Badang And Bongkok

Badang and Bongkok are two hunchback heroes of Johor Baru.

They lived in different times, but are equally celebrated as historic icons of the world's oldest empire.

Badang was descended from a Bugis prince who visited Johor's original capital Tanjung Pinang in Bintan Island, one of the Riau Islands, and married a woman from the Bintan Aboriginal Malay tribe which formed the army and navy of the empire.

He also had the blood of a Chinese prince from the Ming Dynasty who married another woman from the Bintan tribe.

According to legend, one day, Badang met a genie. The hungry genie had stolen his catch from the Johor Straits.

Badang wanted to kill the genie, but it apologised and offered to give Badang superhuman strength.

Badang had to drink the genie’s puke in order to gain such strength, and he did it without hesitation.

Badang became a superman and army chief of the Sultan of Johor.

He created a dynasty of army chiefs and one of his heirs was Hang Mahmud, the father of Hang Tuah.

Hang Tuah and his cousins Hang Jebat, Hang Kasturi, Hang Lekir and Hang Lekiu (the sons of Hang Mahmud’s younger brother) became great knights of Johor (and later Melaka).

Hang Tuah’s sons Hang Isap, Hang Siak and Hang Nadim also became great knights of Johor and Melaka. They fought the Portuguese invaders of Melaka in 1511.

Hang Jebat’s son (and Hang Tuah’s son-in-law) Khoja Hassan also fought the Portuguese.

Khoja Hassan settled in Makasar and one of his heirs married the Bugis prince Daeng Rilaga.

Three sons of Daeng Rilaga namely Daeng Perani, Daeng Merewah and Daeng Celak helped Sultan Sulaiman Shah 1 who ruled Johor in 1720 quell a revolt by his cousin, Raja Kecil (Raja Rahmat) of Siak.

Daeng Perani, Daeng Merewah and Daeng Celak were made the regents of Selangor by Sultan Sulaiman. Daeng Merewah and Daeng Celak became Deputy Sultans of Johor or Yang Dipertuan Muda Johor.

Daeng Perani, Daeng Merewah and Daeng Celak married women from the Johor royal house, too.

The heirs of Daeng Celak are today the royal house of Selangor. Many members of the Johor royal house have the blood of Daeng Perani, Daeng Merewah and Daeng Celak.

The second son of Daeng Rilaga, Daeng Menambun and the youngest son, Daeng Kemasi, married into the royal house of Brunei.

Bongkok was a brave soldier of Johor who had the blood of Tuah and Jebat.

He is buried at Bukit Belungkun Kecil in Tanjung Belungkor, Johor Baru.

Bongkok served Sultan Hussein Shah of Johor.

But he opposed Sultan Hussein's decision to cede Singapore to Britain in 1824.

After Sultan Hussein died in 1835, his son Sultan Ali Iskandar Shah was ousted by his cousin Tengku Ibrahim Shah.

Tengku Ibrahim Shah was recognised as Johor's ruler by the British.

Bongkok staunchly defended Sultan Ali.

He organised a movement to retake Singapore from Britain.

According to legend, he also possessed superhuman strength like Badang.

Bongkok's brother Putih supported Ibrahim.

He tried to capture Bongkok unsuccessfully.

Eventually, Bongkok challenged his brother to a Tuah-Jebat fight to death.

His brother did not have the heart to kill him, and neither did he have the heart to kill his brother.

Consequently, he had one of his lieutenants stab him to death with a poisoned dagger.

Bongkok was buried on a hill close to Badang's resting place.

Badang - Marshita Omar

Badang, a Malay legendary folk hero, was renowned for his mighty physical strength. There are several variations to this legend but most of them have their setting in ancient Singapore or old Temasek. The stone featured in the legend has been fabled to be the old stone slab at the mouth of Singapore River. The huge stone relic had ancient inscriptions but before they could be deciphered, the British Acting Settlement Engineer, Captain Stevenson, had it blown up to pieces in 1843. A small fragment of it, now called the Singapore Stone, is on display at the Singapore History Museum. The legend of Badang was memorable enough for Cathay Kris Productions to turn it into a Malay film in 1962.

The legend
Badang was a poor young man who made his home on the banks of Sungai Singapura (Singapore River). He was thin and weak but dreamed of becoming strong. Badang had an old fish trap that he set every evening in the river to catch fish. On one unfortunate morning, he discovered that his fish had been eaten up and all that were left were fish bones scattered near where the fish trap was set. His old fish trap was also damaged.

Determined to catch the culprit, Badang secretly monitored the activities around his fish trap and it paid off as the identity of the thief was revealed; a strange scaly genie. Badang fearlessly confronted the genie who alas at the sight of Badang's ferocious eyes begged to be let go while promising to grant Badang any wish. Badang wished to be stronger than any man but had to fulfill an unpleasant condition; he had to eat up what the genie threw up. True to the genie's words, after downing the genie's vomit, Badang was able to uproot a tree effortlessly.

Badang's newfound might set his quiet fishing village abuzz and before long the news reached the throne, and Badang was appointed a hulubalang (court warrior) . His fame went beyond to as far as India. Not to be outdone, the ruler of India sent the kingdom's strongest man, Wadi Bijaya, to Singapura for a duel with Badang. Wadi Bijaya set sail with seven ships filled with valuables as prizes for the winner. Should he win, Raja Singapura would in turn give seven ships of the same valuables to him. There was a series of matches to test the two strong men's strength. Badang won all of them. The last was a rock throwing contest. While Wadi Bijaya could only lift the enormous rock up to his knees, Badang lifted it up over his head and flung it into the sea where it landed near the mouth of Sungai Singapura (Singapore River).

The account of Badang's feats in Buckley's An anecdotal history of old times in Singapore 1819-1867, as taken from the Malay Annals, had slight variations; the Indian ruler who sought to pit Badang's strength against his own Hercules was the Rajah of the land of Kling (Coromandel) and Badang's opponent was Nadi Vijaya Vicrama. Badang was buried at the point of the Straits of Singhapura (Straits of Singapore) where the rock he threw landed. When the Rajah of Kling knew his death, he sent two stone pillars to plant over his grave as a monument.

The Singapore Stone
In June 1819, Singapore was set abuzz by the discovery of an old rock at the mouth of the Singapore River. A group of Bengal sailors employed by Captain Flint (the first Master Attendant) found the rock and were terrified by the inscriptions. The island's inhabitants including Raffles then attempted to decipher the language of the inscriptions, said to be of some Hindu script, but none could. This large rock was a point of danger for ships during the early colonial days. To warn them, Captain Jackson of the Bengal Artillery erected a post at the site. This rock was then fabled to have been the one hurled by Badang. The rock was blasted in 1843 when the colonial government built a sea-wall round Fort Fullerton. The blasting of the stone erased a significant clue to Singapore's past. A fragment of the stone, called the Singapore Stone, is now found in the Singapore History Museum.

Legacy of Badang
The story of Badang is a popular folklore and it entered the entertainment world in 1962 when Cathay Kris produced a Malay movie on the legend.



Author
Marsita Omar

A small comic of Badang

Raja Muda had a warrior, Badang, who get his super strenght from eating a demon's vomit. Badang could uproot huge trees! He was made a war chief. The King of Kalinga on hearing about Badang sent his strongest warrior to Singapore. "I bet seven ships, you can beat him anytime!" "No problem!". It was a rock lifting contest and the Kalinga warrior had difficulties. Badang swong it in the air and throw it across the Singapore river. "Ayoo! there go my King's seven ships to them"

Badang Picture

Badang lifting a tree trunk with right hand and a big stone with left hand.

The Hulk

The Hulk (popularly known as The Incredible Hulk) is a fictional character appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #1 (May 1962). In 2008, the hobbyist magazine Wizard named the Hulk the seventh-greatest Marvel Comics character. Empire Magazine named him the fourteenth greatest comic book character overall, and the fifth highest ranked in the Marvel stable.

The Hulk is cast as the emotional and impulsive alter ego of the withdrawn and reserved physicist Dr. Bruce Banner. The Hulk appears shortly after Banner is accidentally exposed to the blast of a test detonation of a gamma bomb he invented. Subsequently, Banner will involuntarily transform into the Hulk, depicted as a giant, raging, humanoid monster, leading to extreme complications in Banner's life. Lee said the Hulk's creation was inspired by a combination of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein.

Although the Hulk's coloration has varied throughout the character's publication history, the most consistent shade is green. As the Hulk, Banner is capable of significant feats of strength, which increases in direct proportion to the character's anger. As the character himself puts it, "The madder Hulk gets, the stronger Hulk gets!" Strong emotions such as anger, terror and grief are also triggers for forcing Banner's transformation into the Hulk. A common storyline is the pursuit of both Banner and the Hulk by the police or the armed forces, due to the destruction he causes.

The character has since been depicted in various other media, most notably by Lou Ferrigno in a live action television series, six television movies, and an animated series; through the use of CGI in Hulk (2003) and The Incredible Hulk (2008), as well as in three animated series and various video games.

Who is Badang?

Badang is a legendary Southeast Asian strongman. Details of the story vary slightly, particularly proper names

Badang was a Siamese boy from Sayong Pinang, located in present-day Johor, Malaysia. He was the only son of two poor farmers who worked hard until the day they died. As a young man, Badang worked as a coolie for the rich farmer Orang Kaya Nira Sura in a place called Salung or Saluang in Aceh, Sumatra (modern-day Indonesia). Badang was small-statured and the weakest of his group. Their job was to clear through the undergrowth to make way for new fields. As slaves, they didn't get paid and received only a few handfuls of rice each day. This was hardly enough to satisfy the hunger of such arduous work, so Badang relied on catching fish for extra sustenance. He set his fish-traps along the stream every evening and gathered the net the following morning.

One morning Badang found his traps empty. The leftover bones and scales proved that someone had eaten his catch. This went on for a few days and Badang was angry. Not only was he not getting enough to eat, his friends even laughed at his plight. Expecting this to be the doing of some wild animal, Badang armed himself with a rattan stick (or a parang in some versions) and hid in the bushes of the jungle. Drifting in and out of sleep, Badang dreamt that he was strong enough to lift a boat with all its load. He dreamt that he lifted a great big rock and threw it into the air. The rock travelled many miles and landed at the mouth of a river. In his dream Badang was very rich and lived in a palace with many servants waiting on him. His mother, father and sister wore fine clothes and lived with him in the palace. He also dreamt that he swallowed something that came out of the mouth of an ugly beast. The beast was so big and ugly that Badang shook with fear and woke up.

At dawn, Badang saw none other than the demon from his dream. The beast was a hantu air, a water spirit capable of taking the form of any flora and fauna which lives around bodies of water. He was taller than Badang's house, with waist-length hair and a long beard covering his hairy chest. The demon had a pair of horns on his head, tusks protruding from his upper jaw and matted hair on his arms and legs. In the dim light its eyes shone like that of a wild animal, flashing and red. After eating all the fish in the traps, the demon fell asleep. Badang's anger overcame his fear. He crept up to the demon and used the empty net to tie its hair to a rock. (In another version the demon looked like a short old man with long white hair, eyes like fire and a beard that reached his waist. In this variation, Badang ran at the man on sight.)

The demon turned out to be a timid creature and begged for mercy. He promised to grant Badang any wish if he spared his life. Badang thought of wishing to be invisible but knew he would be hunted and killed. He thought of asking for riches but knew that whatever he owns belongs to his master. Instead he wished for strength so that he would not tire during his chores. The demon said that if Badang wanted great strength he would have to swallow whatever he coughs up. The demon vomited all the fish he had swallowed and Badang ate each one bit by bit. (In some versions the demon coughed out two red gems called geliga for Badang to swallow.)

True to the demon’s word Badang became immensely strong. As he walked back, Badang tested his strength on the trees. Nira Sura inquired how such a large section of the forest was cleared so quickly and Badang explained everything that had transpired. The landowner was so grateful for the servant's loyalty that he freed Badang from slavery on the condition that he never boasts of his strength and uses it to help others. Now a free man, Badang worked for a number of people before heading to the island of Singapore.

One day in his new home Badang saw fifty men trying to push a heavy boat into the water. Badang continually offered to help but the men refused, saying that no one so small would make any difference. The king Seri Rena Wikrama (also called Sri Rena Wira Kerma) eventually sent for 300 men to help bush the vessel but it was to no avail. When he saw Badang being refused, the king gave Badang the chance to push the boat by himself. Everyone present was shocked to find that the small-framed Badang could move the ship after 300 people had just failed to do so. He was summoned to the court of Seri Rena Wikrama and was appointed commander-in-chief of the army.

Badang was frequently asked to do favours. The king once asked him to gather the tasty kuras leaves from Kuala Sayong in Sumatra, so Badang set off in a boat by himself. When he climbed the kuras tree, its branch broke and Badang fell a long way, his head hitting a rock. To his surprise, Badang was completely unharmed and the rock was split in two. Today that rock is called the Split Stone (Batu Belah).

Over time, Badang had become known in other nearby countries as well. A king from India wanted to test Badang's strength against his own champion, Nadi Bijaya (or Wadi Bijaya). The Indian warrior sailed to the Malay Archipelago and greeted the local king with the friendly challenge. Seri Rena Wikrama took great pleasure in tests of skill and agreed. As decreed by the Indian king, the loser would owe the victor seven ships of cargo. Badang competed against Nadi Bijaya in several contests of strength and wrestling but the result was always tied. Finally, Nadi Bijaya suggested that whoever can lift the large rock in front of the palace shall be declared the winner. He then lifted the rock to his knees and immediately dropped it. When it was Badang's turn, he lifted the rock above his head and threw it into the sea. Nadi Bijaya acceded to the agreement and gave Badang the seven ships of cargo before returning to India.

Badang spent many years in Singapore defeating challengers from other countries, including the champion of Java. He eventually grew tired of the attention and requested that he retire from the king's service. Badang returned to Sumatra and stayed there for the rest of his life. After Badang died, even the Indian ruler who sent Nadi Bijaya grieved and sent a marble stone to be placed at the head of Badang's grave.