Do you know the story of the playful old woman who lived near the banks of the Mekong River in North-East Thailand?

Many years ago her home was part of the ancient Kingdom of Laos, which stretched across both sides of the mighty Mekong River.

As a little girl she loved being told stories by her grandparents in the Lao language, sitting on the veranda of their little house on stilts.

But as she got older she realized many local dialects in her area were dying out -- so she decided to do something.

That is the abridged story of how Wajuppa Tossa became a storyteller.

WIJUPPA TOSSA: (JP/Spike Mountjoy)

Tossa was in Jakarta last week as part of the ASEAN Storytelling Festival organized by the Children's Book Lovers Association (KPBA).

Tossa took part in five days of storytelling, storytelling workshops and academic discussions about folklore.

With her glasses on crooked and her heart on her sleeve, Tossa engrossed her audience with big gestures, small jokes and cheeky smiles.

It wasn't long before she had grown women buzzing around the room like bees, or flailing on the floor like bears swimming across a river.

They were enacting Tossa's characters and helping her tell the story in the process.

She told the participants of her workshop there were many ways to tell a story, and all worked -- as long as they came from the heart.

"If the story comes from the heart, it will go to the listeners' hearts," she told the mixed workshop of adults and children, who were there to learn the art of storytelling and be entertained in the process.

Tossa began her journey to becoming a storyteller while working as a teacher in North-East Thailand in the early 1990's.

She became concerned about the loss of local dialects and the stories told in those dialects.

The indigenous languages of the Lao, Pu-Thai, Suey, Khmer and other minority groups of North-East Thailand are under threat from the supremacy of the Thai language, which is beamed around the country via television and through the education system.

"That's the problem with language", said Tossa, an associate professor of English and American Literature at Mahasarakham University in Thailand.

"When you become Thai, you feel you are Thai -- the children don't want to speak the local dialect."

When she conducted a small survey of first graders, she found more than 50 percent could not speak their native dialect.

Most of the children said they loved to listen to stories and sited Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White and the Three Little Pigs as traditional local folktales.

Tossa said she was concerned that losing the indigenous folktales would also mean losing the customs and traditions they contained.

"So I took it upon my self ... it's my job to revive the use of the language and the stories that people tell so that they won't die out," Tossa told The Jakarta Post.

Tossa said she instructed her class of university students to collect folktales in their local dialects.

Then, with help from American storytelling legend Margaret Read Macdonald, she prepared them to travel around schools to pass on the language and stories.

The group toured 16 provinces in Isaan, telling stories and teaching others to do the same.

"I think stories can change people. Children who love stories are quite different from the children who do not love stories.

"People who love stories also love sharing, they are also very gentle and very understanding of different cultures, of differences," Tossa said.

She added stories were also great educational tools.

"(Children) enjoy the story, and the hidden message in the story will stay with them, even though they might not show it -- but later in their lives they will be different."

She said storytellers had lost much of their audience to television, but added festivals like the one organized by the KPBA were a great way to bring kids back to the oral traditions.

"I think it can come back because stories are always in children's hearts.

"We have to compete with modern media, but I think we have the better hand in winning because we are doing it from our hearts.

"The media does it for commercial purposes so it will come and go. But something that comes from the heart of the people will stay," she said.

While television shows and computer games continue to grow in popularity around the world, Tossa is committed to continuing her mission.

"I am going to tell stories for the rest of my life. As long as I can speak and I can walk I will tell stories.

"It's so much fun for me ... so satisfying to see people happy with my stories."

-- The writer is an intern with The Jakarta Post.

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