SUNKESRI RANI: This is a popular folktale of the Nepali community in Sikkim. Once there was a princess with golden hair. She used to count her hair every night before going to sleep. One day she had gone to bathe in the nearby stream and on that night she started counting her hairs as usual, but she found that few of her hair were missing. She could not sleep the whole night due to sadness, at the loss of her precious golden hair. The king, her father heard about the loss and the sadness of the princess. He could not bear the pain of his daughter. So he made a proclamation that whoever finds the lost golden hairs of the princess, would offer his daughter to the person as his wife.

At the proclamation of the king many young men went to the stream in search of the missing golden hairs of the princess but none succeeded in the venture. Ultimately these lost hairs were found by one of the brothers of the princess. According to the promise made by the king in his proclamation her own brother now had to marry her. Princess could not think of such a bad situation. So the princess ran away from the place with her youngest brother and hid herself in a tree.

All person who went to bring back the princess died on accidental deaths. The princess then found a prince of another land and married him. This folktale must have traveled from one country to other where the girls have golden hair. Many folktales have traveled far and wide in this way. This folktale has also a mortal lesson beside entertainment, i.e., one should not make a promise without proper thought (Gurung and Lama,
004: 80).