[2][3][4] The collection is known in India as Vetala Pañcaviṃśati, in Tibet as Ro-sgrung,[5] in Mongolia as Siditü kegür, and in Oirat as Siddhi kǖr.
[2][6] In this regard, Mongolian linguist Tsendiin Damdinsüren noted the existence of two Tibetan compilations of Vetala tales, one with 13 chapters and the other with 21.
Lastly, the divergence in contents between the Indian Vetala and the Tibetan versions, according to Damdinsuren, may indicate the latter were original works, instead of an adaptation or translation.
One day, the husband goes to graze the cattle, when a demon appears, kills the man, and wears his face as a disguise.
The false husband goes back home with a story that he met a potential rich suitor for his daughters and gives the woman some fat to be cooked for their meal.
The next day, the false husband takes the youngest daughter, Langa Langchung, to the hill to be killed off, and tells her to wait there while he goes to search for her suitor.
The girl tells the rooster she met a handsome youth named Japho Tsilu at the gala, who greatly interested her.
Langa does as instructed and walks to Japho's mother's house with the deity, introducing herself as a beggar woman whose father and elder sister were devoured by a demon.
Japho Tsalu then explains that the demons caught his soul after the rooster's skin and made to be their servant, first their tea man, then their chamber master, until being demoted to horse herder.
After the demons leave, Langa reunites with Japho Tsalu, and his mother faints with happiness at seeing him safe and sound.
[11][12][13][14][a] These tales refer to a marriage between a human woman and a husband of supernatural origin that appears in animal shape.
[16] According to Hungarian scholar Lazsló Lörincz, variants of the story appear in Tibetan Ro-sgrung, either in compilations of thirteen tales or of twenty-one.
9, Bu-mo Slaṅ-ṅa slaṅ-čhun srin-mo'i kha-nas thar-te rgyal-srid bzuṅ-ba'i le'u bzugs-so ("The Tale about how the maiden Slan-na fled the demon's mouth and gained the throne)": the heroine's father and sisters are devoured by a demon, but she escapes with the aid a dog and meets a talking rooster; the rooster is an enchanted human whose disguise she burns and causes him to fall under the power of demons; with the help of deity Rta-mgrin (Hayagriva), transmogrified to a horse, she saves her beloved.
The next day, the middle sister goes to look for the animal and rests by the same stone, and the same white bird propositions her, but she declines.
Some time later, a festival is held in a nearby village, with musicians, equestrian games, and all sorts of amusement.
[23] Author Eleanore Myers Jewett translated the tale as The White Bird's Wife and sourced it from Tibet.
Desperate, the girl searches high and low for the animals, and enters a cave; inside, she finds jewels and finely decorated doors she passes through, until she finds a large throne room at the end of the cave, a large white rooster sat on a cushion.
Dekyi asks how she can still save him, and is told she is to hold a candle and bang on a door night and day for a whole week.
He reveals to her he is now a slave to the demons and can never return to her, but insists she takes the jewels in their cave and go back to her family.
[25] In a Tibetan tale titled Langa and Jatsalu, also contained in a published version of Ro-srung (2003),[26] a family of four (father, mother and two daughters) lives in a valley.
One day, the father goes to graze sheep down in the valley, when a sinpo shapeshifter appears, kills the man and wears its skin.
After the dog leaves, the sinpo comes back to devour her, but, following the animal's advice, she throws the plate and it rolls down the slope.
Inside the room, a talking rooster greets her and offers food and a warm bed for her, telling her to use a small door near the bedroom wall.
Langa accepts the rooster's offer, eats and sleeps for a bit, then goes out the small door: when she exits it, it leads her to a crowded marketplace.
Jatsalu throws ashes and dust at the people, and drops a sack of brown sugar to distract them, then makes his way back to the throne room to put on the rooster disguise again.
The next day, Jatsalu directs Langa to his parents' compound, which is guarded by ferocious dogs, but she can bypass them by performing an act of kindness and keep a state of mindfulness at all times.
The next morning, Langa tells Jatsalu's mother about her son, and the woman deducts he has been kidnapped by a tsen body-snatcher.
The next day, she finds deer's antlers and a turquoise in a bush, which she takes and goes to a juniper tree, and hides herself amidst some lower branches.
[27] Tibetologist August Hermann Francke, in a 1923 article, reported the existence of Tibetan manuscript from the Bar-bog family from Lahul.
The manuscript, titled Ňos-grub-can-gyi-sgruns, contained 13 tales, the seventh named Bya-shubs-rgyal-po (German: der König in Vogelgestalt; English: "The King in Bird-form").