Reflections on the Human Condition - Api-fellowships.org

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SESSION I
tomb, which has been rebuilt several times, the complex
is fully developed with a museum, performing arts venue,
traditional house showcase, souvenir shops and restaurants.
Mahsuri’s image is reified in paintings which reflect
conventional concepts of Malay beauty.
The glorification of Mahsuri’s tomb seems to have
escaped the diatribes of Islamic modernists, who have
historically waged war on the cult of visiting “keramat”
for intercession. The practice is perceived by orthodox
Muslims as “tomb-veneration”, a popular tradition left
over from an age when Islam was spread by Sufism.
Perhaps Malay tourists who visit the Mahsuri complex
in Langkawi see the legend of Mahsuri as an officiallysanctioned
escape into the romance of Malay fantasy.
Certainly, the mystical significance of “white blood”, a
woman’s near-invincibility, her curse which doubles as
an inverse prophesy, the symbolic number “seven”, a
charismatic tomb, and images of an idolised woman—
and, as we shall see later, even an unspoken idea of incarnation
or “reincarnation”—are not part of orthodox
Islamic discourse. However, such beliefs would seem very
much at home in Southern Thailand, which it turns out,
is also the land of lady Mahsuri.
The key to understanding the Mahsuri legend is the
magical significance of white blood, which also occurs
in neighboring Perak’s “Legend of the White Semang”
(Winstedt and Wilkinson: 1974, 196-202), the Putri
Sa’dong legend in Kelantan, and the Putri Lindungan
Bulan legend in Kedah.
Lorrain M. Gessick’s “In the Land of Lady White
Blood: Southern Thailand and the Meaning of History”
discusses the manuscript of “Nang Lued Khao” which
contains the founding story of Patthalung. Perak and
Kedah, which only came under British control in 1875
and 1909 respectively, seem to be an extension of this
mystical landscape. While in the case of Patthalung and
Perak, white blood was used to indicate the woman’s
nobility, in the instance of Putri Sa’dong, Putri Lindungan
Bulan and Mahsuri, white blood was used to prove the
woman’s innocence and moral superiority over her
accusers.
Now that the Southern Thai link has been revealed,
there can be another reading of the legend. Mahsuri’s
tragedy could simply have resulted from a cultural
misunderstanding between two quite different Muslim
societies. Seven generations ago, Phuket was marginally
Muslim, whereas Hadhrami Arabs already had a presence
in Langkawi and Kedah. The sociable behavior of this
girl from the north was most likely frowned upon by
Ref lections on the Human Condition: Change, Conflict and Modernity
The Work of the 2004/2005 API Fellows
the more orthodox families of Langkawi.
Siamese Muslims, now Thai-speaking, remain on the
margins of the Muslim Southeast Asia; which Malaysians
choose to define as the “Malay world”. Differing cultural
norms can result in misunderstandings. For Mahsuri,
the price was death by execution. Mahsuri’s people
retreated back to Southern Thailand, a land with different
founding myths and cultural ethos. There they continue
to live on the periphery of the Malay-Muslim world.
THE YAYEE FAMILY IN KAMALA
From the Kamala side, a large clan claims descent from
Mahsuri and Wan Darus. It is said that Mahsuri’s son
Wan Arkem (Achem) was brought back to Kamala
where he married and had six children—two sons
and four daughters. Their Thai-speaking descendants
form six sub-clans in Kamala carry four different clan
names—Yayee, Doomlak, Samerpurn and Sangwan.
Kamala is the home of Sirintra Yayee—the first seventh
generation descendant of Mahsuri; discovered by the
Kedah Historical Society in 1988. (Hari Sastera Kedah,
1989) In the year 2000, when Sirintra was 14, she was
whisked away to Malaysia together with her 62 year-old
grandfather Chern Yayee to meet the Malaysian Prime
Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamed. This appeared on the
front page of many Thai as well as Malaysian newspapers;
some articles noting the “strong resemblance” of 14 yearold
Sirintra to the portraits of Mahsuri. (PG May 19,
2000) More recently, Sirintra was given a scholarship
by Utusan Malaysia to attend the International Islamic
University in Kuala Lumpur where she is pursuing a
course in communications. Slightly bewildered, the 19
year-old Sirintra said to me, “It’s great that they (the
Malaysians) recognize and accept me, but sometimes I
wonder why they did not accept her (Mahsuri).”
Sirintra Yayee was the star of the Halal Festival “Lightand-sound
presentation: The story of legendary Muslim
Princess Mahsuri” performed as the main highlight of
the festival in Kamala. The “200 years old tragic
legend of love, sacrifice, strong belief and curse
by Princess Mahsuri, who once lived in the village
of Kamala, Phuket, and then married the Prince of
Langkawi in Malaysia”, was introduced in the bilingual
souvenir program. “The legend has recently re-surfaced
in Kamala, where her seventh generation descendant
Sirintra Yayee was born, to overcome the curse. The
phenomenon creates deep cultural bonds between the
two lands of Langkawi of Malaysia and Phuket of
Thailand.”
While Mahsuri is the main symbol for Langkawi, her