UJUD BUNGIN: Antu Ancak
Saturday, May 29, 2010
How Gedong Got Its Name
By MyAbah
Before Sadong was forced to be surrendered to James Brooke by the second half of the 19th century, Gedong was the administrative centre of Sadong. At that time Sadong was under the rule of Sultan of Brunei, which had its centre at Kota Batu (now in Brunei Darulsalam).
The last Datu Patinggi of Sadong, which was centered in Gedong, was Datu Patinggi Muai (Patinggi Muel in James Brooke Journal). Before the rule of Brooke family, Sadong (Gedong) was headed by its last Datu Bandar, he was Datu Bandar Abang Mohammad Kassim bin Abang Amit. He was accused, together with Datu Patinggi Abdul Gapur, of plotting to topple the Brooke Rajah. In which he strongly denied. As the result, he was forced into exile by Brooke in Kuching where he died. From then Gedong glory was declining from its golden era.
According to archeological found in Gedong, it was used from 7th century to 13th century. The excavation work was done by Sarawak Museum in the late nineteen sixties until the early seventies.
The local meaning of gedong is godown or store. So it seemed that Gedong was named after godown. We have two versions of legend on how Gedong got its name. One was written by Iskandar bin Mardan, which was published by Borneo Literature Bureau in the Dolphin Magazine in the second half of nineteen sixties. The second version was by Openg Onn Net (unpublished) in his paper, Gedong – Reinventing The Old Glory. Both versions have the same conclusion as how Gedong got its name.
1.How Gedong Got Its Name – By Iskandar bin Mardan
About two hundred years ago when Sarawak was governed by the Sultan of Brunei, a group of Malays left the Saribas River and journeyed up the Sadong River. They were searching for fertile land for planting wet padi.
After two days they still had not found a suitable area. They went on until at last they reached a small Malay village at the place where the Sadong and Krang Rivers met. They saw padi growing well there. There seemed that there were no wild pigs, deer or insects to destroy the crop and so they were satisfied with the area.
The leader went to ask the village headmen permission to stay and farm. The headmen agreed, but said that first they should offer seven difference kinds of food to the spirits at Ujud Bungin, just outside the village before they made their settlement. After that, he explained the spirits would help to look after their padi.
The new settlers made the offering and then began building their houses. When they had finished, they started clearing the land. They all worked very hard and soon a large area had been cleared. After a few weeks they completed planting the padi.
The padi grew very well indeed, and they looked after it carefully. Tthey were all very happy to sea it bearing good fruit and the padi fields soon looked like a yellow green sea.
When the padi completely ripe they were all very busy harvesting. In just a short time all their containers were full of padi, so they made a large store about fifteens fathoms long and four fathoms wide. That store was soon filled with padi and everyone was very happy and lived peacefully.
Because of the padi store, the people of the Sadong and Saribas areas began to call the place Gedong padi, which means padi store. From then on it has been known as Gedong; no-one includes the word padi.
This is how Gedong got its name.
2.Gedong – Reinventing The Old Glory – By Openg Onn Net
In the oral history, Gedong came about through many legends, myths and beliefs. As some stories had it that, Gedong was formed when Raja Ahmad, said to have filial connection with the Brunei court made an escape from the lanuns attack while on his way to Sarawak (now Kuching). Having reached the confluent of Krang River and Sadong River, he decided to stay for the nights until the situation would be safer for them to leave. While there, they were amazed to find out that anything they threw on the soil like padi and fruits germinated into healthy plants. Besides,
they found many wild fruits in the forest. It was then that Raja Ahmad told his subordinates to stay put and make the area as their new home. He immediately ordered them to plant padi and after months of tilting, there was bountiful harvest so much that they had to build a big godown to store their yields. It was then also that they decided to name their new found home Gedong. From there Gedong prospered into an entreport with link to other important ports of the world like China.
Padi still remain as one of the main agriculture produces of Gedong. Now the trend has changed a lot, from self sufficient to commercial. Bernas is the first to take the challenge. Its rice field is in Lubuk Terangas; and there are a lot of big gedongs used for storing padi. So it seemed that Gedong has comes to its glory (modern) once again.
Note:
Top photograph courtesy of Sarawak Museum showing Gedong of 1960s.
Bottom picture showing padi is every where in Gedong. In front of my siters’ houses.
***Source:- http://myabah.blog.friendster.com/category/mygedong/
http://zogedong.blogspot.com/2010/05/by-myabah-before-sadong-was-forced-to.html#c4807697568024239039
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