Wasuponda Village, Its Origin: A Folktale

Once upon the time, in a long long time ago, there was a village that later called Wasuponda in South Sulawesi. Based on the story, the village was surrounded by a lake and a series of mountain. Before the lake dried out, it was controlled by the king of the spirits. He desired to own all the land.

Until one time he tried to take over Matano lake. In the meantime, due to Matano lake controller who did not want to have a fight, then he invited the controller of Wasuponda Lake to make a deal. But, it was refused by Wasuponda lake controller. Thus, Matano Lake controller tried to find a way in order to avoid the war happened. In the last minute, Matano Lake controller eventually found a way to avoid the war. Then he said to the Wasuponda Lake controller, "You may take over Matano Lake, but before that, we have to compete to dry our own lake."

"Well then," said Wasuponda Lake controller.

 In the day that had been set, the controller and tenant of Matano Lake came to Wasuponda Lake. "Let show us, what you can do" said the controller of Wasuponda Lake to the controller and tenant of Matano Lake, in full of arrogancy tone. "Hohohohoho! You would never be able to do it! The Matano Lake will be ours! Hohoho".

"Well" That time was the midday. The sun was very hot seems like burning our skin. In the sky, there was a piece of cloud appeared. Then, the controller and tenant of Matano Lake surrounded Wasuponda Lake.

They showed their action. They began to strike their hands to one of mountain on the lakeside of Wasuponda Lake. Blar! The mountain then collapsed. A very loud thunder then appeared. Slosh. Slosh! The rocks fell from the mountain filled Wasuponda Lake. As the result, the water from the lake overflowed, it flowed to all direction. Eventually, the lake dried.

After seeing that, the controller of Wasuponda Lake got angry. He and the controller of Matano Lake went to Matano Lake. When they got there, then they surrounded Matano Lake. "Let see what we could do!" said the controller of Wasuponda Lake, in a very arrogant tone. They then took their action. Nevertheless, the situation in Matano Lake did not change. The tenant of Wasuponda Lake also found their loss. Due to the tiredness they feel, then they took a rest. Suddenly, they were surprised by the emergence of a land in the centre of Matano Lake. This was happened because Wasuponda lake had changed. Besides, in fact, both of the lakes are connected one another.

There was a new appearance in which in the centre of Matano Lake that always arose and sank, and it made it to be given a name as Nuha which means that arise and sink. In the meantime, Wasuponda Lake had changed to be a land with various plants and trees formed in jungle. The particular appearance and change of it was in that area, there are many pineapples grow and live on the rocks. This is the reason why the village name Wasuponda that derived from the word wasu which means rocks and ponda means pineapple. Thus, Wasuponda means pineapple grows on the rocks. The story of this Wasuponda, as pineapple on the rocks, either it is myth or reality, it will be discussed in the next post.

Source:
Pandego, Mardiani.dkk. 2008. Putri Loeha dan Payung Saktinya. Jakarta: Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia (KPG).

Posted by miasastra

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