Thread by @uglyluhan

I've been meaning to do a thread on Hang Tuah but never got around to it. I guess now's the time. Here I'll address the question of Hang Tuah's existence, and what we know about him from available evidence

https://twitter.com/alyaafadzle/status/1180439242092109829?s=19

Anyone in Malaysia will be familiar with the story of Hang Tuah. Even if they have no interest in history or Malay legends, Hang Tuah is a household name. He's been the subject of movies, books, poetry, plays, comics, and much more

But for those who don't know, Hang Tuah was a 15th-century Melakan admiral who learned the martial art of silat from the renowned master Adi Putera. Tuah travelled to foreign countries as a diplomat and champion, even defeating the great pendekar of Java

He learned martial arts together with four others named Hang Jebat, Hang Lekir, Hang Kasturi, and Hang Lekiu. Each was a highly skilled fighter in his own right. The one closest to Tuah was his best friend Jebat

But Tuah's fame made others jealous. He was slandered by a court official, and ordered to be put to death. The bendahara (a high rank that functioned as advisor, treasurer and finance minister) knew that Tuah was innocent, and secretly hid him away instead of executing him

Jebat was furious that his friend, who had been so loyal to the kingdom, was killed unjustly. He rebelled against the sultan, wreaking havoc in the palace. To turn on one's own king was derhaka, the ultimate crime. But none were his equal in combat, and Jebat was unstoppable

In desperation, the sultan remarked that only Tuah himself would be capable of defeating Jebat, to which the bendahara reveals that Tuah is still alive. The sultan pardons Tuah... for a crime he didn't commit

Tuah heads into the palace and confronts his old friend. The battle ends with the Jebat's death, who still treasures their friendship, but Tuah tells him that loyalty to the king comes before anything else

Which one was good and which was bad? On the one hand there's Tuah, law-abiding to the letter but willing to kill his own friend at the king's order. On the other hand there's Jebat, the steadfast friend who lets emotion get the better of him

This has long been a discourse in the Malay community. The epics that have come down to us today were written by the nobility, and promoted ideals which were meant to benefit the upper class

https://twitter.com/uglyluhan/status/1179349578337923075?s=19

Later retellings have explored Jebat's side of the story, particularly this movie. If you ask for my opinion, I'm very firmly in Jebat's corner. Friends over your king. Truth over fealty

So did Hang Tuah exist? How exactly do we know whether a person existed or an event really happened in the days before cameras and newspapers? It really depends on the veracity of the sources. The known written sources for Hang Tuah are three

From oldest to newest these are the Sejarah Melayu, the Hikayat Hang Tuah, and the Tuhfat al-Nafis. The latter two were written long after Hang Tuah's time, and the Hikayat is inconsistent with the Sejarah Melayu itself

The Sejarah Melayu was intended as a genealogy of the Melaka royal family, and in that sense it is considered mostly reliable. But it also includes myths like a king winning his throne by defeating a snake-man. It can be hard to separate fact from fiction

https://twitter.com/uglyluhan/status/1072780255037804549?s=19

You might be surprised to know that the version of the story I just related actually comes from the Hikayat. The version in the Sejarah Melayu has Tuah fight with Kasturi because the latter had an affair with one of the king's concubines

The Hikayat version is what survived in the public imagination and media. Its theme of friendship vs loyalty proved more interesting than the older Sulalatus Salatin. But this would seem to imply that the Hikayat embellished the original story

So we can't prove how much of the story was true, but did an admiral named Hang Tuah at least exist? Well there was this intriguing letter to The Star years ago. I still never contacted Arkib Negara about it yet. Has anyone ever verified this?

thestar.com.my/opinion/letter…

Due to the lack of evidence, the late Khoo Kay Kim famously said there's no solid proof of Hang Tuah's existence. This view was challenged by other historians and writers. Some were a bit overenthusiastic. The grave is not proof

ukm.my/news/archive/t…

There has been some interesting research by Hashim Musa and Rohaidah Kamaruddin, looking for evidence of Hang Tuah in foreign sources, particularly from India, Europe, and Okinawa

But all the foreign sources only mention an admiral of Melaka. Despite what Nazri says here, there is no definitive mention of the name Hang Tuah in any of those foreign sources. If there was even one instance, there wouldn't even be a debate

astroawani.com/berita-malaysi…

So does that mean Hang Tuah was fictional? Not necessarily. As previously stated, the Sejarah Melayu is first and foremost a political work. The narrative uses myth to legitimise the royal family, but we don't doubt that the rulers themselves existed. Why doubt Hang Tuah?

The original story of Tuah killing Kasturi is believable in the Sulalatus Salatin. A warrior has an affair with a concubine, then kills her, so the king sends in the laksamana to execute him

Similarly, the Hikayat Hang Tuah is an attempt at a biography of someone long dead. The unrealistic elements are understandable, but this wasn't meant to be a purely fictitious character

Tome Pires mentions three "lasamane" (laksamana), though not by name. The Sejarah Melayu also tells that there were three admirals, one of whom is Hang Tuah. Consistent so far

The Commentaries of Afonso de Albuquerque describes an 80 year old "lassamane" of great repute. If the Malay epic is true, Hang Tuah would indeed have been around 80 years old by Afonso's time

All this is the reason most scholars believe Hang Tuah was real. My opinion? I believe it's most likely that Tuah existed, but we have to acknowledge that none of the evidence is 100% conclusive. The foreign accounts still only describe an admiral. His name is never specified

Even less is known about Tuah's four comrades-in-arms. Contrary to misconception, they were not biological brothers. Their sibling relationship was actually that of martial brothers (adik-beradik seguru) and adopted sons of the bendahara. We even know the names of their fathers

Now I know y'all been waiting for me to bring up Hang Tuah's ethnicity. Apparently no discussion about him can go without this topic coming up at some point. Was the great wira Melayu not actually Malay?

We all know of Tuah's famous line "Takkan Melayu hilang di dunia" (Never shall the Malay vanish from the world). But remember that Melayu in his time didn't mean what it does today

https://twitter.com/uglyluhan/status/1100656671091613697?s=19

On the origin of the five Hang warriors, the Hikayat Hang Tuah says 

"They are from Sungai Duyong village. Their families are seeking refuge here"

This is corroborated by the earliest version of the Sejarah Melayu which also says they came from Sungai Duyong

There is a place called Duyung in Melaka, but all written sources say that Tuah immigrated from somewhere outside Melaka. It could be Duyong in Terengganu, or one of several other places named Duyung

heritagemalaysia.my/Mlk-Duyong.html

Depending on who you ask, he could also be from Palembang, Lingga, Kelantan, or somewhere else. The Tuhfat al-Nafis says Tuah was of Bugis ancestry and his original name was Daeng Mempawah. If he was from Lingga, this would make a lot of sense

https://twitter.com/uglyluhan/status/1129664350745006080?s=19

But while the Tuhfat is a reliable historical source, it was written centuries after Hang Tuah, by which time he had already become a folkloric figure. Linking the Bugis dynasty to Tuah might have been a way of enhancing their own prestige, providing a stronger tie to Melaka

The Bugis weren't the only ones claiming Hang Tuah either. There's a lot of oral folklore about Tuah. One tradition in the Riau area holds that he was an orang laut. In modern times there are even more claims floating around but I won't get into them since they're not verifiable

One question I get asked a lot in person is "Was Hang Tuah Chinese". I've met both Malays and non-Malays who insist that Tuah, if he existed, was a Chinese Muslim whose reputation as a warrior came from his superior knowledge of Chinese martial arts

Even @RajaPetra believed it, and used it to defend himself when he got in trouble for questioning/insulting Islam and accusing Najis of being complicit in Altantuuya's murder. I can't find the article now, but yes I had to bring it up for the lolz

Hang Tuah being Chinese is not an old "theory" derived from folklore or evidence. It started with a blog post and a viral email during the late 2000s. These are screenshots of the viral email below, and the original blog post can be found at this link

yellowbamboohk.com/yellowbamboo/O…

The blogger and the email claimed that Tuah's grave was exhumed by a team of international researchers. His DNA was found to be Chinese, and the govt quickly covered the whole thing up by removing Hang Tuah from the history syllabus. True or not?

First, the "Federal Association of Arc & Research of Michigan" does not exist. A fictional entity had to be made up so that you couldn't just contact the researchers involved. At least they kept their bases covered unlike the bekas paderi from Frankfurter

projekmm.com/news/berita/20…

Second, why was the media so quiet about this research? This would've at least been in the newspapers. The mausoleum is a public place and I find it unlikely that nobody ever noticed a team digging it up

Third, the blogger believes that the names Hang, Dang and Awang sound "unusual" for Malays and hence must be Chinese. This is the most brainless part of his argument. They are not exactly names but titular prefixes (except Awang which can be used as a name)

Name-titles of this kind were common in Malay society and they are passed down like a surname. A prominent example still used in modern times is Che Wan

ms.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rozita_Ch…

But the blogger implies that Malays should have Arabic names, and that Muslim naming conventions were the norm among Malays since the Melaka era. Again, this is incorrect. Arabic names only gradually became common over the centuries

Granted, nobody has yet been able to trace the origin of the title Hang, but it seems consistent with the mono- and bisyllabic Malay words of the time, commonly ending with the -ng suffix. I see no reason to believe it was Chinese

The name joke goes further. The popularity of the rumour lead to this attempt at creating Chinese versions of the warriors' names

Hang Tuah = Hang Too Ah
Hang Jebat = Hang Jee Fatt
Hang Lekiu = Hang Lee Kiew
Hang Lekir = Hang Lee Ker

As you can see, Hang Kasturi isn't included because it was too difficult to come up with a convincing Chinese name for him. Not that the others are even convincing, mind you. Far from it. Even for the 15th century they sound bizarre for Chinese names

Some sound more Cantonese, others more Hokkien. None of them sound authentically Chinese, not even by the standards of the time when Chinese people had names which are no longer used. You can't seriously tell me those sound like Han Chinese names. You just can't

I've often complained about the changes to the history syllabus and how it became more Malay Male Muslim centric under Anwar Ibrahim. But I believe removing Hang Tuah had more to do with the question of his existence, not his race being controversial

https://twitter.com/uglyluhan/status/1057889227889754112?s=19

Politicians and the education ministry today might be racist against Chinese, but this was not so in earlier times. If Tuah had been Chinese, there's no reason sources like the Sulalatus Salatin would hide it. Nobody hid the fact that Hang Li Po was Chinese, for example

Just like the rumour of people in Liqian being Roman, or the one about Alexander the Great bringing martial arts to India, the Chinese origin of Hang Tuah is not taken seriously by even one scholar, Malay or not. It's a story of the internet age and should be dismissed as such

I'm of the view that if Hang Tuah existed, he was probably of mixed Malay-Bugis descent, originating somewhere around the Riau-Lingga archipelago. Oh and he most likely didn't have M Nasir facial hair either, or unruly curls from the bottom of his tanjak