05 September 2007

Singapore Short Stories - Origin of Merlion

The Merlion, a creature with the head of a lion and body of a fish, was designed as a symbol to represent Singapore for the Singapore Tourism Board in 1964 (so that we can tok the chai tou of tourists and sell Merlion souvenirs) . The Merlion was chosen because it relates to the ancient founding of Singapore by Sang Nila Utama (who thought he saw a lion when he first arrived, thus name this place Singapura) and Singapore's ancient name Temasek (sea port).
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According to The Kin Jioa Leaf, Merlions actually do exist. However, they are not born from nature but out of the mischief of the Monkeys...


Several years passed after Sang Nila Utama named this place Singapura, the Monkeys start to become restless. Apparently, they heard something about a great Monkey King somewhere up north is creating havoc in heaven and so thought that they are the greatest primates in this world. Jealous that we the Orang Utans have a sacred text, they created their own text called The Coconut Husk and claimed that our version of Singapore naming was false. (see previous story). A great war broke out and obviously the monkeys lost...what do they know anyway beside monkeying around Twisted Evil

Sidetrack a little. We recorded this great war into the Kin Jio Leaf and sometime during the 1960s, that particular leaflet came off and was lost...the previous Khirsah never maintain properly Evil or Very Mad A couple of years later, a french by the name of Pierre Boulle published a book called Planet of the Apes...wonder where he got the ideas Rolling Eyes

Anyway, where was I Rolling Eyes Oh, ya, the great war and monkeys lost...They retreated far north in search of their Monkey King for assistance only to realise that the King was imprisoned under the Wu Zhi San (Mt 5 Fingers). Shocked Our spy reported that they kena scolding somemore "!@#$, can't you see lim peh kena lock and I'll have to be here for another 500 years and wait for someone call Tang San Zhang to free me! Scram!"

So the monkeys LL. However, one wise one thought that since they got nothing to do now, why not go Africa and bring one lion here secretly so that they can prove lions do exist in SE Asia. I dunno how they arrived in Africa but when they do, the lion bo hiew them "Wa lau! I heard the Khirsah there very fierce one leh ! Razz ".

The monkeys LL...again... but then hor, the wise one spoke again. "Lion dun go, we create one ourselves...look, I've been doing some experiments and something call DNA...clone...need to get his juice...long walk so cross with fish...can swim..."

Eh...dun ask me how they got the lion's juice...I dun know and I really dun wan to know any monkey business.

Apparently, they managed to cross breed lions with fishes and sailed back to Singapore to suan us...but then hor, you know la, lion cannot tahan the sea, even if it's a merlion, so the moment they reach shore, all start to vomit from seasickness Twisted Evil The monkeys, seeing that their newfound allies couldn't help them, fled into the jungles again, leaving the merlions to die on the beach (fish can't go on land mah). The silly humans got all excited over the merlions and tried to save them but alas, only one survived (the one that's related to Rochor Mermaid...but that's another story).

Many years later, even the last one went e-lang so the villagers made a Merlion statue near the shore where they first saw them for remembrance sake. Crying or Very sad

We of course didn't bother the merlions bcos we know they are the innocent ones Crying or Very sad and life went on...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sack the previous khirsah who didn't maintain your sacred text properly!

Ape said...

No no no...we don't sack Khirsah's...everyone is very responsible. Normally, the Khirsah is replaced after one dies or mentally unsound to carry on. Then we'll vote for the next.

little gecko said...

Ooo, even khirsahs got tribal councils ah? kekekeke....

Lion 'juice'.... Can just imagine how a lion try to make out wid a fish.... da fish is bound to explode :o kekekeke ;p

Ape said...

Hi Gecko! Long time no see!

About the lion juice...like I said, I dun know and dun wanna know :p