Go to stage 3: The existence of Malaysia's most famous historical warrior questioned by a prominent academic

Thursday, 19 January 2012

The existence of Malaysia's most famous historical warrior questioned by a prominent academic

I was doing some reading on the net when I came across this article that discussed a prominent Malaysian academic questioning the existence of Hang Tuah and the other warriors closely associated with him. Hang Tuah is a popular folklore warrior who is also taught as a historical figure in Malaysian schools. His story contains a famous dilemma on loyalty. His friend Hang Jebat fears that Hang Tuah has been executed by the Sultan of Malacca and gets consumed with rage and attacks everybody. The Sultan had only pretended to kill his loyal warrior Hang Tuah as a punishment for Hang Tuah disobeying him. The Sultan calls on Hang Tuah to stop his friend, Hang Jebat from inflicting anymore damage on the city. Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat fight and Hang Tuah eventually kills his friend whose rage was started by reports of Hang Tuah's seemingly undeserved execution. For Malays this is the source of debate on loyalty especially for a warrior. To help illustrate that point, this page contains a story based on the legend of Hang Tuah that along with the comments demonstrates what modern Malays feel about the tale. For a more graphic portrayal try the short film below that nicely shows the final fight in which the legendary Kris Taming Sari is used.

A good background on the historical context to Hang Tuah is here. The article makes it clear that the story of Hang Tuah (Hikayat Hang Tuah) is a tale that is possibly based on history.

So far the problem of dating Hikayat Hang Tuah remains unsolved. In a series of interesting articles on this hikayat, B.B. Parnickel asserts that the romance acquired its present shape in the sultanate of Johor, during the 'golden thirty years' of its history (1640- 1670s), so that its account of the valour displayed by Laksamana Hang Tuah might have redounded to the glory of his very distant successor in that function, Laksamana Abd al-Jamil, the most powerful courtier in Johor at that time (Parnickel 1962:148-9). Parnickel correctly observes that the tale reflects some of the events which took place in Johor during the 17th century, and that in some of its episodes the author is apparently striving 'to project the present into the past' (Parnickel 1962:150).

Hang Tuah is unquestionably a 'Malay' hero so he also features in Indonesia. Both the Royal Malaysian Navy and the Republic of Indonesian Navy have vessels named after Hang Tuah.

A while ago I was going to write a blog post about Hang Tuah to illustrate a Malay historical warrior but there was really nothing I could find for a substantial post from a military history perspective. I suspect that Professor Khoo Kay Kim is correct in his stand that Hang Tuah is legend not historical fact. That said, I acknowledge that the importance of Hang Tuah is as a legend to motivate 'Malays.' I am really not sure how much the current Indonesian or Malaysian militaries use the story of Hang Tuah to motivate the present generation of soldiers but his story has enough resonance to ensure that those vessels were named in his honour.

Posted at 01:40 in Malaysia | Permalink

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