Just Another Essay-Puteri Gunung Ledang (1/5)

*Just felt like writing this essay. This is not an original work, as it is mostly based on the wonderful article by Mulaika Hijjas ('The Legend You Thought You Knew: text and screen representations of Puteri Gunung Ledang'), and an entry on 'The Fairy Princess of Mount Ophir' by Sabrizain.*

Last month, Prof Emeritus Tan Sri Dr. Khoo Kay Kim started a debate on BFM radio, questioning the existence of Laksamana Hang Tuah, and questioning whether one whose existence can't be proven should be put in a History book. Well, to be honest, he didn't start that debate. It's been going on for quite some time. Still, people disagreed. Scholars forwarded the idea that he existed, and other commenters argue that his existence doesn't matter, because he is an uplifting character (Dr Farish Noor), and we should market him like Sherlock Holmes (Wong Chin Huat) . The second group kinda missed the entire point of the debate, which is whether we should include a character whose existence is still disputed in History textbooks. And be taught as fact.

But I am not going into that now. That is for another essay. I am more interested in another character, which is almost universally considered a mythical figure. She is the Puteri (Princess) of Gunung Ledang. She, among other mythic figures in the Malay world, was given diverse identities throughout the ages. She was a queen. And a goddess. And a demon. And a man-killer. And the conscience of a people. In other words, she is what people wanted her to be.

1. Gunung Ledang

Let's first look at Gunung Ledang itself, the sacred abode of the Puteri. Gunung Ledang, located in Ledang district, Johor, near to Asahan, Melaka, is a lonely mountain 1,276 metre tall. It was, and still is, an attraction for tourists and naturalists that wanted to see the wonder of the mountain. Alfred Russell Wallace, the famous naturalist, went to the Malay Archipelago, he stopped at Gunung Ledang to study the flora and fauna of the mountain, and noted leeches, tigers and rhinoceroses (though no elephant), ferns and birds, pitcher plants that held warm water, the Coniferae of the genus Dacrydium, the fern Dipteris Horsfieldii, and the Matonia pectinata, ‘tallest and most elegant’. (The Malay Archipelago, originally published 1869).

Gunung Ledang was also, at one point, identified as Mount Ophir, the place in the Bible that produced gold for King Solomon:

“And Huram sent him by the hands of his servants ships, and servants that had knowledge of the sea; and they went with the servants of Solomon to Ophir, and took thence four hundred and fifty talents of gold, and brought them to king Solomon”.-2 Chronicles 8: 18 (KJV)

This identification might have happened due to the old identification of the Malay Peninsula as theChersonesus Aurea, or the Golden Chersonese, thus the producer of an abundance of gold. Even the Portuguese epic poem, Os Lusiades (The Lusaids) by Luis vas Camoes (1572), identified this part of the world as Ophir:

“From this (‘tis said) the Waves impetuous course,

Breaking a passage through from Main to main,

SAMATRA’s noble Isle of old did force,

Which then a Neck of Land therewith did chain,

That this was Chersonese till that divorce,

And from the wealthy mines, that there remains,

The Epithite of GOLDEN had annext:

Some think it was the OPHYR in the text.”

-Os Lusiades, Canto X, verso 124 (translated by Sir Richard Fanshawe)

However, the early Portuguese records, such as the Suma Oriental (Summa of the East) of Tome Pires (1515) and the Declaracam de Malaca e da India Meridional com Cathay (Descriptions of Malaca, Meridional India and Cathay) of Godinho de Eredia did not refer to the mountain as Ophir. Instead they used its native name (Gulom Leydam in the Suma Oriental, the Monte de Gunoledam in theDeclaracam). Later travellers, such as the Victorian Isabella Bird, mentions this link in the introduction of her book, The Golden Chersonese (1883), “The controversy respecting the identity of its Mount Ophir with the Ophir of Solomon has been ‘treshed out’ with out much result, and the supposed allusion to the Malacca Straits by Pliny is too vague to be interesting...”

2. THE Story

The story most associated with the Puteri Gunung Ledang character is, of course, the proposal of the Sultan of Malacca to the Puteri. The identification of the Sultan that proposer to the Puteri is still a problem, especially when the problem is caused by varied versions of the Sejarah Melayu, which records the story. The Sejarah Melayu, or Malay Annals, is not one unified codex, and it has no ONE authoritative version. Most versions we have today based their editions on the oldest extant copy, which is the Raffles 18 MS, which Raffles obtained from Raja Bungsu. There would be additions, added or rearranged chapters, and name changes that would later contribute to the multiple versions we have today (Prof Muhammad Yusoff Hashim puts the number of editions to at least 29). Famous editions of the book include translations by Leyden, Shellabear, Winstedt, Brown, A Samad Ahmad, and Muhammad Haji Salleh.

In one of the earliest published editions in the English language, of Dr John Leyden (1821), the proposer Sultan was Sultan Mahmud Syah, last (or penultimate, depending on how you define ‘Malacca’) Sultan of Malacca, one with a reputation as a cruel and wanton despot. This identification is supported by the Shellabear and A Samad Ahmad editions. However, in the versions edited by R.O. Winstedt, C.C. Brown, and later Malaysian scholars such as Muhammad Haji Salleh and Cheah Boon Kheng, the identification was with Sultan Mansur Syah, and the story placed in the middle part of the text rather than the end. Regardless, the story does seem to speak volumes of the Sultan’s ambition to marry someone like the Puteri (English text by Leyden-Chapter VIII (2), in parentheses by Brown-Chapter XII, italicised Malay texts by Muhammad Haji Salleh):

“It is related that the wife of Sultan Mahmud (Mansur)…returned into God’s mercy, and the kingdom was extremely afflicted…”

But not for long, as he was already seeking another candidate:

“The king replies, ‘I don’t want to marry a raja’s daughter…I want to ask the Putri of Gunong Ledang.” (‘We desire’, said Sultan Mansur Syah, ‘to ask for the hand of the Princess of Gunung Ledang…’).

The Sultan sent the Laksamana, Tun Mamad and Tun Setia to Gunung Ledang, but both the Laksamana and Tun Setia were unable to continue their journey once they arrived at the foot of the mountain. Tun Mamad climbed the mountain, and finally stumbled into a garden, where he met an old woman, named Dang Raya Rani, guardian (pengetuha) of Puteri Gunung Ledang. After conveying his mission statement, she disappeared, and later:

“Then came to him an old woman, hunched-backed, and bent threefold…”(‘Presently there appeared an old woman, bent double with age’) (perempuan tuha, bongkok lipat tiga belakangnya…)

Diceritakan oleh orang yang empunya ceritera ini orang tuha yang berkata-kata itulah Puteri Gunung Ledang menampakkan dirinya. (‘…According to the account we have received the old woman who spoke with Tun Mamad was the Puteri Gunong Ledang herself in disguise.’)

And this old woman presented seven conditions for the Sultan, which, judging from the list, is quite a roundabout way of saying ‘no’.

1. Jambatan emas, jambatan perak satu, dari Melaka datang ke Gunung Ledang. Flight of stairs of gold, and another of silver, from Malaca to Gunong Ledang (let him make for me a bridge of gold and a bridge of silver from Malaka to Gunong Ledang).
2. Hati nyamuk tujuh dulang. A moth’s heart seven platter’s broad (seven trays of mosquitos’ hearts))
3. Hati kuman tujuh dulang. A gnat’s heart seven platters broad (seven trays of mites’ heart)
4. Air pinang muda setempayan. A vat of juice of the young betel-nut (a vat of young areca-nut water)
5. Air mata setempayan. A vat of human tears (a vat of tears)
6. Darah raja semangkuk. One phial of the raja’s blood (A cup of the raja’s blood)
7. Darah anak rajanya semangkuk. One phial of Raja Ahmed’s blood (A cup of his son’s blood).

Needless to say, the Sultan got the message, not because he thought they were absurd and might be burdensome for the people of Malacca that might have to pay more taxes to support the construction of a bridge from Malacca to Gunung Ledang made of gold and silver (a quick note: Gunung Ledang is 50 miles (80 kilometres) east of Malacca), but:

“Semuanya dapat kita adakan, tetapi akan mengeluarkan darah anak kita itulah yang tiada kita adukan, karena tiada sampai hati.”

“All these requests may be complied with, but the taking of blood is an unpleasant business, and I have no inclination for it al all.”

(‘All that she demands we can provide, save only the blood of our son; that we cannot provide, for our heart would not suffer us to take it.’)

So there you have it, the famous story of the Puteri Gunung Ledang, whose demands make spoilt brats on My Super Sweet Sixteen seem like reasonable teenagers (wait, my mistake. She’s not THAT bad…). However, this is but one of many aspects of the Puteri, much of it would be discussed in later notes.

(End of Part One)

*Part 2: Puteri Gunung Ledang, goddess and demon

*Part 3: Puteri Gunung Ledang as human

*Part 4: Puteri Gunung Ledang in books and films

*Part 5: Bibliography