Batu Badaun

Batu Badaun is a Moluccan fairy tale about respect for the elderly:
Once upon a time, a widow of a rich man lived on Tanimbar Island, Maluku. She had a daughter and a son, both mean and spoiled.
One day the lazy children woke up very late. There was no food on the table anymore. The children got angry, went outside and saw their mother scrubbing their dirty clothes on the river stones. They started to viciously hit her over and over again. Finally the poor woman said “from now on you are no longer my children, you are the incarnation of the devil.“
She dragged herself to a big boulder on the riverbank and said “dear stone, please open yourself and let me in. Let me become a white jasmine". Slowly the stone opened and closed over her. A few days later a small plant started to grow from under the big stone. It grew and grew. It had lots of leaves, the flowers were white and had a beautiful, sweet scent. The people from the surrounding villages called the big stone “Batu Badaun”, stone overgrown with leaves.
The angry villagers threw the wicked children out of the village, their riches were given to the poor and needy. They were never heard from again.
🌿🌸Celeste Engel and Romina Engel (violin) recording Batu Badaun 🌸🌿