The Prince and the Zombie by Tenzin Wangmo Page A

great harm. She stole some special objects from him. If you do not do what is necessary for these things to be returned to him at once, you will all also be transformed into monkeys!”
    These words had a powerful effect on the family, who were terrified. The parents-in-law pondered hard trying to remember what their daughter had had with her when she had returned home.
    â€œWe didn’t see anything in her hands but a stick and a sack,” they said.
    Happy to hear this news, the former beggar disguised as a great master asked that these objects be brought to him, and said, “Yes, indeed, it seems to me these are the things in question. Now you can stop worrying—I can help you. Let me have the monkey. I will take her with me and change her back into a human being!”
    Overjoyed, the family accepted this proposal and let him take the monkey away with him. When they had reached a sufficient distance from the village, the false master touched the monkey with the yellow flower, and it became once again the young woman he had married.
    Beside herself with happiness, the young woman threw herself down at the great master’s feet, wept tears of joy, and thanked him from the bottom of her heart. As she was doing this, the former beggar removed his disguise so as to reveal to her his true identity. When the young woman again got to her feet, how great was her amazement and shame to find herself thus standing before the husband she had so coldly abused! With great remorse, she begged a thousand pardons.
    He was concerned now to learn the whereabouts of their daughter. Trembling from head to toe, his wife told him that in the course of their voyage on the stick, the little one had slipped from her mother’s hands. She had tumbled into space and perished on the spot. Infinitely saddened by this irreparable loss and very angry with his wife, who was responsible for the death of their daughter, he had the magic stick beat her. In spite of that, his wife said to him, “My dear one, I regret very much what has happened and I ask you to forgive me. I beg of you, take me with you again. It is no longer possible for me to stay in my parents’ home, where I would only live in pain and suffering.”
    The young man answered her thus:
    â€œI took you with me at your own request, because you wanted to live a free and adventurous life. You robbed me, you deceived me, and you left me of your own free will to go back to your parents. I can only conclude that you prefer suffering to happiness. Count on me no longer. I want nothing to do with you!”
    At this moment, the zombie made a long, well-calculated pause, and, caught up in the story, the prince lost his attention for a moment and cried out: “What a stupid woman! She has no idea what she—” He broke off sharply but too late.
    Yet once more the sack opened to allow its prisoner, Ngödrup Dorje, to escape. Gloating hugely, the zombie said, “There you have the humiliating blow you deserve for talking back!” and he disappeared in a puff of wind.
    Dechö Zangpo was left all alone in this desolate place with an immense feeling of remorse and failure. But neither his anger nor his tears could change the situation in the least. In the end he regained his composure, took a firm hold on his courage, and decided to continue with the mission he had been given by the guru Gömpo Ludrup. With the firmest possible resolve never to let his vigilance lapse again, he went back again to capture “He Who Fulfills All Dreams.”

17
    Hunting Down the Zombie Again

    S O IT WAS that the determined prince Dechö Zangpo traveled across the entire kingdom again until he reached the place called Silwaytsal, where the dead dwelled. Forcing aside the numerous dead beings who crowded around him, by touching their heads with the cone-shaped red object, he finally caught a glimpse of the object of his hunt, the zombie Ngödrup Dorje. The zombie