Puteri Zaleha Lindungan Bulan
By Alya Binti Mohamad Zamin Nizam
The tragic tragedy of Puteri Zaleha is well-known among the people of Kedah. The princess, a 16th-century daughter of Sultan Sulaiman Shah, was so lovely and pure that the blood she drew was white. Puteri Mariam, her younger sister, was gorgeous but had red blood.
The Prince of Acheh was so enamoured with Puteri Zaleha's unusual beauty that he vowed to attack Kedah unless he could marry her. Puteri Mariam was sent to her place because he didn't know what the princess looked like. However, she was discovered when she injured her hand while cooking betel. The Prince declared war on the state and dispatched his men to rescue the princess.
Sultan Sulaiman concealed Zaleha in an underground bunker so dark and impenetrable that no soldier – not even the moonlight – could discover her. Unfortunately, the princess was never recovered when the Sultan died in the war, and she died of starvation in the pitch black bunker. Because of the gloomy hiding location where she died, she is also known as Puteri Lindungan Bulan (Princess Protected by Moonlight).
