The Legend of Mount Kinabalu

There is more than one theory as to how the mountain received its name and the one presented is a legend that tells that there was once a prince of China who was undertaking a sea voyage when his ship ran into a storm and was wrecked in the South China Sea.  He was cast adrift and rescued by fishermen of a nearby fishing village who took him back to their village.  He had received some severe injuries in his ordeal and as he slowly recovered from his injuries and trauma he became accepted into the village and he met and fell in love with a local girl.

The two married and were very happy for many years.  He lived his life in the same way as his neighbors and they saw him as one of their own.  Even though he had been born a prince of China he felt at home with them and they with him.  However, over the years a deep feeling of longing crept upon the prince.  He began to feel homesick and wanted to see his homeland but most of all wanted to see his parents who were none other than the Emperor and Empress of China.  Therefore after much thought and agonizing he asked the permission of his new family to go and visit his parents.   After promising that he would return to Borneo soon to take his wife and family back to China he was given permission reluctantly by his wife and her family.

The prince returned to China and was given a hero’s welcome by his family and the people.   The Emperor and Empress of China although happy to see their son were not happy that he had married a poor village girl from Borneo and forbade him not to bring his family over from Borneo to China.  They told him they had arranged for him to be married to a princess from a neighboring country to cement an alliance between the two nations.  This meant that the prince had no choice other than respect the wishes of his parents even though it broke his heart, but nevertheless he obeyed

Back  in the village in Borneo his young wife waited at first patiently trusting her husband to return.  As time passed by and he did not come she became more and more anxious and worried.    The family lived some way from the village which was situated on the coast and she could not travel there every day as she would have liked.  Instead she decided that to get a better view of the ships that sailed into the harbor she would climb to the top of a nearby mountain so that she could watch over the sea for the approach of any sailing ship. Every morning at sunrise she would climb to the top and gaze out over the sea seeking her husband’s returning ship.  As The sun went down and night came she would descend the mountain to tend to her children.

The mountain was high and the climb to the top was hard and eventually the continued effort began to tell on her and sap her strength.  One day after a hard climb she fell ill as she stood on the top looking out over the sea hoping to see a ship carrying her husband back from China. Sadly,  as the sunset and the cold night closed in around her she passed away.