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2 Feb, 7 tweets, 3 min read
A common plot in Malay fairy tales is the story of an animal which turns out to be a cursed human prince or princess, much like the German story of the Frog Prince. In the legend of Raja Bongsu, the princess turns into a snake every night

#FairyTaleTuesday
Typical of Malay epic romances, it begins with the trope of the wandering prince, as Raja Bongsu travels disguised as a commoner. An ape leads him to a silat master who teaches him martial arts and magic (ilmu persilatan dan kesaktian)

He goes on to learn from 7 masters before he reaches a kingdom where the beautiful princess lives in hiding because of her curse. Using his magic, Raja Bongsu breaks the curse and marries her
To break the curse, Raja Bongsu had to stab the princess in her snake form, thereby "killing" it and leaving only her true human form. He was told that if he has the magic skill, she'd remain human. It's likely that the weapon used to stab her was a keris

Once she became human, the princess said that the curse would return if she married a commoner. She was relieved to find that Raja Bongsu — who had been disguised as a servant — was actually prince of the Pinang Beribut kingdom
Throughout Southeast Asia, people of royal blood were believed to be inherently magical, like gods incarnate (dewaraja). It would've made perfect sense to pre-modern Malays that the curse could only be lifted if the princess marries a prince

Correction here, the princess would turn into a snake when the sun rises, and became human when it sets

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More from @uglyluhan

❅ᜐᜋᜓᜎ Profile picture
3 Feb
Since everyone was talking about Malays "dressing beautifully again", it's as good a time as any to look at historical Malay clothing. This won't go into detail but I just wanna give people a general idea of how pre-modern Malays dressed because I'm sick of the anachronisms
Unfortunately there's been relatively little study on this topic, and the average person is left to make assumptions. I've seen Malay period dramas where the men are wearing the same baju they bust out for Raya. But I'll deal with that later Image
In any given culture, we know of the historical clothing from a number of sources, like descriptions, illustrations, statues, etc. These sources will also reflect changing fashions ImageImageImageImage
Read 85 tweets
❅ᜐᜋᜓᜎ Profile picture
19 Jan
Gonna use this question as an excuse to look at the Islamisation of the Melaka kingdom, and whether there was opposition to the religion

I previously did a thread explaining why it's unlikely that the founder of Melaka converted to Islam. I had fewer followers back then so I kept the thread simple to avoid confusing anyone who's unfamiliar with the topic. I'll go into a bit more detail this time
We have a few sources for the early history of Melaka. These are the Sulalatus Salatin (Sejarah Melayu) written in Melaka, the Bustan al-Salatin written in Aceh, the Chinese Ming Shi (明史) and Yingya Shenglan (瀛涯勝覽), and the writings of the Portuguese
Read 53 tweets
❅ᜐᜋᜓᜎ Profile picture
18 Jan
Not quite the hot topic but I'm gonna say it anyway. Half the westerners who visit or even spend time in SEA know little to nothing about the region's history or culture, even if they learn the local language. Come at me
North Americans in particular have a very specific view of Asia, based almost entirely on stereotypes of how people from said places look. Which is why South Asia isn't even included

In the mind of many westerners, Thailand and especially Vietnam are "basically China". Philippines is a Hispanic part of the South Pacific. Any Muslims are assumed to be culturally similar to the Middle East. And Indonesia is just an exotic island nation

Read 4 tweets
❅ᜐᜋᜓᜎ Profile picture
16 Jan
First thread of the year because I have time during MCO. As requested, a thread on the gods and spirits of Malay folk religion. Some are indigenous, some are of Indian origin, some have Islamic influences

Before I begin, it might be worth explaining the Malay conception of the spirit world. At its deepest level, Malay religious belief is animist. All living beings and even certain objects are said to have a soul. Natural phenomena are either controlled by or personified as spirits
Although these beings had to be respected, not all of them were powerful enough to be considered gods. Offerings would be made to the spirits that had greater influence on human life. Spells and incantations would invoke their names

Read 45 tweets
❅ᜐᜋᜓᜎ Profile picture
18 Oct 20
Well it's not incorrect to say that Malays are indigenous to peninsular Malaysia. I'm not sure what started this conversation but I guess some explanations are in order on the "whites of Malaysia" statement
First, while I do consider Malays to be indigenous, it would be inaccurate to compare the Malay community to the original inhabitants, who are of course the orang asli that have been living here far earlier

Secondly, while it is true that one of the orang asli groups are dubbed Melayu Asli (Proto-Malay), they arrived long before the ancestors of today's Malay majority, and have a distinct culture. To think of them as just "wild Malays" is neocolonialism

Read 15 tweets
❅ᜐᜋᜓᜎ Profile picture
8 Aug 20
I sure can. I did a thread before on who brought Islam to Southeast Asia but it wasn't up to par so I'll try to be a bit more clear this time

If we were to ask who were the first Muslims in Southeast Asia, the answer would probably be simple enough. Most likely they were from the Middle East, a region which had trade links with Southeast Asia in medieval times
Arab and Persian Muslim traders had been making their way to Southeast Asia since the 9th century. However, contact with Muslims does not mean locals were converting. After all, trade with the Chinese wasn't making Malays Daoist
Read 46 tweets

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