after all, our country is where the monsoon meets

“Tahan” , if given to English translation means endure, and it was the name of the tallest mountain in peninsular Malaysia, Mount Tahan ( 2187 m a.s.l). A few weeks back, I got a chance to visit the second entrance of the National Park, which is located at the Sungai Relau in Merapoh. As I was fascinated by the beauty of its thick wet forest, it came to my mind who was the first men able to reach the top of the mountain. Yes, up until today, there were millions of men had reach the top of the mountain, and there were thousands of men had reach it for hundreds of times. So, it is not wrong for me to say that, it is very cliché to write about Gunung Tahan since it is already a well known just like what we already know about Everest and Mount Kinabalu. Sadly for me, I still didn’t has the chance to penetrate deep inside this protected area and experience the quest for adventure just like Chris Bonington chose to name his book “Quest for adventure, remarkable feats of exploration and adventure 1950-2000”. Well, I’m not a that kind of man who eager to climb mountain, or an active mountain hiker, I just love being on the top of a mountain, smoking my favorite cigarettes, having a nice cup of hot cold coffee and experiencing the very best part of nature from the very high view. It is like giving you a complete satisfaction after long hours of walking, after your feet trying to tell your mind to stop walking, after your body lost some of its ability but you keep telling yourself to continue trekking, continue to give yourself some face because if everybody can do it, you can do it too. It is a bit of ego that makes you to continue trekking and reach to the summit.

Back to Tahan story, back to hundreds years ago, back to where superstitious is in every part of our ancestor’s custom, Mount Tahan was known for a sacred place, a forbidden place as it was believed to be occupied by mystical being. Almost the same story of Mount Kinabalu, Mount Tahan’s peak was believed to be controlled by cannibal apes the size of rhinoceros (Robinson, 1908). This giant apes was said to be the guide of the two wells that contained magic stone known as mother vein of all the gold and silver in the country ( ibu emas and perak), where anyone that owned these stone are able to change everything into gold and silver ( Robinson, 1908). Another version of story about Mount Tahan was, old community also believed that the area on the Tahan peak was a home for gigantic creature such as mosquitoes as big as fowls, gigantic serpents and a home for spirits. Until today, there is no evident that being documented proving our local community had conquering Tahan peak. However, it was said that Sultan of Pahang had sent an expedition to search for the peak of Mount Tahan on purpose to find treasures such gold to help develop state of Pahang after facing a civil war that lasted for 6 years yet the attempt was fail due to monsoon season.

Since the white Men who practically owned this country, they had came with the proposal to turn Tahan peak into a hill station since many of existing hill stations in the country was no longer can give enough space to cater many of them. The main idea of the hill station was actually to fulfill the increasing demand among the European, who wanted to create a home country environment like England (Aiken, 1987). In 1891, as recorded and considered as the first attempt to climb Mount Tahan was from H.N Ridley and W.Davidson. However, this very first attempt failed to reach the summit due to unfavorable weather and the war happened in the state of Pahang. In 1893, H.M Becher lost his life on the expedition to the mountain. It was said that, while escaping from the Tahan River, he was stubborn and stoop up while steering his boat even though pleaded by the Malays to sit and allow them to handle the rapid. He fell in the river when his boat capsized and his body was never found. After 1899 by W.W.Skeat and 1901 by John Waterstrad of both expedition was failed but somehow both of them manage to penetrate deep inside the forest and went farther than the lowlands, it was in 1905 when Herbert C.Robinson, Che Nik, Mu’min, Mat Aris and Bulang who was succeed to the summit of Mount Tahan at 10.15 a.m on July 16, 1905 nearly two months after leaving Kuala Tahan (Robinson 1908; Scrivenor 1912). It takes years to look for the summit of Tahan, and it had claimed some men along the way and after more than hundred years, this mountain still there laying tall full of ego of its beauty waiting for us to come visit and to claim the status of the true man of Malaya. It is indeed a beauty that you can resist and apart of the old superstitious belief, Tahan stand still “endure”.

*Monsoon maybe the obstacle to face, and monsoon too had become the reason of many failed expedition to reach the summit but, after all, our country is where the monsoon meet. Let it rain, just let it be that way.