For a long time, Pyongyang people have loved going to the Changwan Mountains. It really was beautiful there. Dense forests stretched from Mount Daesong straight to the Chuam, Moran and Changwang hills. There were bears, deer, and hares in these forests. There were apparently no birds there. And what could be better than free nature?
Therefore, apparently, the townspeople were drawn there with all their hearts.
May has arrived, and with it the spring festival of Tano. The fun was in full swing. At the very foot of the mountain, a swing was placed under a weeping willow, and two smartly dressed girls were swinging on it. One is in a yellow blouse and a pink skirt, the other is in a blue skirt and a purple blouse. In long braids there are red ribbons. The girls flew so high that it seemed they were about to reach the very sky, like swallows trying to touch a bell tied almost at the very top of the tree. Everyone admired the girls, clapped for them, oohed and aahed.
[Tano Festival is a spring festival, usually celebrated on May 5th.]
Every year, Pyongyang people celebrate Tano Day from the fourth to the sixth of May.
They go to the foot of Mount Changwan, to the Kensangor gorge, to Mount Moranbong to have fun. Women and girls play different games, swing on swings, men and boys compete in wrestling and archery, showing their strength and dexterity.
This time the city residents came out to celebrate. And at this very time, a very young girl was climbing a narrow path up Mount Changwan. She was fifteen years old, no more. She carried a chige and a rope for brushwood on her back. Dressed in pitiful rags and wearing straw shoes, the girl sadly looked at the festively dressed people. Her beautiful, bright face breathed with tenderness, her large dark eyes shone with kindness.
And somehow I couldn’t believe that on this holiday someone was going to the mountain with brushwood. Especially a girl, not a guy.
And how the poor thing wanted to swing on the swing! And suddenly she saw her mistress, all dressed up, walking towards the swing, all in silks, gold and silver.
As if on purpose, on this joyful day for everyone, the hostess ordered the girl to fetch three vats of water and bring two fagots of brushwood from the forest.
It's a shame for the girl. But what can you do? She swallowed her tears and went into the forest.
The girl's name was Man Ok. She was born in a village at the foot of Changwan Mountain.
I was just a baby when my father and mother died. So I’ve been running around since childhood, and I’ve been hungry and cold.
The neighbors felt sorry for the orphan, and even though they themselves were poor, they helped in any way they could.
Before her death, Man Ok’s mother asked them not to abandon the girl.
And when Man Ok entered her eighth year, the rich man Heung took her to his house and promised to take care of her until the wedding.
He promised to promise, but he himself mocked the orphan. She was a nanny, a laundress, and a cook, and even went to the mountains for firewood. So she grew up with strangers, worked from dawn to dusk for a beggar's soup, and even suffered beatings and insults. And at night she cried quietly, her mother remembered, dreamed of the day when she would get rid of humiliation, when she could live freely and happily. But will this day come?!
And then the girl came into the forest, wiped away the tears that had welled up in her eyes, and began collecting brushwood. I picked up a bundle, and suddenly I heard a dead tree crackling. She turned around, and in front of her was a fawn, ran out and said in a human voice:
- Save me, good girl!
Then Man Ok realized that hunters were chasing the deer. I regretted it. And I harbor hatred towards cruel hunters.
As soon as Man Ok hid the fawn behind a bundle of brushwood, hunters jumped out of the forest, ran up to her and asked:
“Didn’t you see where the fawn ran?”
The girl immediately realized that it was officials from the palace who were hunting. How the nabal dressed up. Hunting is fun for them. Officials will not celebrate the holiday together with ordinary people!
The girl heard the hunters asking about the fawn, and answered:
- I saw it! He ran over there!
And she pointed somewhere to the side with her hand. And she herself is afraid. What if the hunters stop by? Didn't look in. Gone.
A little deer jumped out and said:
- Thank you, dear girl! I don’t know how to thank you!
Man Ok shook off the dry branches from the fawn, stroked it and said, so affectionately:
- I don’t need anything! Run quickly! Otherwise the hunters might not return!
The fawn stands there and doesn’t move. And there are tears in the eyes. He stood and stood and said to the girl:
- Follow me! - and ran forward.
Man Ok thought, shook her head, and went after the fawn. She is curious what kind of deer this is. Not only is he handsome, but he also speaks with a human voice.
They ran and ran, and suddenly the fawn stopped, as if rooted to the ground.
Man Ok looks, and in front of her is a clearing, so beautiful that it’s difficult to describe. There are strange rocks around, and trees on the rocks. The waterfall is gurgling. Many times Man Ok went to Mount Changwan, but she never saw such grace.
A doe with her fawns approached the girl, bowed her head and said:
“You saved my son’s life.” How can I thank you?
Then the fawn himself came up, holding a green twig with a red flower in his mouth. And this is his sansam - the root of life. The most authentic sansam. Man Ok knew that it was a medicinal root. I often saw the owner drinking an infusion from it. Here the doe says to the fawns:
“Come on, kids, let’s take the good girl to the clearing where the root of life grows.”
And they all went together through the forest to the cliff. We reached a small clearing. They began to jump and gallop. Man Ok looks, and the whole clearing is strewn with red sansam flowers.
Man Ok picked up a whole bundle of sansam, put it on her shoulders, and carried it home.
She gifted all the poor with the root of life. And she lived calmly and happily.
The owner heard about the clearing where sansam grows, and decided to try his luck.
Since the girl has collected a whole bundle, she thinks that she and her wife will carry the bag. The owners took the bag and went into the gorge to look for a happy clearing.
They left and disappeared. No one has seen them since then.
One of the villagers went to the mountains and looked - the hat of the greedy Khynan was lying on the ground, next to it was his wife’s jewelry. The people talked among themselves and decided that there was no place for the rich in the heavenly kingdom; the tigers dragged them away to their lair.
Mount Changwan keeps many wonderful stories in its memory, and they are all about the miraculous root of life.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru