A Legend from Singapore.
Twice-discovered Singapore, the Lion City, came quite close to getting its first lion in the second last year of the 13th Century.
Like so many others who cross the face of the Sea in search of home, Sang Nila Utama, a Prince from the Victorious Buddhist Kingdom of Fortuna in old Sumatra (Sri Vijaya), knew with certainty that he had to pay tribute for the journey to come. When it came time to set off, the Prince was meticulous in checking that he had the right gifts in his gold-leaf banana stem vessel.
Three days into his journey, the Sea came to collect her due. The Prince offered her jewelry and song; silk from the Middle Kingdom; spices from Riau; and the sweetest mangosteens from Kadaram*. But the Sea was thirsty for none of his gifts and grew tempestuous. Reluctantly, the Prince threw his crown into the Sea, hoping that this would pacify her.
"No more of your trinkets," the waves swashed menacingly against the sides of his vessel.
"I have nothing more to give," the Prince cried. But in his heart the Prince finally knew the Sea's desire. The only other thing on board was his Lion — red of body and gold of mane — his companion from childhood.
The Prince and the Lion stood before the bristling sea and refused her. In her anger, the Sea threw at them a swarm of swordfish. But the Prince was deft and clever, and he pulled the banana stems off his vessel to make a wall. He dusted the wall, the Lion and himself with the spices, confusing the swordfish, which pierced and trapped themselves on the wall and were consumed by the Lion.
The Sea was furious. She sent her Sirens to call the Lion to her embrace. But the Prince was quicker. He wrapped the mangosteens in silk and fastened these to the Lion's ears. And as the Sirens sang, the mangosteens gurgled the secrets of fruits, and the silk knots whispered of Great Walls and Forbidden Cities. Unanswered, the Sirens were punished for their failure and turned into stone — and there they stand as the Sisters' Islands.
The Sea then sent a Leviathan Turtle, who ripped apart the Prince's vessel and set upon the Prince. The Lion, with claws the colour of rust and teeth that flashed lightning, jumped into the water and snapped its jaws around the Turtle. Frozen in fear, the Turtle was transformed into an island (Kusu Island), which remains today.
But the Sea had the Lion, and she snatched away its body, giving it only the tail of a fish so that the Lion could never leave her. And that, dear Dylan, was how the Merlion came to be.
The Merlion faithfully accompanied the Prince until he was washed ashore on a long beach (Pasir Panjang), but could go no further. In tribute, the Prince named his new home Singa (Lion) Pura (City). And to this day, the Merlion guards Sang Nila Utama's city, spitting out the Sea.
- - - - - - - - -
* Kadaram is known as the cradle of civilisation in Southeast Asia and is also where your great-great grandparents lived (coming down from Siam). Kadaram was a initially a Hindu colonial outpost that was carved from an earlier Hindu state of Funan (Funan stretched across Cambodia from the South of China down to the neck of the Malayan peninsula). Eventually, Kadaram was absorbed into the Sri Vijayan Buddhist empire (where our Prince above hails from), before being invaded by the Tamil Chola Dynasty — then taken over by Siam — then Malacca — the Portuguese — the British — the Japanese — the Siamese again — then the British, before becoming the present day state of Kedah in Malaysia.
