Mount Ophir - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

For the ghost town in California, see Mount Ophir, California
Mount Ophir, California
Mount Ophir is a ghost town in Mariposa County, California. It was founded during the California Gold Rush, and was the site of the first authorized gold stamping mill, or mint, in California....

.

Mount Ophir, or more commonly known by its Malay

Malay language

Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...

name, Gunung Ledang, is a mountain

Mountain

Image:Himalaya_annotated.jpg|thumb|right|The Himalayan mountain range with Mount Everestrect 58 14 160 49 Chomo Lonzorect 200 28 335 52 Makalurect 378 24 566 45 Mount Everestrect 188 581 920 656 Tibetan Plateaurect 250 406 340 427 Rong River...

situated in the Gunung Ledang National Park located in Ledang

Ledang

Ledang is a new district in Johor, Malaysia. The district's principal town is Tangkak. The new Ledang district covers Tangkak town, Tanjung Agas, Kesang, Sungai Mati, Serom, Sagil and Bukit Gambir. The district is formerly the northern part of the Muar district which is separated from the southern...

District (northwestern Johor

Johor

Johor is a Malaysian state, located in the southern portion of Peninsular Malaysia. It is one of the most developed states in Malaysia. The state capital city and royal city of Johor is Johor Bahru, formerly known as Tanjung Puteri...

), Malaysia. The summit is located between the border of Muar

Muar (district)

Muar District is a district in the state of Johor, Malaysia. The name "Muar" is also used for the name of its district, which formerly sub-divided between the Town of Muar and the sub-district of Tangkak. Tangkak sub-district has been upgraded into a full district known as Ledang District in year...

and Malacca

Malacca

Malacca , dubbed The Historic State or Negeri Bersejarah among locals) is the third smallest Malaysian state, after Perlis and Penang. It is located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, on the Straits of Malacca. It borders Negeri Sembilan to the north and the state of Johor to the south...

. Standing at 1,276 m (4,186 ft), with a clear trail leading to the peak, the mountain is a popular destination among amateur climbers

Climbing

Climbing is the activity of using one's hands and feet to ascend a steep object. It is done both for recreation and professionally, as part of activities such as maintenance of a structure, or military operations.Climbing activities include:* Bouldering: Ascending boulders or small...

. Mount Ophir is also the 64th highest mountain in Malaysia and arguably the most climbed mountain in the country, despite it having one of the higher climbing fatalities in the region of South-East Asia. Camping on the mountain has been forbidden after the death of campers who were crushed by falling trees in separate incidents.

A resort at the foot of the mountain was opened in the recent years. Called Gunung Ledang Resort, it offers decent accommodation and adventure programmes. However, the access to the top of the mountain can only be made through the National Park office, which is a few kilometres away from the resort. The trail from the resort has been closed due the death of campers.

Origins of its name

There are a few popular opinions regarding the origin of the mountain's name. According to one opinion, ancient history points to the mountain being the site of rich gold deposits, luring traders from as far as Greece and China.

In the 14th Century, the Chinese seafarers plying the Straits of Malacca called it Kim Sua meaning the 'golden mountain', possibly from the Hokkien

Hokkien

Hokkien is a Hokkien word corresponding to Standard Chinese "Fujian". It may refer to:* Hokkien dialect, a dialect of Min Nan Chinese spoken in Southern Fujian , Taiwan, South-east Asia, and elsewhere....

or Taiwanese words: kim, or in characters 金 meaning gold and sua, or 山 meaning mountain . Another source said that the Javanese during the period of the Majapahit empire named the mountain Gunong Ledang, which means 'mount from afar' or 'the farthest mountain'.

The name Ophir

Ophir

Ophir is a port or region mentioned in the Bible, famous for its wealth. King Solomon is supposed to have received a cargo of gold, silver, sandalwood, precious stones, ivory, apes and peacocks from Ophir, every three years.- Citations :...

itself is thought to have originated from any of these languages:

Hebrew, from אוֹפִיר transliterated to 'Owphiyr, or pronounced as ō·fēr, a Hebrew personal name
Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

, from όφις transliterated to 'Ofis, which means snake, possibly in reference to a local taboo warning against walking into or setting up camps in certain protected areas as it it said to be guarded by an army of snakes and creeping vines that move
Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

, from auferre, which means 'to be snatched away', probably related to the taboo as well.

Legend of Gunung Ledang

There is a popular Malaysian folklore which told of a princess with magical powers who resided on the mountain. She was wooed to be the wife of the then Sultan of Malacca

Malacca

, Sultan Mahmud Shah. However, she set seven impossible conditions for him as a means to reject his proposal.

The conditions were:

A bridge of gold for her to walk to Malacca from the mountain,
A bridge of silver for her to return from Malacca to the mountain,
Seven large clay jars of virgin's tears,
Seven large clay jars of betel nut juice,
Seven trays filled with hearts of fleas,
Seven trays filled with hearts of mosquitoes, and
A bowl of the blood of the Sultan's young son.

Some versions of the legend say that the Sultan

Sultan

Sultan is a title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", and "dictatorship", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who...

was not able to fulfill any of these requests, while others say that he was able to fulfill the first six requests (thus causing the ruin of the Malacca Sultanate

Malacca Sultanate

Established by the Malay ruler Parameswara, the Sultanate of Malacca was first a Hindu kingdom in 1402 and later became Muslim following the marriage of the princess of Pasai in 1409. Centered in the modern town of Malacca, the sultanate bordered the Ayutthaya Kingdom of Siam in the north to...

) but could not fulfill the final request which would have required him to kill his son.

Yet another version says that the Sultan approached his sons sleeping body and as he drew close with a dagger in hand the image of the Princess appeared before the Sultan and said to him that she could not possibly marry a man willing to wound his own son before vanishing, never to be seen again.

The point of the story is that the Sultan was either too proud or too blind to realise that the conditions were the Puteri's way of turning his proposal down.

Folklore has it that the gold and silver supposedly found on the mountain are attributed to; and a testament to this story. Hang Tuah and his companions were also learning their silat martial arts here on the top of this very mountain with a silat guru, Adiputera.

Origins of its name

Legend of Gunung Ledang

See also