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Time for another beautiful princess among
the moralities of those mysterious Hangs. On the state border between
Melaka and Johore is the highest mountain on the peninsula known as
Gunung Ledang, or Mount Ophir. By combining various folk tales we come
up with this. A fairy princess was married to a famous Malay sailor
named Nakhoda Ragam. Off Melaka one day she was sewing when her husband
tried tickling her. She lashed out instinctively and stabbed him in the
chest. One dead husband later, the disconsolate princess swore to
forsake men forever, and possibly knitting, and flew to Gunung Ledang.
The ship was crushed in a storm and various parts became islands near
Melaka including Pulau Besar which had been their cabin.
The Sultan, despite already betrothed to
princesses from China and Java sought someone whose beauty would better
any other princess. He decided to marry Puteri Gunung Ledang, the fairy
princess of the mountain. He sends old faithful Hang Tuah along with Tun
Mamat to meet the princess and sort everything. Tuah, getting on in
years couldn't reach the summit so Mamat continued with some other men.
They came across 4 women in a beautiful garden and told of their quest
to find the beautiful fairy princess and have her marry the earthly
Sultan. It sounds like a scene from Monty Python and thee Holy Grail.
The women disappeared and that night an old crone appeared to Mamat in a
dream. For the wedding to take place, a bridge of silver and gold must
be built to connect the mountain and Melaka. There should also be seven
trays of mosquito hearts, seven trays of mite’s hearts, water from dried
areca nuts, a glass of tears from virgins, a cup of the Sultan's blood
and of his son's blood. In the manner of fairy tales it was no problem.
Presumably mosquito hearts and virgin's tears were widely available but
he drew the line at his son's blood. In another variant of the tale, he
is just about to stab his son with his kris when the princess
appears and tells him not to be so bloody stupid. Or words to that
effect.
Hang Tuah is despondent when he hears the
princess' demands, ever loyal he feels he has failed in his mission and
let his master down. He throws his magic kris in the river,
vowing that if it doesn't float he will never return to Melaka. It sank
to the bottom without trace. As indeed did Hang Tuah though he is
believed to have been buried at Tanjung Kling. The Sultan did not attend
the funeral of his valiant fighter, so maybe there is the lesson about
blind obedience to a ruler.
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