Two Tales of Uncle Tompa,
The Legendary Rascal of Tibet
retold by Rinjing Dorje
Introduction:
One of the best gifts my mother, a Tibetan scholar, ever gave me was a collection of Uncle Tompa stories called Tales of Uncle Tompa, The Legendary Rascal of Tibet, compiled and translated by Rinjing Dorje and illustrated by Addison Smith. Rinjing Dorje first heard these tales as a boy herding his family's livestock in Tibet, probably when he was about the same age I was when I received the book. Though separated by continents, cultures, and language, I am certain that we two guffawed aloud in the same places in the tales, deliciously scandalized by Uncle Tompa's terrible tricks and sexual adventures.
Uncle Tompa (known as Agu Tompa in Tibet) wasn't that sort of illustrious culture hero–trickster whose cosmic pranks shape a universe. He was a trader, an itinerant weaver, a scripture reader, a servant — in short a working man whose pranks often leveled the playing field for the common folk. The vain, wealthy man, seeking a cure for baldness, finds himself paying for a punishing "cure"; the prudish mother, failing to educate her daughter about sex, discovers too late that Uncle Tompa has proven an apt instructor; a stingy ruler attempts unsuccessfully to thwart Uncle Tompa's appetite for good food. And those are the milder antics. Uncle Tompa has been known to sell a magical crop of penises in a nunnery, disguise himself as an attractive woman and seduce a rich man into marriage, and trick an abusive abbott into believing Uncle Tompa's turd is a gift from heaven.
Although it has been many years since I received the book, I still reread these hilarious tales, and am reminded by Uncle Tompa to keep my heart free from pettiness and my eyes open if I want to survive as nobody's fool. So it is my pleasure now to present two of Rinjing Dorje's tales of Uncle Tompa, Uncle Tompa Sleeps with a Virgin and Uncle Tompa is the Ruler's Servant
— Midori Snyder
Uncle Tompa Sleeps with a Virgin | Uncle Tompa is the Ruler's Servant