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Princess Mandalika || The Origin of Nyale

Once upon a time, there was a kingdom on Lombok Island ruled by a king named Tonjang Beru. He was a wise king. He had a queen named Dewi Seranting and a beautiful daughter named Princess Mandalika. It is said that Princess Mandalika was the prettiest girl on the whole island. Everyone knew about the beauty and goodness of Princess Mandalika, even people from other kingdoms around the island.

Princes from all over wanted to marry her. One by one, they came to propose to her. Princess Mandalika was a kind girl. She hated to make people sad. So, when the princes came to propose, she was very confused. She could not decide, and she did not want to make them sad. She also did not want to cause a war because of her.

To solve these problems, King Tonjang Beru held a competition on Seger Kuta Beach. He called on all the princes to take part in an archery competition. The rule was simple: anyone who hit the target perfectly would be accepted as the future husband of Princess Mandalika. One by one, all the participants tried their best. After some time, there was no winner. All the participants were great at archery.

Because there were no winners, all the participants started arguing. They all claimed to be the best. The argument grew heated. Finally, they all started fighting. Soon, the fighting became larger. It was like a war because all the princes had brought their troops to the archery competition. Princess Mandalika was very 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 do not want you to fight for me. And I don't want you to be sad either. I want you all to have me, but not as your wife. I want to be someone that people can have," said Princess Mandalika.

King Tonjang Beru and all the other people on the beach did not understand what she meant. He then came to her. But suddenly, Princess Mandalika jumped into the sea. She disappeared into a big wave. Everyone was surprised. It was chaos on the beach. All the princes tried to swim to find the princess, but they did not find anything.

After several hours of searching for the princess, they suddenly found a lot of colorful sea worms on the beach. King Tonjang Beru realized that his daughter had returned as marine worms. The worms were then called nyale. To this day, people in Lombok always try to catch nyale. Nyale are very tasty, and that is why many people come to Lombok to catch them. However, they can only be found once a year, in February or March. The tradition of catching marine worms is called Bau Nyale.

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