Langkawi - Traveling Thru History

The Lost Legends of Lagenda Langkawi

Erin — Thu, 06 Aug 2015 03:04:44 +0000

Lagenda Langkawi isn’t your typical historic site. It’s actually not really all that old. Built in 1996, the park isn’t even 20 years old yet, but the inconsistent upkeep on the site has made it appear a bit older than it actually is. I imagine that when the park was first created it was magnificent and drew crowds of people. The 17 massive stone sculptures depicting scenes from legend and folklore were probably a sight to behold in their shiny new glory. But 20 years of neglect and apathy have taken their toll on the once-grand monuments. It’s not decrepit, but you’d think that after spending RM37 million ($9.5M) on the park that they’d take better care of the features. The official name of the site is Lagenda Langkawi Dalam Taman, which means Legendary Langkawi in a Garden. It is a beautifully landscaped park near the waterfront in Kuah, a town on the island of Langkawi. That park itself is 50 acres (20 hectares) of winding paths that lead to ponds, grottos and gardens that host heroic giants, mythical birds, evil ogres and beautiful princesses. To make it easier on visitors, the signs explaining each of the legends has both Malay and English. Only, neglect has made the stone signboards almost illegible. And the once-grand sculptures and once-magnificent grounds have been reduced to common, weather-worn features that bear the marks of forgotten grandeur. Without the signs to tell the story of each sculpture, the park just seems like a mishmash of enormous stonework and ponds with random items. It made me sad to wander around Lagenda Langkawi and see how forlorn it has become. The exterior gave such high hopes for what was beyond the massive walls, but soon after entering we realized that the locals had all but forgotten about the place. It’s not awful, but there is a definite rundown appearance. When we were heading over to the park, we came across this adorable bridge. It gives off an old world charm and fits right in with the era of myths and legends. It was the perfect segue between the town and the park entrance. The courtyard outside the entrance to the park is very clean and vibrant. The welcome sign shows signs of age, but we were still able to read most of it. I was pretty excited about the park after reading it. Seriously. The place sounds amazing! It reads: A theme park, Lagenda Langkawi was created to recapture the glorious history of Langkawi. Lagenda Langkawi brings to life the mystifying events and romantic legends that have made Langkawi known as the “Isle of Legends”. The subject of enchanting tales, Langkawi is a cluster of 99 islands. Folklore claimed Langkawi was the habitation of spirits while classical literature, Hikaya Merong Mahawangsa, related that Garuda, a giant bird, nested in these islands. The Chinese admiral Cheng Ho in his voyage to Malacca in 1406 recorded Langkawi in his map as a cluster of islands known as Lung-ya-Kiao-yi while 16th century maps described Langkawi with various names such as Langa, Langka, Langu Langura and Langapura. Lagenda Langkawi, approximately 50 acres, is a beautiful park built on reclaimed land with man-made freshwater ponds and a lagoon. A sparkling waterway flows through the middle separating a Hillview on the left from the exciting sculptural displays of the legends on the right. You can enjoy a panoramic view of the Straits of Kuah both from the 20-foot-high hill and the 40-foot-high Celebration Gallery or a scenic view of the surrounding sea from the two horns of the Tanjung or Cape embracing the lagoon and the Lagenda Beach. Step into Lagenda Langkawi, a journey through history and a series of gerbang (gateways) will welcome you to an enjoyable passage righ with mystifying legends and local folklore. I really liked the map of the Langkawi islands on the wall outside the park. It was neat being able to see all the different places we’d been over the past few days and all the other areas that make up the island group. The map of the park makes it look huge! The grounds were pretty extensive, but it wasn’t quite as big as we thought it would be. I think we may have missed a few areas. This is Banjaran Gondwana, which is the Gondwana Range. Gondwana is one of the two supercontinents that was created when Pangaea first broke up. Laurasia is the other one. Malaysia was part of the Gondwana continent, which is depicted with these trees. I discovered this on google because the sign for this section was gone. The pond is Laluan Hujan Hujan, which means Rain Driving Rain. It rains a lot in Malaysia. Like, a lot. We lived in Kuala Lumpur and almost every day around 2pm it would rain. It was nice having the predictability, but I was happy on the days it didn’t rain. This next section is Tanjong Chinchin. It doesn’t translate to English and the sign for the legend story was missing. By googling I discovered a legend called The Legend of Mat Cincang and Mat Raya or The Feud of Two Families (think Montagues and Capulets), which tells of how the island was created. The story goes that two families (Cincang and Raya) were having a party to celebrate the engagement of their children when the son of Cincang was caught flirting with another girl at the party. This was perceived as an insult to the Raya family (understandable). The engagement was immediately called off and a heated fued begun. The place where the daughter of Raya threw her engagement ring is now known as Tanjung Cincin (spelling is not consistent in Malaysia, which drives me crazy!) which means Cape of the Ring. This sculpture also goes along with the Tanjon Chinchin legend. The broken crockery became the village of Belange Pecah which means Broken Crockery. Near Belange Pecah is the town of Kuah, which means gravy. Near Kuah is Kisap, which means ‘to seep in’. That village is where the gravy seeped through the land. And just beyond that is Ayer Hangat, the Hot Springs where a cauldron of hot water was broken. As for the two warring fathers, they were turned into mountains of stone, Gunung Mat Cincang and Gunung Mat Raya, and the man who tried to mediate between them, Mat Sawar, was transformed into the hill which now separates the two mountains. The next legend we encountered was of the Pulau Dayang Bunting. That translates to “Pregnant Maiden Island”. I can’t read the sign, but I this is the story I found on google: Dayang Bunting was a female giant guardian that kept watch over the islands of Langkawi. The giant’s defensive weapons include her pet lion and poison from the tuba root. Hence, the two islands closest to Pulau Dayang Bunting, whose silhoutte resembles that of a reclined pregnant giant, are named Pulau Singa Besar (Great Lion Island) and Pulau Tuba (Poisonous Root Island). The story goes that, a group of merchants failed to pay the obligatory respects to Dayang Bunting as they passed by the islands. Awakened by the intrusion, Dayang Bunting summoned her pet lion to dispatch the trespassers. She roused the spirits of wind and water, stirring up a tropical storm that unleashed its fury on the incoming fleet of sailors. The howling winds and tossing waves threw the vessels on Pulau Jong (Junk Island) where they were destroyed beyond repair. After the ships were destroyed, the cargo of black and white water buffaloes escaped to Pulau Gubang Darat (Land Stable Island) and Pulau Gubang Laut (Sea Stable Island) while the white buffaloes made their way to Pulau Balar (White Water Buffalo Island). The last of the ships, laden with rice, were stranded at Pulau Beras Basah (Wet Rice Island). Unfortunately, along from the pond being overgrown and murky, some of the sculptures have been broken. This sculpture is called Bahtera Karam, Sunken Ship. The placard next to it reads: Some believe that you can still see the horrific reminders of the great epic battle between Garuda and Jentayu at Pasir Tengkorak (Sand of Skulls), Tanlong Tulang (Cape of Bones) and Pantai Pasir Hitam (Black Sand Beach) in the form of skulls, bone fragments and shop ballast remnants. Others claim that these beaches bear the remains of the traders and their ships, wrecked in the whirlpools off northern Langkawi where turbulent waters merge with calmer seas. These same whirlpools also sank countless vessels, or Bantera Karam, which came along this way. Pantai Pasir Hitam spins another tail of a mermaid who gave a magical ring which could bring forth an endless supply of fish to a fisherman. In return for a promise by him to find a cure that could transform her back to a princess. If, however, he failed, he was to return the ring within a specified time period. Alas, that fisherman failed and did not even return the ring as promised. Thus the mermaid turnde the beach from white to black. The next place is actually a semi-circular area and looks like it has either been kept up really well or was recently restored. This actually gives me hope that they are working to restore the rest of the park. There is a pavilion (perhaps to listen to the mythical music?) next to three tunnels that lead to sculptures of legendary musical instruments. This reads: The west coast of Lulau Langkawi reverberates with the strains of gentle breezes as if a full orchestra performs in and around Padang Gaong (Field of Echoes) where the winds meet the highlands of Bukit Hantu (Hill of Guardians). This is nature’s gift to Langkawi, entertainment with a naturally sense surrounding environment: tapping waves evoke the rhythm of the canang (inverted gong), giving the beach the name Pantai Cenang. Listen carefully or the multi-layered compositions of the canang, the hypnotic beat of the genggang (double-sided conical drums) and the classical strains of the rebab (three-stringed instrument). The story of the rebab claims that angels once watched over the islands, riding on the winds playing their musical instruments. A pair of rebab fell into the sea and were transformed into the islands of Pulau Rebak Besar and Pulau Rebak Kechil (Big and Small Rebak Islands), living off Pentai Cenang. The rest of the sculptures had plates that were too weathered to read, so I had to do a lot of googling to figure out what some of them mean. This is a sculpture of a mermaid playing with a golden ball. According to legend, a heavenly princess used to come down and bath in a lake on Langkawi and one of the mountain princes happened upon her one day. He immediately fell in love with her and attempted to woo her. She resisted his advances and he sought out the advice of a local mystic. The mystic told him that if he were to rub mermaid tears on his face, the heavenly princess would fall in love with him. So, the prince found a mermaid and when she refused him her tears, he gave her a golden ball to play with. So distracted by the golden ball, the mermaid didn’t notice the tide going out and was stranded on land. Devastated by her predicament, she began to cry and the prince gathered her tears in the golden ball. After the prince made his way back to the lake where the princess was bathing, he rubbed the tears on his face and presented himself to the princess. Enamored by magic, the princess fell in love with him and they were married. Unfortunately, deception cannot bring about a happy union and the couple’s first child died seven days after being born. The princess then learned of the prince’s deception and after burying her child in the Lake of the Pregnant Maiden and putting a blessing of fertility on the lake, she disappeared from this world for forever. It is rumored that the Lake of the Pregnant Maiden is protected by a giant albino crocodile who prevents the unworthy from getting near the water and partaking of the powers of fertility. I guess Troy and...

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Al-Hana Mosque

Erin — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 21:31:34 +0000

When we went to Langkawi for New Year’s, the only thing we planned out was a day of snorkeling and then watching the fireworks on the beach. Other than that we had no set plans. This was probably our most relaxed trip and we ended up having a good time just wandering around Kuah, the town we stayed in, and checking out other parts of the island. The first thing we did after our day of snorkeling and swimming was to visit Al-Hana Mosque. We’d only been living in Malaysia for about two months and hadn’t visited any yet, so when we saw a mosque just down the street from the hotel we decided to walk down there after breakfast and check it out. The proper Islamic term for a mosque is Masjid. Mosque is just the English equivalent, so the proper name for this mosque is Masjid Al-Hana Langkawi. But I’m going to keep calling it Al-Hana Mosque because it’s feels more natural for me. Al-Hana Mosque was built in 1959 and inaugurated by the first Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman. From the time it was built until now it has been the largest and most popular mosque on the island. The structure combines Islamic motifs from Uzbekistan with Malay-style architecture and follows conventional mosque design by having a large gilded main dome surrounded by several smaller ones. Visiting the mosque was nice. There was nobody else there when we were there, so we just wandered around and took our time. The first room we visited was the Prayer Hall. This room is the central room of a mosque is called musalla, which means “place for prayer”. There is no furniture in the prayer hall since worshipers sit, kneel, and bow directly on the floor. Chairs can be brought in to assist elderly or disabled worshipers who have difficulty with mobility. The carpet in most mosques will have lines or some form of design that is in a straight line so that worshipers can arrange themselves in orderly rows. Along the walls and pillars of the prayer hall, there are usually bookshelves to hold copies of the Qur’an, wooden book stands (rihal), other religious reading material, and individual prayer rugs. The curtained area in the corner is the area set aside for the female congregants to pray in private, though most women pray at home where they are unencumbered by their formal outerwear. While the furnishing may be sparse, the decor is quite lovely. The main prayer hall has abstract floral patterns and selected verses from the Quran etched into the walls along with beautiful stained glass. I learned in my Art History class last semester that Islamic art does not depict actual floral themes nor do they paint or carve animals and humans because Muslims believe that it violates the Second Commandment regarding graven images. So, basically, they avoid any type of decor that represents anything that can be found in nature. I’ve found it very interesting that the artists have created such beautifully abstract vegetal designs that don’t actually depict plants, but are clearly inspired by them. It’s quite beautiful. And then at the back of the prayer room are both the mihrab and the minbar. The mihrab is an ornamental indentation in the wall of a mosque, which marks the direction of the qiblah, which means “direction of the Ka’aba”. The Ka’aba, the most sacred site in Islamic culture, is located in Mecca, which is why most people think Muslims pray to Mecca. The Ka’aba is their religion’s House of God. Muslims are required to pray facing in the direction of the Ka’aba and the mihrab marks the exact direction for them. Mihrabs vary in size and color, but are usually shaped like a doorway and elaborately decorated to make the space stand out. Next to the mihrab is the minbar. The minbar the place from which sermons or speeches are given. The minbar is usually made of carved wood, stone, or brick. It includes a short staircase leading to the top platform,. This was by the mihrab. At first I thought it was a list of prayer times for that day, but there are 7 clocks and Muslims only pray 5 times a day. My other theory is that the top 5 clocks are the prayer times an the bottom 2 are sunrise/sunset times, but I can’t find anything to support that. I really think it’s the prayer times with the sunrise/sunset times, but don’t quote me on that because I have nothing other than my own thoughts to back that up. For all I know, it could be a list of different time zones around the world. ***EDIT: Many thanks to Nazifah for leaving a comment explaining the clocks. This is what she said, “The 5 clocks above is the five daily prayers. From the right, it shows the afternoon prayer, late noon prayer, sunset prayer, night prayer & morning prayer. Each prayer normally takes about 7-10 minutes. In the second row; the clock on the left is the imsak time which is few minutes before the morning prayer begins. This time is important for fasting, we should stop taking meals and start fasting. And the clock on the right is the syuruk time which means the end time for morning prayer.” Once we left the prayer room we wandered around the rest of the mosque. It’s not quite as fascinating as the prayer hall, but it still has some neat things to see. Outside we found this water font. Before praying, Muslims must wash their hands, mouths, arms, feet, face, heads, necks, nostrils and ears. This is one of the sites at the mosque where this is done. This is an overflow area for when there are too many people to fit in the main prayer hall. This one isn’t as comfortable and I’m betting this is done as incentive for people to arrive early for prayers. Found a mirror and decided to take a picture of myself. We went to a local shop the night before so I could purchase a headscarf. The ladies in the shop said it would be too difficult for me to learn how to put the scarf on correctly myself without someone to walk me through it in the morning, so they just told me to wear it like this. They giggled a bit when I modeled it for them and said I would make a lovely Muslim. haha. I love how the windows are shaped like the onion dome on the top of the building. It really makes everything so cohesive. This reads: Official (i think it’s the office). Council Meeting. Seminar Hall. Refectory. Prayer Hall. Male Toilets. Men’s Ablution. Health is a shared responsibility. And because there is a Islamic children’s school just next to the mosque, it also says: Children are forbidden to wash clean in this ablution. Please remove your shoes below. Wouldn’t you just love to have an outdoor table like this in your backyard? I know I would. It’s pretty fantastic. Even the fences match the mosque. I’d love to have this around my yard, except without the onion domes. Maybe just a ball or dish. Here you can see some of the speakers that broadcast the call to prayer 5 times a day. This is the other cleaning area. It looks much more modern than the other area and able to accommodate more people, so I’m assuming that this area was added several years after the original mosque was built. This is the Islamic school next to the mosque. I love how bright and happy all the colors are. Before we left, a taxi pulled through the gates and drove over to us. The driver spoke decent English and asked us if we needed a ride anywhere. Since our hotel was just down the street and the next place we were going was within walking distance, we told him no, thank you. He then started asking us where we were from. He actually thought we were Syrian, since we were white. But after he found out we are Christian Americans, he was completely floored. He wanted to know why I was dressed like a Muslim woman and we told him that we wanted to visit the mosque in a respectful manner. He was delighted and said he couldn’t wait to tell his wife about us. And then he gave us his card, saying said he’d love to drive us around if we needed a taxi while we were in town. We were quite surprised, actually, about the whole conversation. That had never happened before. This was our first time visiting a mosque and it was nice to see that our desire to dress respectfully had made a positive impact on someone. We left the mosque feeling quite happy and glad we’d made the time to go there. Opening Hours: 24 hours Location: Lencongan Putra 2 (located beside the Kuah Tourism Information office) Dress: Shoes must not be worn inside the mosque. Women should be modestly dressed (clothing that covers the body from the wrists to the ankles). Note: Visitors are required to remain quiet as a sign of respect to those in prayer. I’d recommend not visiting on a Friday since that’s when the most locals will be there. We were there about 8:30 am and there was nobody there, so going first thing in the morning would be a good idea if you want to avoid other people.

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