Dragon Spotlight 16: Baruklinting

You may have noticed that there was no post last week - the semester is certainly beginning to “drag on.”  Get it?  “DRAG-ON”?  OK, we’ll get right to the myth.

This week we are focusing on a myth from Java about 1 shepherd boy who was picked on by the 9 other shepherd boys from his village.  One day this unpopular boy was resting under a tree, when he heard the other 9 boys planning to come pelt him with cow dung to drive him away.  Before they could throw the cow patties at him, just as he prepared to run, the sky opened up and rain poured down on them all.  The unpopular shepherd, a clever boy, found a cave to hide in.  The others followed him and shoved him out into the rain, laughing as his clothes were drenched.  But they only laughed for a few seconds, because suddenly the cave snapped shut!  It was not a cave at all, but the mouth of the dragon Baruklinting, who had received a vision that nine shepherds would be delivered to his great mouth.

The last remaining shepherd ran back to his village in horror.  He rallied the villagers, who grabbed weapons and prepared to fight the dragon.  But when they ran to the place where Baruklinting had been, the dragon was gone and the sun was shining.

For this drawing, Rachel chose to focus not on an indigenous species but on the cave formations Baruklinting would have had to imitate.  Stalactites form his upper row of teeth and stalagmites form his bottom teeth.

In some versions of the myth, Baruklinting is actually the unloved shepherd boy and not the dragon, begging the question - is something more sinister going on?  Is Baruklinting both the boy and the cause of the other, cruel shepherds’ demise?  Since we’re just on the other side of Halloween, we’ll let you ponder the question!