Legend of Gunung Ledang
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Gunung Ledang, also known as Mount Ophir, is said to been the home of the legendary Princess 'Puteri Gunung Ledang' once wooed by the Sultan of (Malacca). The Sultan had heard of her beauty and wanted to marry her but she set seven impossible conditions for him. The conditions were:
- A golden bridge for her to walk to Malacca from the mountain,
- A silver bridge for her to return from Malacca to the mountain,
- Seven jars of virgin's tears,
- Seven bowls of betel nut juice,
- Seven trays filled with germs,
- Seven trays filled with the hearts of mosquitoes, and
- A bowl of the blood of the Sultan's young son.
Some versions of the legend say that the Sultan was not able to fulfil any of these requests, while others say that he was able to fulfil the first six requests (thus causing the ruin of the kingdom of Malacca) but could not fulfil the final request which would have required him to kill his son. The point of the story is that the Sultan was either too proud or too blind to realise that the conditions were the Puteri's way of turning his proposal down.
Some say that remnants of the gold and silver bridge still exist, but have been reclaimed by the forest.
Further legend has it that the princess eventually married one Nakhoda Ragam, a hero whose name unfailingly struck terror into the hearts of those who had dared to oppose him. However, this hero was later to die at the hands of his princess-wife. Ragam was fond of tickling the Princess’s ribs. One day, in an uncontrollable burst of anger, the Princess stabbed her husband in the breast with a needle she was handling. Thereafter, the Princess returned to Mount Ophir and vowed never to set her eyes on another man. Ragam’s boat, not long after, was crushed during a storm and legend has it that the debris of the wreck was transformed into the present six islands off Malacca. It was claimed that the boat’s kitchen became Pulau Hanyut, the cake-tray Pulau Nangka, the water-jar Pulau Undan, the incense-burner Pulau Serimbun, the hen-coop Pulau Burong, and the honeymoon cabin of Ragam and the Princess became Pulau Besar.
Ancient history points to the mountain being the site of rich gold deposits, luring traders from as far as Greece and China. The name ‘Ophir’ itself is thought to have originated from the Hebrew language. In the 14th Century, the Chinese seafarers plying the Straits of Melaka called it ‘Kim Sua’ meaning the ‘Golden Mountain’. The Javanese during the period of the Majapahit empire named it ‘Gunong Ledang’, which means ‘mount from afar’.
