Reconstructing the Tale of The Princess of Mount Ledang

The story of the Princess of Mount Ledang holds an enduring fascination among Malaysian writers and there have been a number of retellings and reimaginings of her story in the last decade or so. Writers who have published stories about the Princess of Mount Ledang, each added their own perspective. 

From the single tale about the attempt by the Sultan of Malacca to woo her, we now have a 

plethora of sources to reconstruct the story of her life, beginning with her parents (and even 

her grandfather) and that of the only man she ever loved, Nakhoda Ragam. This is not surprising

because when it comes to Malaysian folklore, the most celebrated love story revolves around 

the Fairy Princess of Mount Ledang.  

Readers might want to explore the subject further by revisiting the following short stories: 

The Princess of Mount Ledang by Leela Chakrabarty and Girl on the Mountain by 

Preeta Samarasan, both stories appeared in The Principal Girl, Edited by Sharifah Aishah 

Osman and Tutu Dutta; and also Princess, by Daphne Lee which appeared in her collection 

of short stories, Bright Landscapes.

1. The Principal Girl - Edited by Sharifah A Osman and Tutu Dutta

The Principal Girl is an anthology of mostly folklore based tales written by Malaysian and Singaporean writers. We learn about the origin of this mysterious princess in Leela Chakraborty's story, entitled, The Princess of Mount Ledang. Told in straightforward old school style, it appears that her mother is the daughter of a hunter-gatherer who lived in Mount Ledang. an accident brought them to the attention of a clan of were-tigers (harimau jadian) who lived in a hidden vale on the mystical mountain. The daughter of the hunter was given in marriage to the prince of the clan of were-tigers and their only child was Puteri Embong, who later became known as the Princess of Mount Ledang.

A second story in the collection, Girl on a Mountain, by Preeta Samarasan draws a very different picture of the Princess from what we imagine her to be, from folklore.  Instead of a mysterious magical princess living in a rarefied world, Samarasan depicts her as a fiercely independent wild child; a young woman who holds sway over people by the force of her personality (and not by magic) and her power over nature (which is of course, magical, even if the narrator claims otherwise.) The story proved to be one of the most popular in the anthology. In a way, Samarasan's story tally with Chakraborty's story of a wild carefree princess raised by a clan a shapeshifting weretigers.

2. Bright Landscapes by Daphne Lee

After her childhood, is a coming of age story. According to legend, the Princess met the love of her life as a young woman, on her first trip downriver on a magical skiff which carried her to the sea. The eagle-eyed Nakhoda Ragam spotted her from his perahu and fell in love with her. They were married soon after and spent their honeymoon sailing on the Straits of Melaka. But tragedy struck, the Princess accidentally stabbed him with her  golden needle and he died in her arms. She had not known, he was cursed to die from the prick of a needle...

Daphne Lee's collection of folklore based tales has two stories about the Princess of Mount Ledang. the first one, Princess, is an overwhelmingly sensuous reimagining of the story with a shocking ending, told in the style of a folktale crossed with a steamy romance novel. Although I was shocked at the fate which befell Nakhoda Ragam, my favourite character in all of Malay folklore, the story was intriguing and seemed to be another piece of the puzzle in the story of the legendary Princess of Mount Ledang. In fact, in this tale the narative acknowledged and expanded on the Princess' link with the clan of weretigers in Chakraborty's story.

3. Eight Jewels of the Phoenix retold by Tutu Dutta

The final chapter in the saga of the Princess of Mount Ledang is retold in Eight Jewels of the Phoenix. This story is based on the famous legend, where the Sultan of Malacca, tries to win her hand in marriage in order to acquire "a wife who would outshine all the wives of the princes of the world" took place centuries after the death of Nakhoda Ragam. We all know that the Sultan failed miserably to win over the morose beauty. 

As for the princess, according to legend, "To this day, the princess is said to reside in a magical cave in Gunung Ledang, where she transforms from a beautiful young girl in the morning to an old hag at night." (parts in quotation came from an article by Joane le Roux, In pursuit of a were-tiger, which appeared in the Nov 2, 2014 issue of the New Sunday Times.)