Just look at the centre of this picture... See anything unusual?
OK... Let me assist you... A much closer look at the something unusual... Have you seen such a thing or rather such a tree?
Just look at the "warts" and all covering every inch of the tree. Believe it or not I was utterly shocked when I first saw this tree some 2 years ago. Immediately image of ghosts and ghouls were conjured inside my mind.
Just look again... Remember the hit 80s horror movie Nightmare on Elm Street? This tree sort of looks like the evil Freddie Krueger! And the "warts" and funny bumps all over the tree looks almost like the lost suffering souls that Freddie collects for his "daily meal"!
Just look at the branches itself, all twisted and turning... If the tree represents the soul of a man, you could say it looks like a very twisted man, twisted in suffering, perhaps in self-torture...
Dear God, suddenly I felt a certain part of me cried out... As if I have just described myself and how I actually felt all this years... Allah!
You see, this tree, the Beruas tree has a very big meaning for me. For the name Beruas is known as the name of an ancient Malay kingdom... And the story behind the founding of the kingdom has a certain tie with me, at least genealogically!
The story goes that sometime about 700 years ago in the land of Aceh before it was known as Aceh, there was a twin kingdom known as Samudera and Pasai founded by the pious saintly king Sultan Malikus Salih, also known as Merah Silu... His two grandson, brothers Sultan Malikul Mansur and Sultan Malikul Mahmud inherited the respective kingdoms when he died. And thus the spark for a lot of sorrow and suffering was put into place...
A view from under the Beruas tree...
You see, Sultan Malikul Mahmud was the elder brother but he inherited the kingdom of Pasai which then has less prestige. After all it was the second kingdom founded by their grandfather Sultan Malikus Salih... Samudera was the first one and had the special prestige of supposedly being mentioned by none other than Prophet Muhammad SAW himself... Mentioned as a kingdom that will appear as the end time draws near and that its people must be converted to Islam as from the kingdom there will rise a lot of saints!
Then again, Sultan Malikul Mahmud was raised as the ruler of Pasai when Sultan Malikul Salih was still alive. Actually, Pasai was opened for Malikul Salih's young son, Sultan Malikul Tahir years before that but the latter died early and thus Pasai was then handed to the elder son of Malikul Tahir, also the eldest grandchild of Malikul Salih...
Sultan Malikul Mansur on the other hand was still too young when this happened. Thus he was brought back to stay with his grandfather in Samudera and when the latter died, the kingdom of Samudera along with its range of advisors which were more senior than that in Pasai were handed to Malikul Mansur. And this itself is enough to spark jealousy in the elder brother for he felt himself more deserving of such an honour...
A look around the area... There's a number of all sorts of trees but none as twisted and sorrowful-looking as the Beruas tree.
One day, Sultan Malikul Mahmud went out hunting somewhere far from his palace in Pasai. Soon enough his younger brother Sultan Malikul Mansur also felt like going hunting, leaving Samudera en-route and passing by the palace of Pasai... That's where he saw a very beautiful woman. To cut a long story short, he took the woman away and brought her to his palace...
A look at the things that I dragged along my travels in Kedah and Perak... Here under the Beruas tree is where I lied and rested while taking note of what has happened in my life so far for reflection...
Again, to cut a long story short, an angry Sultan Malikul Mahmud caught his brother... His brothers main adviser was beheaded while Malikul Mansur was banished away from the twin kingdoms...
And thus came the local legend from Beruas that there was once a prince from Aceh banished from his palace for his unbecoming behaviour towards a woman... While on the trip after being banished, he rested under a tree and felt comfortable, comfortable enough to start a new kingdom there...
It is said, the tree was a Beruas tree as seen in this posting. So he name the new kingdom as Beruas and thus a whole new chapter was started...
Soon enough, it's time to leave this place and hopefully leave any bad memories along...
Beruas flourised to be a very well-known kingdom frequented by plenty of traders all over the world, at least the Malay world... After all, it is believed to have inherited whatever's left of the powerful ancient kingdom of Gangganegara. Perhaps you shoud read the article The ancient kingdom of Beruas and its ties with the more ancient kingdom of Gangganegara! again for reference...
One story said, the city or capital of Beruas was so big that a cat could jump from roof to roof non-stop and take 3 months to cover the whole capital! The funny things is, the same things were said about the city of Melaka! And the funnier thing, later the whole legend about Beruas being that big and prosperous just disappeared from any available text while Melaka continued to hold the accolade! Weird! As if there's something being hidden here...
Anyway, despite that, Sultan Malikul Mansur actually missed his native Samudera and was counting the days till he could get back. It happened years after that, his elder brother Sultan Malikul Mahmud felt regret for banishing his brother away and beheading his brother's top advisor and soon called him to return home... Ah.... Home sweet home!
And so I walked out from the gates marking the official boundary of the Pasir Panjang forest reserve. That's when I realise there's one more Beruas tree just outside the gates!
Again to cut a long story short, Sultan Malikul Mansur left the kingdom of Beruas to his trusted friends and advisers, Shamsul Baharin and Daik Ismail. He packed up his things with his family and left for Samudera...
Oh... I forgot to tell one thing... The advisor who was beheaded is a certain Sayid Semayamuddin who was like a father to him... He was buried somewhere in a place called Padang Maya out of Samudera on the way to where Malikul Mansur was banished.
And so Malikul Mansur set sail for Samudera. Along the way he visited Sayid Semayamuddin's grave. The funny thing is he died there... He died without ever having the time and opportunity to actually return to his beloved native Samudera! Imagine the feeling... Perhaps his anguished and sorrow, or perhaps the anguish and sorrow of his family was reflected in the twisted form of the Beruas tree? Enough!
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