Princess Mandalika

Long time ago, there was a kingdom in Lombok Island that was ruled by
a king named Raja Tonjang Beru. He was a wise king. He had a queen
named Dewi Seranting. He also had a beautiful daughter named Princess
Mandalika. Everybody knew about Princess Mandalika’s beauty and kindness,
even the people from other kingdom around the island.

Princes from all over the place wanted to marry her. One by one, they
came to propose her. Princess Mandalika was a kind girl. She hated to make
people sad. So, when those princes came to propose her, she was very
confused. She could not decide, and she didn’t want to make them sad. She
also didn’t want to cause a war to happen because of her.
To solve the problem, Raja Tonjang Beru then held a competition in Seger
Kuta beach. He asked all the princes to take part in archery competition. One
by one, all participants tried their best. After some time, there was no winner.

Because there was no a winner, all the participants started to argue.

They claimed to be the best. Finally, they all were fighting. Soon, the fighting
got bigger. It was like a war, because all the princes brought their soldiers in
the archery competition. Princess Mandalika was really worried. She did not
want the war to get bigger and hurt many people. Finally, she had an idea.
“Everybody, listen up! I know you all love me and want me to be your wife. But
I don’t want you to fight because of me. I want you all to have me, but not as
your wife. I want to be someone that everybody can have,” said Princess
Mandalika.

Raja Tonjang Beru and all other people in the beach did not understand
what she meant. The king then came to her. But suddenly, Princess
Mandalika jumped to the sea. She disappeared in the big waves. Everybody
was surprised. It was chaos on the beach. All the princes tried to swim to find
the princess, but they found nothing.

After several hours trying to search the princess, suddenly they found a
lot of colorful sea worms on the beach. Raja Tonjang Beru then realized that
his daughter had returned as sea worms. The worms were then called nyale.
Until now, people in Lombok always try to catch nyale. Nyale is very delicious
and that is why a lot of people come to Lombok to catch it. However, they can
only find it once a year, in February or March. The tradition to catch the sea
worms is called Bau Nyale.