(The place known as...) Makam Chondong

Assalamualaikum semua. Di Pekan, Pahang terdapat sebuah kawasan pemakaman lama yang dikenali sebagai Makam Chondong...

Peace be upon you all. In Pekan, Pahang there exist an old cemetery area known as Makam Chondong...

Ia terletak di hadapan sebuah surau tinggal di sebuah kawasan berhampiran kawasan Istana Sultan Pahang sekarang...

It is situated in front of an abandoned surau (small praying hall) near the area of the palace of the current Sultan of Pahang...

Terdapat batu ini yang tertera sedikit maklumat tentangnya tetapi kurang terang...

There exist this stone tablet with some information on it but it is not so clear...

Apapun, dari jauh lagi bangunan yang mengandungi kawasan Makam Chondong ini agak terserlah...

Whatever, even from afar this building containing the area of Makam Chondong somehow stands out...

Nasib baik ada juga informasi di sini...
Thank God there's some information here...

Katanya di sini tertanam jasad almarhum Sultan Abdul Ghafar Muhyiddin Shah (memerintah Pahang 1591-1614), anakandanya Raja Muda Abdullah dan seorang lagi kerabat diraja iaitu Puteri Bongsu Chendera Dewi, ibu kepada Sultan Iskandar Thani yang merajai Aceh pertengahan abad ke 17 Masihi! Kalau tak salah ingatan, Puteri Chendera Dewi ialah sepupu kepada Sultan Abdul Ghafar... Yang pasti, puteri ini adalah cucu kepada Sultan Mansur Shah II, Sultan Pahang ke 8 daripada keturunan Raja-raja Melaka.

It says here lies the bodies of the deceased Sultan Abdul Ghafar Muhyiddin Shah (ruled Pahang 1591-1614), his son and heir to the throne Raja Muda Abdullah and another member of the royalty Puteri Bongsu (youngest princess) Chendera Dewi, mother of Sultan Iskandar Thani who ruled Aceh in the middle of the 17th Century AD! If memory serves me right, Puteri Chendera Dewi is a cousin of Sultan Abdul Ghafar... What is sure the princess is a granchild of Sultan Mansur Shah II, the 9th Sultan of Pahang from the bloodline of the kings of Melaka.

Hmm... Tadi saya sempat membuat satu semakan di Internet. Bapa kepada Sultan Iskandar Thani ialah Sultan Ahmad Shah II, Sultan Pahang ke 11, cucu kepada seorang adik-beradik Sultan Mansur Shah II Pahang pernah diserang oleh Sultan Iskandar Muda yang memerintah Aceh 1607-1636. Lalu Sultan Iskandar Thani yang ketika itu masih kecil dibawa ke Aceh dan dijadikan anak angkat.

Hmm... Just now I had the time to check on the Internet. It shows that the father to Sultan Iskandar Thani was Sultan Ahmad Shah II, the 11th Sultan of Pahang, a grandchild of a brother of Sultan Mansur Shah II Pahang was once attacked by Sultan Iskandar Muda when he ruled Aceh 1607-1636. And so Sultan Iskandar Thani who was still a child was carried of to Aceh and became his adopted son.

Sultan Abdul Ghafar yang dimakamkan di Makam Chondong pula adalah Sultan yang ke 12 serta abang tiri kepada Sultan Ahmad Shah II. Yang menarik perhatian saya, anaknya Raja Abdullah telah berkahwin dengan Puteri Perak, anak kepada seorang Raja Aceh dan cucu kepada Sultan kedua Perak, Sultan Mansur Shah (memerintah 1549-1577). Daripada perkahwinan ini, dapat pula seorang puteri bernama Puteri Fatimah yang berkahwin dengan Sultan Muzaffar Shah II, Sultan ke 10 Perak!

Sultan Abdul Ghafar who was buried at Makam Chondong is the 12th Sultan and the elder step-brother to Sultan Ahmad Shah II. What attracts my attention is his son, Raja Abdullah was married to Puteri Perak, daughter of an Aceh royalty and a grandchild of Perak's second Sultan, Sultan Mansur Shah (ruled 1549-1577). From this marriage they got a princess named Puteri Fatimah who then married Sultan Muzaffar Shah II, the 10th Sultan of Perak!

Sultan Iskandar Thani yang merupakan sepupu kepada Sultan Muzaffar Shah II Perak pula dikahwinkan dengan seorang puteri Sultan Iskandar Muda. Anak Raja Pahang ini menaiki takhta Aceh setelah kemangkatan Sultan Iskandar Muda tahun 1636...

Sultan Iskandar Thani who is a first-cousin of Sultan Muzaffar Shah II of Perak was married to a daughter of Sultan Iskandar Muda. The son of the Pahang ruler ascended the throne of Aceh upon the death of Sultan Iskandar Muda in 1636...

Maka itu disebut dalam kitab Bustanus Salatin karangan Sheikh Nuruddin Ar-Raniri, mufti Aceh semasa zaman Sultan Iskandar Thani... Pada suatu hari sang Sultan telah menitahkan agar dibawa beberapa buah batu nesan Aceh yang sangat cantik binaannya ke Pahang untuk menandakan makam-makam beberapa orang ahli keluarga terdekat baginda di sana.

And so it is said in the old text Bustanus Salatin written by Sheikh Nuruddin Ar-Raniri, the main Islamic head of scholars in Aceh during the time of Sultan Iskandar Thani... One day the King commanded that a few Aceh tombstones of exquisite built were to be ferried to Pahang to mark the tombs of the closest members of his family there.

Menurut ceritanya, batu-batu nesan Aceh itu dibawa penuh istiadat sehingga upacara menegakkan batu-batu itu sendiri memakan masa 40 hari 40 malam! Sekian... :]

According to the stories, the Aceh gravestones were carried with full ceremony and pomp such that erecting the stones itself took 40 days and 40 nights! That's all... :]