The Grave in the Middle of the City
I was speaking with my brother yesterday about a few historical research articles that he had to be added on to the library at bruneiresources.com. He gathered the articles when he was at Tourism Unit and one of the projects which he did was to gather all the information about historical sites in Bandar Seri Begawan. One of them was an article on the rather unknown but quite famous graveyard across the road in front of the General Post Office or rather in the carpark yard of the TAIB Building.A lot of us must have seen the grave or rather the walled part of it and there is a roof structure over it. I am not sure whether the younger generation if you passed by it actually realised it is a grave. The older generation know it as Kubur Dang Ayang or rather the Dang Ayang's Grave. Dang is the Brunei colloquial term for Dayang and Ayang is the name of that person.
I have not had the chance to read the said article but my brother described the contents of the paper to me. The grave is not exactly a grave as such and it may or may not contained the remains of one or more persons. It is a very sad story. Apparently in the old days, a sister and a male sibling was caught in an unlawful relationship (sumbang mahram is the Malay term). According to the laws then, the crimes must be punished by being stoned to death.
However nobody then had the heart to stone them to death but neither could they leave them unpunished. So they compromised. what they did was to build a cavern in the middle of the forest (remember most Bruneians in those days live along the river and this 'kubor' was about a mile inland then - so it is quite far from the other Bruneians) and forced the two of them to live in it. Some versions said only Dang Ayang was forced to live in it and some versions said both of them. The cavern was fitted with an air ventilation and presumably some food was left with them as there was supposedly a small chimney where smoke can be seen coming out of the chimney. This smoke indicated that they were still alive. They must have been kept there for a long while until one day no more smoke was seen coming out of the chimney and everyone presumed that she or they died.
According to elder Bruneians, the place was actually a mound and during the bombing of the second world war, the mound was flattened and up to now that's why there is no mound left. Nobody knew when the graveyard started to be walled but presumably someone did it because it is still technically a grave and up to now it is left there - to be left unknown and a rather sad testimony to an indescretion of a young Brunei lady.
PS. I finally managed to read the article and according to the research based on the gravestones found there, the lady in question named Raja Ayang was a member of the aristocracy (and whose father was said to be the son in law of the third Sultan) and most likely the crime was during the time of Sultan Sulaiman (circa 1432-1485). It was said that the lady realising what she committed was very serious that she and her entourage (so it wasn't just one person but the whole household) voluntarily went to to their deaths. Before the second world war, the mound was said to be as high as 10 meters but when bombed it was flattened with some saying that it is possible that the mound is empty in the first place.
PPS. I was chatting with my driver about my entry and he told me that his wife had studied another version in school as part of her Malay Literature class something along the line of a 'were-crocodile' (buaya jadi-jadian) and that she hid inside the cavern to escape from him. I will be getting more details on this one and maybe post this as well.
Comments
parents told me when I was little...
Snippets of an older age in Brunei are the pieces of our heritage that often get left behind only to travel through time via storytellers. Thanks again for the post! xxw
Grandma said that Dang Ayang refused to have her marriage arranged with the nobility, and wanted to remain single all her life.
And so, due to that, she angered her father, who then ordered her to be placed in the cavern along with her entourage as a punishment.
My grandma also mentioned that there was a chimney fitted there so that smoke can be seen whenever her servants cooked meals for the people in the cavern.
I guess the story evolved over the centuries and thus now have a lot of versions.
Hijaratun Nabi Muhammad SAW 856 ... ibnata Ismail bin Yusof Al-Aziz Al-Khawlani [the name of the person is not known but in the gravestone only known as the daughter of Ismail - the name Raya Ayang comes from folklore]
Perbuatan yang dicontohkan (yang dilakukan) sperti itu sudah memadai (pembalasan yang dikenakan);
Dengannya (pembalasan) itu lebih baik dari kejahatan (yang dilakukan)
Dan inilah badan orangnya (yang melakukan kejahatan itu).
Insya Allah mereka di dalam aman
Sebahagian nikmat dunia yang didahagakan (dibandingkan dengan balasan yang akan diterima pada Hari Kiamat)
Ya Allah, berilah rahmat sesudah keterlanjuan ini. [this indicated that it is hoped that by the punishment of her being buried alive is punishment enough for the indescretion she committed]
Based on this research, any other versions of the story of Dayang Ayang are not as accurate but nevertheless make interesting readings.
cheers.
visit me at abruneilifer.blogspot.com
My version was that she was "buried alive". Yeap. Gruesome. It made a nice bedtime story.
We were a people who killed each other pasal SABONG AYAM, burying alive an incestuous female is believable. Hehe.
But I must confess I am confused about certain aspects of Brunei history...if the young woman was in an incestous relationship, how come most of the stories about the grave have only her punished? Was the man in the legend/myth not punished?
And how come you have posted that it was the "indiscretion of a young Brunei lady"? What about the indiscretion of the man in this story?
jack: i think you blogsite is more suited for the question you posed to me :) - when i first started with only a readership of 2 (me and my wife) was the time when i am freer. with 1,000+ a day, it gets a little bit harder to write certain things. like your blog.
cheers.
abruneilifer.blogspot.com
When I grew up, she told me a story about her being buried alive, and that grave is where she rest.