Also see : Location Gunung Ledang, theater Puteri Gunung Ledang (musical), 2004's Puteri Gunung Ledang (film), 1961's Puteri Gunung Ledang (film)
The Legend of Gunung Ledang (Malay: Legenda Gunung Ledang) revolves around a princess that allegedly lived on Mount Ophir or Gunung Ledang in Johor, Malaysia.
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The Sultan had heard of her beauty and wanted to marry her but she set seven impossible conditions for him. The conditions were:
Some versions of the legend say that the Sultan was not able to fulfill any of these requests, while others say that he was able to fulfill the first six requests (thus causing the ruin of the Malacca Sultanate) but could not fulfill 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 and myth points to the Gunung Ledang mountain being the site of rich gold deposits, luring traders from as far as Greece and China. In the 14th Century, the Chinese seafarers plying the Straits of Melaka called it ‘Kim Sua’ meaning the ‘Golden Mountain’. The mountain was named ‘Gunung Ledang’, which means ‘mount from afar’, during the period of the Majapahit empire. There even locals who claimed the Malacca did built the golden bridge connecting to the mountain, it is now buried under the ground of the site.
A few adaptations of the story have been made, the theater musical play; Puteri Gunung Ledang (musical) and two movies; 1961's Puteri Gunong Ledang (film) and 2004's Puteri Gunung Ledang (film), all produced based on the story of the legend but varies in version of story including: