Author: Huang Baoxin (---.brunet.bn)
Date: 03-20-02 05:17
There was one Chinese who had made a name in the history of Brunei. He is Ong Sum Ping (Huang Senping X, he is better known by his hokkien-dialect name 'Ong Sum Ping'). This is his story;
According to the legend, Mandarins Ong Sum Ping and Ong Kang were ordered by the Emperor of China to get the precious dragon gem ball from the Dragon of Mount Kinabalu (in present-day Sabah, Malaysia).This story is recorded in the 'Tarsilah Raja-Raja Brunei' (Genealogy of the rulers of Brunei) and also in the 'Tarsilah Raja-Raja Suluk'(Genealogy of the rulers of Sulu).
According to Chinese records ('Nanyang Huaqiao Tongshi' pg 64, Wu Xiang Fei), Ong Sum Ping came to Brunei with his sister in the 8th year of Hongwu in AD 1375. Groeneveldt, W.P. in 'Notes on the Archipelago and Malacca Compiled from Chinese Sources' (1876) pg 102 says that he was from Fujian and came to Brunei with Admiral Zheng He on one of the latter's voyages to the southern seas.
Legend says that Ong Sum Ping succeeded in getting the dragon gem ball but later a quarrel broke out with Ong Kang as to who would present it to the Emperor. In the end Ong Sum Ping yielded and decided to stay behind in Brunei. In Brunei, he married the daughter (Princess Ratna Dewi) of Sultan Muhammad Shah, the first Sultan of Brunei. Ong Sum Ping was later bestowed the Bruneian title of nobility 'Pengiran Maharaja Lela' .
There are two versions of the story. One narrates that Ong Sum Ping was elected Chief of Kinabatangan (in present-day Sabah, Malaysia). This is recorded in the 325th Scroll of 'Ming Shi' (History of Ming dynasty) in Chapter 325:213. His sister married Sultan Ahmad (Pateh Berbai), the second Sultan of Brunei, the brother and sucessor of Sultan Muhammad Shah.
Another story relates that when Sultan Muhammad Shah died, Ong Sum Ping succeded him as the next ruler by the name of Sultan Ahmad. His daughter with Princess Ratna Dewi, Princess Ratna Kesuma, married Sultan Sharif Ali, a descendant of Prophet Muhammad, who later became the third Sultan of Brunei from whom the royal family of Brunei is descended.
|
|
The Asiawind forums are provided to you by
InTechTra Inc.
