Saturday 15 October 2011

Che Siti Wan Kembang and Kubur Che Siti

Che Siti Wan Kembang was a Kelantan royalty. She was an intelligent and beautiful princess. Kelantan was named in her honour, Negeri Che Siti Wan Kembang. 

She is buried in Kubur Banggol in Mukim Banggol. Since she was a royalty, yellow is used for her grave, columns, gravestone and retaining wall. She had lived in early Kelantan, at the time when Hindu reigned in this region, some practices of that era have lingered on and can be seen at some of the graves within this enclosure. Whether it is grave worship, I haven't the faintest idea.

There were some long wooden dolls planted in some of the graves here. There were female dolls with scarves and long skirts (like they use for Mak Yong dances or Wayang Kulit). I would think that the people who planted these dolls in these graves could still be practicising some form of grave worship from a past era (from the times of the Hindu reign in this region). The men here have dark brown skin - maybe from being fishermen and exposed to the sun for extended periods. They could have descended from Tamil Indians. The "Raja" prefix in their names gives a clue to their origin. However, the ladies here have fair complexion and look in between Chinese/Thai/Cambodian.

The word banggol refers to a mound, a high land (higher than the river or lowland) or embankment. The graveyard of Kubur Banggol is on a mound and is surrounded by swamp or marsh which open to the South China Sea.


Kubur Che Siti Wan Kembang, the princess and founder of Negeri Kelantan Darulnaim

1 comments:

Anak_melor said...

Salam again prof...
Nak tanya sikit journal apa yg puan rujuk tentang keturunan diraja kelantan? Adakah hanya dengan perkataan 'RAJA' sahaja puan membuat hipotesis tentang keturunan kami di tanah melayu? Cuba puan
Sememangnya diakui bahawa orang MELAYU dahulukala sebelum kedatangan islam ke tanah MELAYU adalah beragama hindu-buddha. Dan tidak semestinya keturunan raja di sini berketurunan india. Satu sahaja soalan untuk puan. Kenapa kepulauan MELAYU dipanggil 'malay archipelago' atau tanah melayu dan nusantara dan tidak dipanggil 'tamil achipelago' atau tanah india?
Rajin2 lah mengkaji balik hipotesis yg baru dibongkar oleh pakar sejarah malaysia dan luar negara.
Oh ya. Kalau puan tak keberatan, silalah berkunjung ke blog riwayatmelayu.blogspot.com agar minda melayu anda terbuka semula dan menghapuskan perasaan inferiority complex terhadap bangsa melayu.