History & Pop culture Research
The legend of Mahsuri and the curse of Langkawi island
The story is about a beautiful girl named Mahsuri who lived on the island of Langkawi in the early 19th century, she was said to be the most beautiful women on the island. The locals believe that Mahsuri was a real person, there are even the descendants of her family. In the story, she was the daughter of the immigrant from Phuket in Siam or known as Thailand today. She was married to a warrior van Darosa (Wan Darus), brother of the head of the village, Padang Matsirat, the capital of the island back then. The tragic story began when her husband had to go to war with Siamese(Thai). While he was away, Mahsuri became friends with a young traveler named Deraman but their relationship was just purely friends. All women on the island were always jealous of her beauty, especially the village chief’s wife Wan Mahora who was her sister-in-law. She began to spread the rumors that Mahsuri is cheating on her husband and accusing Mahsuri for committing adultery. The penalty for adultery was death by stabbing. No matter how much she was trying to plead her innocence nobody on the island listened.
The brutal execution had her tied up to the tree and then they stopped her with a dagger keris but it couldn’t kill her. She told them that they can only kill her with her ancestral dagger which is the one that was own by her father. When she finally got stabbed, her wound began to leak out white blood which was the village belief that it was a sign of innocence, but it was too late. With her dying breath, Mahsuri whispered, cursed the island of Langkawi with seven generations of bad luck. Langkawi was later invaded by siam and all the food supplies and crops were set on fire. Till this day evidences of burnt rice can be seen in nearby Padang Matsirat.
The 7th descendant
Mahsuri family known to have moved to Phuket, Ms. Sirintra born in 1985 was eventually tracked down and identified as that seventh descendent. She then was offered a place there as the descendant of the Langkawi princess, however, she declined the offer and continue living in Phuket her hometown. Langkawi over the end of the last decades began to live peacefully and started to experience a rising of tourism that brought wealth to the island after hundreds of years. Ms. Sirintra was said to have inherited Mahsuri’s legendary beauty.
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