Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Mahsuri’s curse—globalisation and tourist development in Pulau Langkawi

  • Published:
GeoJournal Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The legend of Mahsuri abounds in Malaysian school textbooks. Mahsuri was a beautiful and very charming village maiden who lived in Pulau Langkawi and was wrongfully put to death in 1819 or the year 1235 hijrab. Accused of adultery by a jealous member of the royal house, Mahsuri, who was married to the Chief Minister, was sentenced to death together with her alleged lover, a trader from a place which is now part of Thailand in Phuket. Killed with her own family’s keris (a traditional Malay sword), Mahsuri put a curse on Pulau Langkawi for seven generations. She swore before her death that there would be no peace or prosperity on the island for the duration of these seven generations. Mahsuri’s family moved to another village in what was then the territory of Thailand and finally settled in Phuket, illustrating the cultural and trading links that have existed in this northern part of Malaysia between the southern parts of Thailand and the states of Perlis and Kedah. Mahsuri’s family and she appear to have not been allowed to rest in peace since her premature death. Her tomb, which was enshrined by the villagers, has been relocated several times and the exact location of its whereabouts may not be known. The tombstone itself is now housed in a museum that has been constructed near to the site where the tomb is believed to be. A huge tourist complex called Kota Mahsuri is being developed around the site of Mahsuri’s tomb. Pulau Langkawi may be the island paradise lost. Perhaps Mahsuri’s curse lingers, no matter that seven generations have passed and with them the industries that integration with the global economy has seen developed, declined and disappeared. Then again, perhaps this is indeed the curse—the quest for prosperity in a globalizing world and its relentless exploitation of the heritage in strategic parts of Malaysia—both natural and cultural—for the gains of a few and questionable benefits to the rest.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Appadurai, A. (1990). Disjuncture and difference in the global cultural economy. Public Culture, 2, 2, Spring.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Autés, M. (1997). Public action, local democracy and the challenge of economic globalization. In F. Moulaert & A. J. Scott (Eds.), Cities, enterprises and society on the eve of the 21st century (pp. 229–243). London: Pinter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baudrillard, J. (1983). Simulations. New York: Semiotext(e).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauman, Z. (1996). Intimations of postmodernity. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyer, M. C. (1992). Cities for sale: Merchandising history at south street Seaport. In M. Sorkin (Ed.), Variations on a theme park: The new American city and the end of public space. New York: Hill and Wang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bunnell, T. (2003). Malaysia’s high-tech cities and the construction of intelligent citizenship. In R. B. H. Goh & B. S. A. Yeoh (Eds.), Theorizing the southeast Asian city as text (pp. 109–133). Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crook, S., Pakulski, J., Waters, M. (1992). Postmodernisation: Changes in advanced society. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Government of Malaysia (1991). The Second Outline Perspective Plan 1991–2000. Kuala Lumpur: National Printing Department.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greider, W. (1997). One world ready or not. New York: Simon and Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haralambos, M., Holborn, M. (2004). Sociology—Themes and perspectives. London: Collins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, D. (1990). The condition of postmodernity—An inquiry into the origins of cultural change. London: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, D. (2000). Time-space compression and the rise of modernism as a cultural force. In F. J. Lechner & J. Boli (Eds.), The globalization reader (pp. 134–140). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ho, K. C. (1999). Telecommunications and the competition for hub functions: Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney Compared. Paper presented at cities in the global information society: an international perspective, Newcastle upon Tyne, 22–24 November.

  • Hubbard, P., & Hal, T. (1998). The entrepreneurial city and the new urban politics. In T. Hall & P. Hubbard (Eds.), The entrepreneurial city—Geographies of politics, regime and representation. Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley and Sons Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gruffudd, P. (1994). Back to the land: Historiography, Rurality and the nation in interwar Wales. Transactions, Institute of British Geographers, 19, 61–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Iyer, P. (2000). Bali: On Prospero’s Isle/The Philippines: Born in the USA. In F. J. Lechner, & J. Boli (Eds.), The globalization reader (pp. 111–117). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

  • Johnson, N. (1995). Cast in stone: Monuments, Geography and Nationalism. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 31, 51–65.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Langkawi Development Authority.

  • Langkawi District Council, (1990), Langkawi Structure Plan 1985–2005. Langkawi District Council and Department of Town and Country Panning, Malaysia.

  • Lee, B. T. (1996). Emerging urban trends and the globalizing economy in Malaysia. In F. C. Lo & Y. M. Yeung (Eds.), Emerging world cities in Pacific Asia. Tokyo: United Nations University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malaysian Tourism Promotion Board, (1995), Annual Tourism Statistical Report 1995, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

  • Malaysian Tourism Promotion Board, (1998), Malaysian Tourism, July–August. .

  • Marcuse, P., van Kempen, R. (Eds.). (2000). Globalizing cities: A new spatial order? Malden, Mass: Blackwell.

  • Mathieson, A., Wall, G. (1982), Tourism: Economic, physical and social impacts. London: Longman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ohmae, K. (1995). The end of the nation-state: The rise of regional economies. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olds, K. (1995). Globalisation and the production of new urban spaces: Pacific Rim megaprojects in the late 20th century. Environment and Planning A, 27, 1713–1743.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ooi, G. L. (2004). Future of space—Planning, space and the city. Singapore: Eastern Universities Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peck, J., Tickell, A. (1994). Jungle law breaks out: Neoliberalism and global-local disorder. Area, 25, 317–326.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ritzer, G. (1996). The McDonaldization of Society. London: Pine Forge Press.

  • Shamsul, B., Teh, T. S. (2000), Island golf course development in Malaysia: An environmental appraisal. In T. S. Teh (Ed.), Islands of Malaysia—Issues and challenges (pp. 213–234). Kuala Lumpur: IRPA R & D Project, University of Malaya.

  • Tan, P. K. (1992). Tourism in Penang: Its impacts and implications. In P. K. Voon & T. S. Bahrin (Eds.), The view from within—Geographical essays on Malaysia and southeast Asia, Kuala Lumpur (pp. 263–278). Malaysia: The Malayan Journal of Tropical Geography.

  • Taylor, P. J. (1999). Places, spaces and Macy’s: space-place tensions in the political geography of modernities. Progress in Human Geography, 3(1), 7–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Teh T. S. (Eds.). (2000). Islands of Malaysia—Issues and challenges. Kuala Lumpur: IRPA R & D Project, University of Malaya.

  • Teh, T. S., Ong, A., (2000). An analysis of construction setback lines of beach resorts: With special reference to Langkawi Island. In T. S. Teh (Ed.), Islands of Malaysia—Issues and challenges (pp. 273–295). Kuala Lumpur: IRPA R & D Project, University of Malaya.

  • Teh, T. S., Bahrin T. S., Ooi, C. H. (2000). Future of Pulau Layang-Layang: Man-made paradise or ecological disaster?. In T. S. Teh (Ed.), Islands of Malaysia —Issues and challenges (pp. 185–202). Kuala Lumpur: IRPA R & D Project, University of Malaya.

    Google Scholar 

  • Teo, P., Yeoh, B. S. A., Ooi, G. L., Lai, K. (2004). Changing landscapes of Singapore. Singapore: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Voon, P. K. (2000). Tourism and the environment: The case of Tioman Island, Malaysia. In T. S. Teh (Ed.), Islands of Malaysia—Issues and challenges (pp. 151–170). Kuala Lumpur: IRPA R & D Project, University of Malaya.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zukin, S. (1995). The cultures of cities. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zukin, S. (1996). Space and symbols. in an age of decline. In A. King (Ed.), Representing the city: Ethnicity, culture and capital in the 21st-century metropolis (pp. 43–59). Basingstoke: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgement

The author thanks Assistant Professor Chang Chew Hung for his help with the maps featured in this article.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    Ooi Giok Ling

Authors
  1. Ooi Giok Ling
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ooi Giok Ling.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ling, O.G. Mahsuri’s curse—globalisation and tourist development in Pulau Langkawi. GeoJournal 66, 199–209 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-006-9025-0

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-006-9025-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation