THE TALE OF TUK KUNDO

Photo: https://pixabay.com/en/man-fishermen-nature-village-aisa-489744/

There’s an old tomb at the foot of Mount Tajam and it is about 300 meters from Parit Gunong village. It’s the tomb of Saint Tuk Kundo who was one of the disciples of Syekh Said Husein Abdullah (the preacher who introduced Islamic religion on Belitung Island).

When Tuk Kundo arrived in that village, the villagers there were still animists. They hunted deer, boars, birds and monkeys for a living. Tuk Kundo began to give sermons to people for Islamic religion. He proved to be the best Moslem preacher who had successfully done his duties.

Tuk Kundo lived in Mak Gadog’s hut, a widow who had a grown up daughter. One day, a marriage proposal reached their address and was gladly accepted by Mak Gadog. She prepared everything for her daughter’s marriage that would be celebrated after the harvest at the end of the year.

Mak Gadog had plenty of rice, and what she should provide were the vegetables and meat for the guests. She asked Tuk Kundo to accompany her to catch fish with tekalak (a kind of bamboo fish trap). This fish trap looked like a trumpet. It had a fat middle part and a tiny hole at its end. When fish swam in from the front door and trapped inside the middle part, they couldn’t escape as the back was too tight.

Unfortunately, they didn’t net any within a few days. When evening came, they always found the fish trap was empty.

One evening, Tuk Kundo went to the river himself. He thought that the fish in the trap had probably been stolen. He hid in the bushes and kept an eye on his fish trap. He waited for a whole night and finally he saw a man walk to the fish trap steadily before dawn.

There was something gleamed gold in the grasp of the shadowy hand. Tuk Kundo then hid himself behind a big tree which was in a close distance from the bamboo fish trap. He took a serious notice of that guy.

He saw that it was an old man in white holding a golden stick. After he was sure of what he had seen, he attacked the old man because he thought it should be him that stole Mak Gadog’s fish.

The old man wasn’t an ordinary person and he fought very well. However, he was beaten by Tuk Kundo. The old man begged for pardon and promised to give what Tuk Kundo wanted.

Tuk Kundo said he wished to have a magical mouth, so he could punish the people who committed crimes and disobeyed God. After hearing that, the old man opened Tuk Kundo’s mouth and spat as many as five times in it. The old man disappeared soon afterwards.

After the sun rose, Tuk Kundo discovered his fish trap was plenty of fish. On the way back home, he opened his magical mouth and said: “Hi, birds! Please fly here!” All the birds that perched on the trees flew towards him and stood on his shoulders, he was very frightened and was hard to shoo them away.

While he was going home and when he saw monkeys on the trees, he said a few words to order them to go. All the monkeys climbed down and ran away soon after he had finished saying his spell.

When he reached home, he handed all the fish to Mak Gadog. He didn’t tell her what had happened to him. Actually, he felt that he owed Mak Gadog a lot as she had allowed him to live in her hut. He did all for the best to persuade her to be a Moslem and finally he succeeded.

He never urged people to believe what he preached, but he persuaded them through a friendly personal approach. That was why he was well known and became very successful.

He was considered the great Muslim leader and spent his old age to preach at Air Batu Buding Mosque. It was the place where the Muslims wanted to ask for help.

After he died, he was buried at the foot of Mount Tajam near Parit Gunong Village. It’s nothing out of the ordinary, but the caretaker said it’s the sacred tomb which guards and guides all the people in the Village. Therefore, they may not err and know what is right and what is evil.

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