Gecko: A Balinese Folktale

Asian Art Museum Storyteller Miriam Mills tells the story about a gecko from Bali.

Note: This story was inspired by Go to Sleep, Gecko! by Margaret Read MacDonald (2006) and a Balinese tale in Folk Tales from Bali and Lombok by Margaret Muth Alibash (Jakarta: Penerbit Djambatan, 1990). The story also is retold by Balinese storyteller Made Taro in his Lagu-Lagu Permainan Traditional Bali (Denpasar:Upada Sastra, 1999). In Made Taro’s version, a woodpecker begins the tale and the chief is a lion, rather than a human. Illustrator, Geraldo Valèrio, made an artistic decision to depict the village head as an elephant.