Now Reading
Did You Know Malaysia Has A Lot of Fairytale Princesses And Legends As Well? [Part 1]

Did You Know Malaysia Has A Lot of Fairytale Princesses And Legends As Well? [Part 1]

Before there was Malaysia, there were multiple kingdoms here with kings, princesses, battles, mythical creatures and more.

Subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest stories and updates.


Yes, everybody know Elsa, Cinderella and Pocahantas. But as Malaysians, do you know Walinong Sari, Bidasari or Saadong?

Have you ever heard of the tale where a white blooded princess was hidden from perils by the moonlight? What about a princess that helped transformed an ugly-looking man into a dashing guy? Talk about fairy godmother god princess!

If you haven’t heard any of these stories, then, it’s time to park here and grab your popcorn. These are Malaysian legends and myths about our princesses once upon a time.

Let’s take a look at some of the stories.

1. Puteri Zaleha

Mahsuri was not the only one that had white blood flowing in her veins, you know.

(Credit: KitaReporters)

Tengku Zaleha or “Puteri Lindungan Bulan” as the locals call her in the myth, was the captivating daughter of Sultan Sulaiman Shah, the king of Kedah at that time, around the 14th century. Princess Zaleha also had a sister, Tengku Mariam, as beautiful as her but with red blood instead of white.

It is said that the King favoured Tengku Zaleha a lot and was particularly taken with her beauty and elegant poise. Talk about playing favourites.

Coincidently, at the time, this one king from Acheh, called Sultan Iskandar Muda Mahkota Alam, had a weird dream about the two beautiful princesses coming out from a big Jasmine flower. His fortune teller said that these were the princesses of Sultan Sulaiman, the King of Kedah, residing in Siputeh. He also found out that one of the princesses had white blood, which made him want the princess more and wanted to wed her. He just didn’t know which princess it was.

(Credit: UtusanTV)

When Sultan Sulaiman heard this, he was worried as the King of Acheh was known to be a playboy, marrying women and dumping them as he pleased. Reluctant of the outcome, he traded Tengku Zaleha with Tengku Mariam when the Acheh king came. Oblivious to the replacement, Sultan Iskandar wedded Tengku Mariam and took her back to his palace in Acheh. After some time, that poor girl accidentally cut herself with a betel nut cutter, which revealed red blood. The cat was out of the bag. This made Sultan Iskandar furious, and he sent an army to invade Kedah for the betrayal.

Sultan Sulaiman heard the news and prepared for battle. He hid Tengku Zaleha in a secret fort underground and prayed to god to protect his daughter from the greed of Acheh’s king. When the invasion came, the Sultan was captured and a lot of people died as a result of the war. Even the whole palace was destroyed. However, after a month of searching, the Acheh army still couldn’t find Tengku Zaleha as the entrance of her fort had magically turned dark even when the moon shone brightly. She actually was hidden quite well.

(Credit: Amran Hamid / Berita Harian)

After he was in captivity for so long, Sultan Sulaiman died and sadly, after being hidden in the fort for too long too, Tengku Zaleha also died of starvation. It’s tragic but at least she didn’t fall into the hands of Sultan Iskandar, right?

Her tomb is rumoured to still be in Siputeh, Jitra. According to legend, even in her death, Tengku Zaleha is hidden away, her tomb is so closely guarded that not even the moonlight can reach it.

2. Tun Fatimah

Tun Fatimah was called Srikandi (a female heroine) for a reason. She was well versed in the art of self-defence (silat) and knew how to use weapons such as the keris (dagger) and lembing (spear).

Initially, being the daughter of Bendahara Tun Mutahir, the chief minister to Sultan Mahmud Shah (King of Malacca in the 16th century), Tun Fatimah was already wedded to her cousin, named Tun Ali. The wedding was glorious and even the Sultan himself came. The Sultan was upset knowing that Tun Mutahir hid the fact that he had a beautiful daughter like her from him. The audacity. He wanted to marry her too as his fifth wife but she, of course, refused to divorce her husband.

Soon after, because of jealousy towards the Bendahara, three people (Raja Mandaliar, Kitul and Laksamana Khoja Hassan) conspired against him and spread a false rumour saying that Tun Mutahir wanted to take over the throne. Sultan Mahmud decided to hastily execute Bendahara Tun Mutahir and all his male relatives, including Tun Fatimah’s husband. This meant that Tun Fatimah was all alone and conveniently, the king ‘had to’ marry her.

(Credit: Walid Muhammad)

Is it said that during her time as the royal consort, she never smiled and miscarried three times, probably because of the emotional misery or a way of revenge to the king for the order of murdering her family. Also during her time as a queen, she made sure that those who slandered her family (the three bad guys) were executed, excluding the king, well, because he was the powerful king, after all.

After that, Tun Fatimah continued to be the badass queen ruling Melaka alongside her husband. She was known to help and lead the Malay army against the Portuguese forces in the early 16th century. It is said that even the Portuguese were more afraid of her than her mere reigning figurehead Sultan husband. Although they did not win the battle because of some traitors, Tun Fatimah was indeed a very brave sovereign queen.

She eventually had two princes and two princesses with Sultan Mahmud and that was only because the Sultan guaranteed that her sons will succeed him as the ruler of Melaka. Fatimah’s eldest son, Raja Muzaffar went on and established a Sultanate in Perak while her second son, Raja Raden Ali went to become Sultan Alauddin Riayat Shah II, the first ruler of Johor Sultanate (ruled for 36 years). No one knows where she ended up or when she died. Some suggested that her tombstone is in Kampar, Riau, which is in Indonesia.

3. Puteri Walinong Sari

Puteri Walinong Sari was a princess that lived in Inderapura (old Pahang kingdom), long ago. With beauty none like no other, she was also gifted with strong Malay martial arts (silat gayung) and weaponry (spears, arrows, daggers) skills. It is said that she was so good in self-defence that no one had ever beaten her before in combat (as a Malay princess’s face should not be seen by the public, she always wore a veil during combat).

This eventually worried her father as he thought if she keeps on rejecting every suitor that couldn’t defeat her in combat, then she would have no husband later on. Then came a proposal from a Malaccan prince named Tun Putih Alam. Her father, not wanting Puteri Walinong Sari to further embarrass them, accepted the offer of her hand in marriage without her consent. Classic move. The princess was disappointed but agreed to her father’s demands.

(Credit: Hikayat Puteri Walinong Sari/EduKid, blog)

Then came a day where she stopped by a breath-taking lake in her journey to town with her entourage. As the lake was so beautiful, she sang and danced at the lake accompanied by her maidens’ gamelan (Malay traditional musical instruments) play.

Then, a prince from the heavens called Raja Mambang Segara heard the melodious song and descended from his palace in Mount Tahan. He had heard of the princess before and wanted to see for himself if her beauty and skills matched the rumours. He transformed himself into a blue dove landed on her hand. The princess was so intrigued that the dove was so tame and she grew fond of the bird.

After that day, when she went to another town with her entourage, she met a poor young man whose clothes were worn and torn but he presented her with a small copper tray with carvings. She felt an irresistible connection to the guy (pst, it was the prince again, using his transformation spell) and accepted his gift. The next two days when she came to town again, the same guy presented her with a yellow umbrella and a jasmine flower on the last day.

Puteri Walinong Sari asked if the young man knew how to fight as she wanted to see his moves. The man accepted the offer humbly saying he’s not that good but the battle actually went on for three days and three nights. That was quite a fight and as the princess knew she was about to fail, her veil ‘coincidently’ fell at the time, revealing her drop-dead gorgeous face. Literally. The man fainted when he saw her beauty.

(Credit: @MyMOTAC / Twitter)

Tending to his side, the princess tried to wake him up and his disguise suddenly disappeared, transforming him into Raja Mambang Segara. Looking from above, Raja Mambang Segara’s father, Raja Laksamana Petir was furious that a mere mortal could defeat his heavenly awesome son, so he sent thunder, bolts and lightning to bring his son back to Mount Tahan. Still shaken about the incident, that night, Puteri Walinong Sari had a dream that she met Raja Mambang Segara at the top of Mount Tahan.

The next day, the princess actually disappeared from the palace until this day and some say that she went to Gunung Tahan to look for her lover. Some also say that sometimes if you look hard enough, you can see Puteri Walinong Sari in Inderapura walking with her maids, one shadowing her with a yellow umbrella and one sprinkling her steps with jasmine flowers from the beautifully carved tray. Creepy, but romantic.

There you go. Do note that all of the pictures above are for illustration purposes only. Some of the stories might be tall tales (which explains the magic and the unexplainable powers) and some of them might be legends (facts and proofs of their existence are present).

Either way, these stories are actually quite interesting and let us dive into the world of Malaysian traditional fiction. Our country is rich with tradition and literature too, you know.

Hey, there are more tales to share. Here’s Part 2!

READ MORE: Did You Know Malaysia Has A Lot of Fairytale Princesses And Legends As Well? [Part 2]


Got any more Malaysian princesses stories? Share your thoughts with us via TRP’s FacebookTwitter, and Instagram.

Get more stories like this to your inbox by signing up for our newsletter.

© 2024 The Rakyat Post. All Rights Reserved. Owned by 3rd Wave Media Sdn Bhd