Tricksters and fools play a large part in many mythological and
folkloric tales. In the Tibeten Folk Tales, we see many examples of
these characters.
In the tale The Tiger and the Frog, the trickster Frog creates a ruse that convinces a hungry tiger not to eat him. When the Tiger and the Frog first meet, the Tiger's first instinct is to gobble this small creature up. However, the frog declares that he is king of all frogs, saying that he can jump any distance and do anything. He proceeds to challenge the Tiger to see who can jump further across a nearby river. When the Tiger jumps across, this trickster bites his tail and uses him to get across the river! He then spits up the Tiger's fur and deceives him into believing that it was from a Tiger he had eaten the previous day. The scared Tiger runs away!
In the tale The Tiger and the Frog, the trickster Frog creates a ruse that convinces a hungry tiger not to eat him. When the Tiger and the Frog first meet, the Tiger's first instinct is to gobble this small creature up. However, the frog declares that he is king of all frogs, saying that he can jump any distance and do anything. He proceeds to challenge the Tiger to see who can jump further across a nearby river. When the Tiger jumps across, this trickster bites his tail and uses him to get across the river! He then spits up the Tiger's fur and deceives him into believing that it was from a Tiger he had eaten the previous day. The scared Tiger runs away!
(Tiger: Wikimedia Commons)
One of these tricky creatures from the Tibetan Folk Tales falls victim to his own ruse in How the Fox Fell a Victim to His Own Deceit. This tale begins with a mother tiger bringing a baby fox back to her cub to be a playmate. While out on her hunt one day, this mother tiger finds a baby calf, and brings it back to be a playmate for her cub as well. When the calf arrives,however, the fox becomes jealous. The mother tiger dies, and the trickster fox tells both the calf and the tiger that the other is planning on killing the other! In the end, the calf and the tiger figure out that the fox has tricked them, and instead it the the fox who is made to be a fool.
In the story How the Sacred Duck Got His Yellow Breast, a rabbit and a frog find a golden pot on top of a mountain. Unable to decide who would get the pot, they decide to race for it. The frog, however, knowing that he would be unable to beat the rabbit in a race, gathers two lookalikes to sneak in and take his place along the path!
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