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A WRITER TRACES HER ROOTS TO LEGENDARY MEGAT TERAWIS
LARA Croft. And suddenly an arresting visual of the insanely gorgeous Angelina Jolie in that skintight dark ensemble as the titular character of the Tomb franchise floats deliciously into my vision. “Hahaha... well, maybe not quite!” the sound of bemused chuckling slices into my reverie and the image of the sexy tomb raider dissipates as swiftly as it had appeared.
Seated before me, the corners of her kindly eyes creasing in amusement, is another type of “raider”, one who had been scouring the length and breadth of the country and yonder not for treasures that glitter but better — knowledge. Eyes dancing under her glasses, Putri Zanina Megat Zainuddin, former editor of NST’s
Travel Times, exclaims delightedly: “Oh, you noticed that part in the book?”
The part Putri is referring to can be found in her latest book, Megat Terawis: Journey
To Our Roots, which chronicles her quest to discover her ancestral roots.
Beaming, she shares: “Lara Croft looks for artefacts right? And in a way I felt just like her, especially when we were in Bukit Tinggi and Pagar Ruyung ... discovering the tombs of the Raja Raja Alam, all by chance. Of course we didn’t discover any prized treasures or anything but the knowledge we gained was simply priceless.”
The award-winning writer is the 13th-generation descendant from Perak’s Megat Terawis bloodline. Driven by a deep need to discover where she came from and her family background, this youthful mother-of-four embarked on a journey which took her to Pagar Ruyung in Sumatera and the seat of Minangkabau rule, to trace the footsteps of the legendary Megat Terawis and his early descendants in Perak.
For 230 years, penned Putri, from the establishment of the Per a kS ult an ate in 1528, the Megats were the Sultan’s Bendaharas or royal custodians, kingmakers and trusted generals. From the book, which combines a travelogue, historical accounts, genealogies of the Megat family, and a smattering of folk tales and legends, we learn of the significant impact of the powerful Bendahara Megats on Perak’s history and also on the Malay Nusantara of old.
WHO AM I?
“Why do we have this urge to find our ancestral roots, this need to discover something that has long been gone? . For many of us, we trace our roots mainly to satisfy our curiosity. We are doing this for us, for our own preservation, so that we may understand the why and what of who weare.”
And so the quandary is posed in the opening preface of Putri’s labour of love.
“Before I embarked on this book journey, I hadn’t really known much about my family’s story, “begins Putri, recalling the early days. “My father told my siblings and I that we were descendants of Megat Terawis, a historical figure in Perak and that he was a warrior. That was it.”
She was still too young to appreciate the significance of what her late father was trying to tell her, recalls Putri. At the time, ancestor stories and history never captured her interest and “...eventually he stopped telling the stories,” she confides.
As the years passed, the question of ‘who’ she really was began to nag. Brows furrowing, Putri says: “I am a Putri. Why am I a Putri? When I asked my parents, especially my mother, she’d say, ok, you’re a Megat but the Megat married a commoner and so the daughters are Putri, while the son is known as Tun. Because my father was a Megat and my mother was a so-called commoner, the son became ‘Tun’, and daughter, ‘Putri’. I have to carry this title for life. Why? And so the desire to know who I am grew stronger.”
She adds: “I was also curious about why I tend to behave in certain ways. For example, it’s not easy for people to get close to me. Sometimes I envy people who can just instantly click with those whom they have just met and become familiar with each other. I’ve never been able to. I wondered why I always tended to put some distance between myself and the next person. Could it be because of my bloodline?”
The trigger which led to the eventual quest was a chance discovery of a lone grave. “It was a November evening in 2000. Dusk was descending. My husband and I went on a lazy drive near Kampung Gajah and we stumbled