Dragon Tales

Indonesia’s history is steeped in magic and folklore. In fact if you dig into the history of most countries, you will find tales from the ancestors designed to ensure children are well behaved, to present moral ideas and to worship and appease the gods.

Indonesia in particular has a very spiritual and animistic past. Folk tales were used to explain some of Nature’s phenomena, long before science came along. When you live within the Ring of Fire, the importance of giving offerings to the gods to stop the ground shaking or the mountain spewing fire cannot be ignored.

Folklore was also used to develop a healthy relationship between humans and nature. With such a rich and unique terrestrial and marine fauna, learning how to live in harmony with the animals was taught to from a very early age. One such tale involves the Komodo Dragon.

Putri Naga or The Dragon Princess

The tale goes that on Komodo Island lived a beautiful princess, called by the people ‘The Dragon Princess’. The Princess marries and gives birth to twins, one is a human boy called Gerong and the second is a female dragon, named Ora.

Gerong took residence with the humans in the village and Ora turned to the forest. Years passed and the twins grew into adults. One day, Gerong set out to hunt deer. He was successful and caught the deer and set about collecting it to take back to the people of the village. Suddenly, out of nowhere, appeared a large Komodo dragon which began feasting on the deer.  Gerong tried to scare the dragon away, but it did not move, so he took out his bow and arrow and took aim.

Suddenly there was a bright flash of light and a beautiful woman appeared. It was his mother, The Dragon Princess. “Do not kill her,” The Dragon Princessimplored. “That is your twin sister, Ora.” Gerong put down his weapon and left the dragon in peace.

From that point onwards, the people of Komodo Island lived harmoniously with the dragons and would not hunt or hurt them. The dragons could hunt freely on the island and when they were injured, their human brothers would come to their aid.

We are fortunate enough to encounter Komodo Dragons on our land treks on both Komodo and Rinca Islands.