By Visithra Manikam
@vissyarts
Title: Ulek Mayang
Size: 1m x 0.76m
I've been thinking of painting legends for sometime and decided to do this piece on one of my favourite Malay legends. So this what I was working on for 2 weeks before my trip. At one point I wasn't happy with the additional colours that I added that I eventually repainted it. Finally happy with how it looks.
Ulek Mayang is one of the most famous folklore from Terengganu that has a haunting song and dance associated to it.
The song lyrics repeat as below
Ulek mayang ku ulek
Ulek dengan jala jemala
Ulek mayang diulek
Ulek dengan tuannya puteri
Ulek mayang diulek
Ulek dengan jala jemala
Ulek mayang diulek
A group of fishermen were caught in a storm and their boat crashes. A sea princess falls in love with one of the fisherman and abducts his soul leaving his body unconscious.
A bomoh tries to heal the unconscious man but the sea princess turns up with five of her sisters to battle him. Finally the Seventh and eldest princess appears and commands "Let those from the sea return to the sea, and those from the land return to the land." Yang laut balik ke laut
Yang darat balik ke darat