BUANASENI

Will the Real Mahsuri Please Stand Up?

MAHSURI did exist. Many Malaysians believe that Mahsuri is not a historical figure but instead, just a mythology. If you are to say, “Will the real Mahsuri please stand up?”, and if indeed, she did, I would run away as fast as I could. It is probably not wise to encounter a ghost that way. Instead, corroborating her existence via testimonial methods would be adequate.

If you googled Mahsuri, you would uncover that Mahsuri binti Pandak Mayah was a young woman who lived in Pulau Langkawi, an island in northwestern Kedah, during the late eighteen century. According to folklore, she was wrongly accused of adultery and executed by stabbing. She bled white blood symbolising her innocence. Before she died, she had cursed the people of Langkawi of unpeaceful lives for seven generations. Her tomb, Makam Mahsuri, has become a tourist attraction on the island.

My late dad was a town and country planner working for the Government. The Prime Minister of Malaysia back then, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, had envisioned to boost the tourism industry for Malaysia, that includes refurbishing historical sites such as the Makam Mahsuri. In the quest to rejuvenate the Makam Mahsuri, my dad and his team made a trip to Langkawi. Along with them were also my mom and the rest of my siblings. For us, it was a reason to end up by the beach in Langkawi.

I had followed my dad for the recce of the Makam Mahsuri. The objective of the recce was to survey how the surrounding area can be improved. Instead, we uncovered the truth about the Makam Mahsuri. The Seven Generations Curse by Mahsuri had been calculated to have ended in 1987. For that, the bearer of the truth, an old man, presumably the remaining of the seventh generation, had approached my dad. He revealed that the Makam Mahsuri is a fake. He then brought my dad and his staff into the woods. They stopped by a colony of bamboo trees and a few of the bamboo trees were chopped off giving a sight opening into the middle of the surrounding bamboo trees. There it was, the real Makam Mahsuri. Very rugged and very ancient.