Mount Santubong (Malay: Gunung Santubong) is a mountain in the Malaysian state of Sarawak. It is located about 35 km
north of the state capital Kuching. 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. Following another theory, the name Santubong is derived from "san choo bong"
in the Hakka Chinese dialect, meaning "wild pig king"
or "king of wild pig"A legend often associated with the mountain is
of two beautiful princesses of heaven, Santubong and Sejinjang. Santubong was
an expert weaver while Sejinjang was an excellent rice tresher. When war broke
out between two villages, Kampung
Pasir Puteh and Kampung
Pasir Kuning, the King of Heaven sent the princesses to keep peace
in both villages. The villagers saw both beautiful princesses and stopped the
war. After the war, both princesses taught the villagers their expertise and
both villages began to trade and became prosperous. Many princes heard of them
and came from the whole island to marry them, but all was denied by them. One
day, a handsome prince came, and the princesses had a quarrel and exchanged blows
because both of them fell in love with the prince. 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 both mountains resembles women lying on
their back and a crack on Mount Santubong was the scar on Princess Santubong's
cheek.
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