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Baling is a
major town in the northern state of
Kedah in Malaysia. It is also the name
of a district in which Baling town is situated. It is south of Betong, the
southernmost town in Thailand.
The name Baling can be traced to a series of events detailed in the story
of Raja Bersiong (The Fanged King), a popular legend of Kedah, recorded in
the Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa. Raja Bersiong was a ruthless vampire-like
king with a taste for human blood who preyed on his subjects. His subjects
finally rose against him and burned down the palace. When the fanged king
fled his palace at the Old Kedah capital in Lembah Bujang, he fled to a
place named Merbau and began removing his fangs by twisting them by hand.
As a result of the twisting act, Merbau was renamed as Merbau Pulas where
pulas in Malay means twisting.
After the king had successfully removed both his fangs, he threw them away
to a faraway place. The place where he stood when he threw his fangs is
known as Baling which means throw and the place believed to be the site
where the fangs landed was named Siong, which means fang in Malay, one of
the villages in Baling district.
One of the small towns in Baling is Parit Panjang. Parit Panjang is
situated at the junction of four main roads. The roads are from
Kuala Ketil (i.e. from
Kulim and Sungai Petani), from Batu Lima, (i.e. from
Gurun and Alor
Setar),and from Baling Town via Asam Jawa and from Baling
via Kuala Pegang. Parit Panjang
situated 13 km from Kuala Ketil and 25 km
from Sungai Petani. There are six villages in Parit Panjang. The villages
are Kg Banggol Berangan, Kg Sungai Tembak, Kg Carok Bakap, Kg Bukit Endoi,
Kg Tandop Pisang and Kg Lanai.
In Kampung Pisang, Kupang, there is an Islamic religious school, Sekolah
Menengah Agama Yayasan Khairiah. Yayasan Khairiah is one of the biggest
religious school in Baling. Now it has about 1700 students coming from all
over Malaysia.
Sources:
Wikipedia
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