trees, everything little and big. Everything and everyone is your creation. So you know me, what Iโve done and what Iโve said and who I am. I also know and because I know I can no longer live among people. Iโm going to leave this earth. They say that I had s*x with Biilyi Tado and Bume Tah and I am humiliated/disgraced.โ
With these sad words and thoughts, she tied a cane-rope to a branch of the takun tree and then around her neck and committed su***de. There, in that takun grove, she took her own life and left this earth. After her death, her maternal uncle [and his brothers ?] came and said, โAmi Dori was always a good person. How could you speak about such a good person in such a terrible way? Because she felt disgraced, she killed herself.โ
Ami Doriโs family replied, โWe all believed what the others said, that she was bad. We believed what her sister-in-law said about her, what her own brother and her own parents said. Asking more and more questions, the maternal uncle found out that her brother and his wife had first said that she was bad, that she had s*x with Biilyi Tadu and Bume Tah. He also learned that they were not humans, but snakes, who became humans who turned back into snakes. Ami Dori had played with those snakes. They explained this to the maternal uncle and his brothers. [When they heard all this] the maternal uncle and his relatives spoke directly to Ami Dori, โYou are sister of iipyo wi, the good Ami Dori, but they said that you were bad. But we, in our hearts, do not believe them. All those people accused you of doing evil, but you have said that you did nothing wrong with Biilyi Tado and Bume Tah, that you have been wronged, that you are blameless. But instead of taking revenge, we will bury you. Then you must show us that you are pure and not evil; give us a sign from your grave that you led a good life.โ
On the next day, in the early morning, her family and her sister-in-lawโs family [?] went to her grave and saw a small shoot growing, no taller than a snakeโs fang. On the second morning it was the size of a lizardโs leg. And on the third day a full tree had grown over her grave mound, a big, thick tree with many branches. From her grave, through the power of god, spiritual power, she showed that she really had committed no evil.
Different flowers blossomed on the many branches of that tree โ a red flower, a white flower, a green flower and a dark flower [this is in nyibo language]. And the tree was called the โDoriโ tree and the necklace tree because different coloured necklaces hung from those branches โ the domin, doku, rite, tado, sampyo, santer, ahing paming, and lebu โ all these necklaces grew on the tree.
โOne person watches and one makes a hole [in the bead]; one person rolls the thread and one puts it through the hole; and plucks the beads from the tree.โ [In the same way ?] everyone now knew that Ami Dori was a good woman, that she had done no wrong; that god had made her a pure being. They knew that she had done nothing wrong with Biilyi Tadu and Bume Tah, that everyone had unjustly slandered her.
The necklace tree appeared to show this to everyone. When the tree had demonstrated Ami Doriโs goodness to the maternal uncle, the others โ her brother and sister-in-law, and her parents stood accused.
In order to show the rest of the world that she was innocent, her uncles took the necklaces [from the tree?] and set out to sell them. This is said to have been the โfirst businessโ.
In our miji language we have the saying: โTado must go and sell; Haley must go and sellโ. [Tado-Haley refers to a generic trader] These two men set out to sell these necklaces, which were created by the creator of all we see [the stars, sun, moon, etc.] They went to sell those necklaces to show the world that Ami Dori was innocent.
They went to the house of Nyime Payang Radhe [a ruler from Tibet?], to try to sell them to his daughters. But they rejected them, saying they werenโt up to the mark. So the uncles took the necklaces and wandered from place to place, trying to sell them, explaining that they were expensive because they were the ornaments of Ami Dori.
North and south they went, here and there and everywhere, until they reached the house of Pan Pachi Tari [some kind of title]; to his women folk they said, โHere are fine necklaces; look at them and see how nice they are.โ Then Pan Pachi Tari bought them for his daughters, saying, โIโll buy them with my lands.โ
And so it was that because Ami Dori was a virtuous person, of excellent character, kind thoughts and gentle speech โ because she was the best person on earth her sister-in-law, her brother and her parents spoke ill of her, and others did until the whole world slandered her. God made her pure and through the power of meping wi, the necklace tree grew and showed thee world that she was innocent.
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