Saturday, October 4, 2008

Learning my roots from the museum

I hardly visit the museum.. especially the one in Kuala Terengganu. I've been there once but that was about... lemme see.. 6 or 7 years ago? When my sister and I went to Terengganu by plane for Raya, my parents and grandma went to pick us up and we then went around KT as the distance from KT to Dungun is about 2 hours drive. Which means, we rarely go there unless we were to visit our relatives there. So, we went to see the new 'Crystal Mosque' and the mini historical buildings (great wall of China, the Taj Mahal, Kaabah..) and also the museum. We didn't get to see the mosque and the mini buildings upclose as it was close till the 3rd. 
My grandma was excited when we went to the museum as it was filled of memorial items of the late Sultans of Terengganu. Yes, I am somewhere in the family tree of the rulers.. not sure how directly but according to my grandma, we were related to Sultan Sulaiman III and more closely to his son, Tengku Ali. Tengku Ali then became the Sultan when Sultan Sulaiman got poisoned and after the British took over the country from the Japanese, the British didn't recognize Sultan Ali as the Sultan as he had close relations with the Japanese and that he didn't want to sign the Malayan Union treaty or something.. can't remember. So the throne was then given to Sultan Ismail and passed to his son Sultan Mahmud and then to the recent Agong, Tuanku Mizan :)
My grandma told me, "dulu Tengku Ali jahat.. dia cukur rambut hamba dia.." Occay the quote may not be throughly accurate but she said something like that. Not too sure about the exact words. Sorry.. I wanted to ask my grandpa about Tengku Ali.. how we were related to him but totally had forgotten as we were all busy celebrating the much anticipated celebration, Hari Raya. But I did ask my grandma again the same question who Tengku Ali was.. and she said that he always came to our house..
So the next time I go back to Terengganu, I'm going to ask my grandpa.. i'm sure he has loads to tell.. the only thing I know about my family background is that we are from Acheh, Bugis, Chinese, Arab, Indian.. to be honest, my grandpa once explained about it which was so many that I think I have the blood of all race :)

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