Folktales help children connect with their cultural roots by transmitting shared values, traditions, and collective memory across generations. We present a folk tale excerpted from Bird Folktales of Meghalaya for Children by Glenn C Kharkongor with Illustrations by Balaiamon Kharngapkynta & Careen Jolin Langstieh (Martin Luther Christian University Press, 2024)

A long time ago, in a place not far away from Shillong, a giant tree grew. The tree was known as U Diengiei, as it grew on a mountain called Lum Diengiei. The tree grew tall and taller, and branches spread wider and thicker. The giant tree blocked the sun, and the land beneath the tree became dark and cold. The corn and rice in the fields withered and died.

Fearful of the darkness covering the earth, the people gathered in a dorbar meeting and resolved to cut the tree down. The strongest men brought their axes and hacked away at the trunk of the tree day after day. But each morning, when they came to resume their work, they saw that the cuts in the tree had healed. Every day, they had to start again, and it made them very helpless.

One day, the phreit, a little bird called a scaly-breasted munia, told the woodcutters, “I will help you. I know how to solve the problem.” At first, the men laughed, “How can a little bird help so many strong men?” But the bird continued, “Every night, a tiger comes to the tree and licks the cut, and the wound in the tree gets healed.” “Oh! So what shall we do?” asked the axemen. The phreit said, “Leave the axes in the cut of the tree tonight, with the sharp edge facing outwards”.

And so they did. That night, when the tiger licked the tree, his tongue was cut, and he bled to death. Over the next few days and weeks, the tree was cut down. It fell southwards. The lower branches of the tree made the ravines and gorges, and the weight of the giant tree flattened the hills and created the plains of the country that is Bangladesh today. If you go to Lum Diengiei, you can see the crater in the ground, where the tree once grew.

Because of a little bird, the Diengiei was destroyed. The sun shone on the earth again, and all living things prospered.