The Imbiri Yangdhang, the great Tamor River, divided the young men and women who lived along its two banks. They could see one another across the water, yet the river was deep and swift, and crossing it was difficult.
Then winter came.
Snow covered the hills, and the cold grew fierce. Along the riverbanks, the bamboo bent beneath the weight of the frost. Some of the tall stalks leaned across the river until they met the bamboo on the opposite bank. This formed a natural bridge over the water.
The young men and women soon discovered that they could cross by this bridge. They began to visit one another and gathered beside the river on a broad, flat white rock. There they sang, danced and exchanged words of love. The rock became their meeting place, and people came to call it Yuppalung.
As the meetings continued, affection grew into love. The young men and women chose their partners and decided to marry.
Then Tagera Ningwaphumaang, the supreme divine power, spoke.
“A man and a woman may marry only when they are equal in weight.”
The young people were troubled by this decree. At that time, the men were heavier than the women.
“How shall we make ourselves equal?” the women asked.
The women began to adorn themselves with ornaments, and added jewellery until their weight matched that of the men.
At last, they reached the same weight. But soon, the balance shifted, and the women had become heavier.
The men looked at one another and said, “Then we must add weight as well.”
They took up their knives, shields and swords and carried them upon themselves until their weight once again matched that of the women. But now, the men became slightly heavier than the women.
There remained one final measure. A man took a piece of silver and tied it to the woman’s shawl.
“Now the balance is complete,” he said.
And so the man and woman could marry.
The people remembered this act, and the custom became known as Yuppalung Yang. Among the Limbu, the groom still ties a silver coin to the woman’s shawl during marriage, recalling the old tale of the young men and women who crossed the winter bamboo bridge and gathered beside the white rock of Yuppalung.
