Legend behind the "Nêu tree"
Once upon a time, humans and monsters used to coexist on earth. Monsters, with their superior strength, seized all of the land and forced humans to work for them in rice fields. In harvest seasons, monsters would take the top of the crops (rice) while humans could only take the bottom (roots).
The Buddha, feeling sympathetic with humans, advised humans to stop planting rice and yield sweet potato instead. In the next harvest, humans took all the tuberous roots, which were edible, and left monsters with the stems and leaves on the top. Outraged, monsters created a new rule for the subsequent season: they would have the bottom while humans would take the top. Humans immediately returned to planting rice. Encountering another failure, monsters demanded both the top and the bottom. The Buddha counseled humans to yield corn. Humans did accordingly and won again, since the edible part lied in the middle of the crop.
Feeling upset, monsters confiscated all of the land and no longer hired humans to work. The Buddha told humans to make a deal with monsters to buy a land as small as a kāṣāya (a Buddhist’s robe)’s shadow. Humans would hang the kāṣāya on top of a bamboo tree, so that their land could be circumscribed by the borders of the kāṣāya’s shadows. Monsters thought that the land would be small, so they reached a consensus: the land inside the shadow would belong to humans and the rest would belong to monsters. When humans planted the tree, the Buddha stood on top of it and launched the kāṣāya, which then turned into a round piece of fabric. Then, the Buddha enchanted the tree to make it taller, taller until it reached the sky. The firmament darkened unawares as the shadow of the kāṣāya eventually covered the earth’s surface.
Monsters never expected such miracle; they had to retreat and run to the sea when the shadow encompassed their land. They gathered an army there to retaliate and take back their land. The war between humans and monsters was bloody. Knowing that the monster army was afraid of dog blood, pineapple leaves, garlic and lime powder, the Buddha and humans employed them as weapons. The monsters lost the battle and were exiled to the sea. They begged the Buddha to allow them to visit their ancestors’’ graves in the land for a few days a year. The Buddha agreed out of sympathy. Therefore, every year, when monsters go to the land during the New Year’s Eve, people would set up nêu (adorned bamboo trees without roots) to drive monsters away from human houses. On top of the ‘nêu’, people hang a terracotta chime, so that they would make noises when winds pass by to remind monsters to go away. A bundle of pineapple leaves is also hung to arouse fear from monsters. In addition, people draw arrows heading to the east and scatter lime powder on the ground to prevent monsters and remind them to go back to the sea. Translation by Ann Phyan
Art from Celebrate Tet Like Our Great Grandparents by Dang Thien (Edited by Kieu Nhung)
