January 25, 2022

Bawang Merah & Bawang Putih

"Bawang Merah Bawang Putih" ("Shallot and Garlic") is a Cinderella-type story of good versus evil and very popular in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Bawang Merah and Bawang Putih are half-sisters who are polar opposites of each other. Bawang Merah is a lazy, greedy girl spoiled by their mother while Bawang Putih is obedient, diligent and does all the chores without complaint.

One laundry day in the river, Bawang Putih loses a scarf, which is picked up by an old woman. The old woman says she will return the scarf if Bawang Putih cooks and cleans for her. Bawang Putih does as she's told, gets the scarf back and the old woman as a gift tells her to bring home one of her two pumpkins, a small or a large one.

Bawang Putih chooses the smaller pumpkin. When she breaks open the pumpkin at home, she discovers the fruit is filled with jewelry.

Bawang Merah and their mother get jealous and want their own pumpkin filled with jewelery, so they go to the river and deliberately lose their scarves. Then they visit the old woman’s house and ask for a pumpkin. They bring home the big one (of course), but instead of jewelry, their large pumpkin is filled with snakes.

Summary

Bawang Merah and Bawang Putih are half-sisters who are polar opposites of each other.

Bawang Merah is a lazy, greedy girl spoiled by their mother while Bawang Putih is obedient, diligent and does all the chores without complaint.

One laundry day in the river, Bawang Putih loses a scarf, which is picked up by an old woman.

The old woman says she will return the scarf if Bawang Putih cooks and cleans for her.

Bawang Putih chooses the smaller pumpkin.

When she breaks open the pumpkin at home, she discovers the fruit is filled with jewelry.

Then they visit the old woman's house and ask for a pumpkin.

They bring home the big pumpkin, but instead of jewelry, their large pumpkin is filled with snakes.