At the tip of Sarawak, there is a mountain called Mt Santubong. Because of it is is very close to Kuching city, it is very popular for people to climb it. I climbed only once with elley and Sam. We did only half way.
During the climb, we saw Students from Singapore who had come on an eco trip to pick up rubbish. I felt really proud to be part of Singapore as a resident.
In Chinese, Santubong means king of the wild boar. Apparently, there used to be a lot of wild boars there.
According to the Encyclopaedia of Iban Studies the original inhabitants of Santubong were the Iban. Si-antu-ubong means 'spirit boat' in the Iban language. Antu is hantu in Malay which means spirit or ghost. Santubong are boat like coffins made from a single hollow log designed to represent the vesell in which a dead person will travel from this world to afterlife
A legend often associated with the mountain is of two beautiful princesses, Santubong and Sejinjang. Santubong was an expert weaver while Sejinjang was an excellent rice tresher. One day, they had a quarrel and exchanged blows. Sejinjang swung her tresher which hit Santubong's cheek. Santubong threw her weaver at Sejinjang, hitting her in the head. Putting an end to the quarrel, the King of Heaven cursed both of them into mountains. Santubong turned into Mount Santubong while Sejinjang was turned into Mount Sejinjang. It is said that Mount Santubong resembles a woman lying on her back.
Wikipedia/Santubong
No comments:
Post a Comment