Interesting about that Pulau Langkawi story. Ive heard diff version of it about Mahsuri the princess who had an affair while husband away sailing somewhere and the villagers caught her and kill her while she is till pregnant, the blood is not red but white and tourists said they can still see the white blood stains on the beach:X ?!!
OK... Mahsuri is the most famous legend of all.. and it happened in the early 19th century.
Actually Mahsuri was not a princess... she was a "crying rice" (who later evolved into a baby:exhausted) adopted by a paddy farmer couple as they had no children. She later became the most beautiful girl on the island. Most of the women are so envious about her beauty especially, the Island Chief's wife. Later she was married into the Chief's son.
One day, the son went for a business trip to Penang and Mahsuri was pregnant. And in the same time a traveller came to Langkawi. On one occassion the traveller helped Mahsuri doing farm works as she was pregnant and weak. But, the Chief's wife accused Mahsuri of having affairs with that traveller.
After she gave birth, the Chief and the all islanders caught her and want to punish Mahsuri for adultery. The Chief was so influenced with his wife's statement and he decided to punish Mahsuri with stabbing her to death. During the execution day, the Chief stabbed her many times and nothing happened. Mahsuri said that she is innocent, but as the Chief and his wife really want to kill her ... she could only be killed with a keris (malay dagger) or spear? (I dont quite remember) available at her parents' house. And she cursed that if she was innocent, Langkawi would never be prosper for the next seven generations.
After they took the weapon from Mahsuri's parents, the Chief stabbed Mahsuri on her chest... and "white blood" gushed out from her chest (some people said that it was "milk" as she just gave birth) proving that's she was innocent.
Mahsuri's parents took her baby and migrated to Thailand. Her husband, who came home after she was killed was so sad and left Langkawi for good and settled on the mainland.
Few days later, the Thai army invaded Langkawi (because Sultan of Kedah refused to help the Thais fighting the Burmese) and killed most of the islanders including the Chief and his wife. Before Langkawi was attacked, the islanders stockpiled lots of rice in a warehouse. The Thais burnt down the warehouse and the place was known as "Beras Terbakar" (Burnt Rice) where if you dig a lil bit on the areas you can get some burnt rice... I was there in 1994.. and there were some burnt rice on the ground... but it's said that today there are no longer burnt rice under the ground but they exhibited some of it in a jar. Since then, Langkawi is just an undeveloped islands with some fishing village.
But in the 80s, former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir decided to develop the island and now the island became so prosperous and popular among tourists. If you visited Mahsuri's Mausoleum on the island, there is a mall museum showing pics of Mahsuri's descendants living in Thailand. And her 7th generation was born coincidentally with the time Langkawi was developed.
Today, you can visit her mausoleum, her well and her house on the island.
OK, ashura you guys put meat in it:giggling: the turks prepare the ashura different way no bananas :X anyway its just diff types of beans, dried nuts and dried fruits like sultanas,apricots, prunes etc. I ever made them once, its a hardwork man.:enough!: :laugh:
my friends mum would make it like by the pots and love it either hot or cold:sunny:
We put bananas and sweet potatoes as it's costly and hard to obtain lots of apricots or prunes... thus our porridge is more "tropical" than the Middle Eastern.
We Penangites, serve it both hot and cold too...
I think sis Syilla gave me a link where was the wild life rescues :-[
Br Khair for that detailed explanation.
etc. I love the beaches around there in Malaysia, been to Kelantan and Trengganu. Love the ppl there very helpful and hospitable MashaAllah.Its quite an interesting journey by train and stop at all different states.
How many got hurt?