Ink Atlas

Folk Tales from Tibet

by W. F. O'Connor (collector and translator) · 1906

Fantasy · Classics

Tibetan folk tales collected and translated by Captain W. F. O'Connor, who heard them from Tibetans while serving at Gyantse and Lhasa. There are tales of a hare and a wolf, a tiger and a man, an ogre's castle and a lama's servant, and a closing section of Tibetan love-song verses.

Content note: Collected during two years in Tibet, around the 1904 mission to Lhasa, by a British officer, and told in the language of 1906. Some tales include violence and death.

26 chapters

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A hare was going along a road one day, when suddenly, on turning a corner, he came upon a large Tiger. The Tiger at once seized the Hare, and said that he was going to eat him.

“Please, please, Uncle Tiger,” said the Hare, holding up his thumbs in supplication, “please don’t eat me, I am only a very small beast, and will make a very insufficient meal for a great big animal like you. And if you will spare my life I will take you to where you can find a much bigger, fatter creature than me for your supper.”

“Very well,” said the Tiger, “I agree to that. But if you don’t show me a much bigger animal than you are, I shall certainly be obliged to eat you.”

So he released the Hare, and the two walked off along the road together.

As they went along night began to fall, and when it was quite dark the Hare began smacking his chops and making sounds as if he was eating something very nice.

“What are you eating, Brother Hare?” asked the Tiger.

“I am eating my eye, Uncle Tiger,” replied the Hare. “I have taken it out and eaten it; it is very nice, and it soon grows again.”

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