The Japanese Myth of the Giant Snake Bombing in Perak

You may have heard of the "stick snake becoming a dragon" proverb, which was once popular and synonymous with Malay society.

However, we at the orangperak.com editorial team are not here to interpret that proverb, but rather to share an interesting myth or folktale related to giant-sized snakes. We all know that dragons are very popular in Chinese culture, and within the state of Perak itself, there are several myths related to dragons that have been talked about for a long time. Among the well-known myths are the dragons fighting over a mystical stone (geliga) in the Perak River, the dragon meditating under the site of the Teluk Intan Leaning Tower, and many more. There is one interesting myth or folktale we would like to share with you that you may not have heard of. It concerns the time of the Japanese occupation in Perak. It is said that at the time, rumors spread throughout Perak about many giant snakes being killed by the Japanese in a hole using only hand grenades.

During the Japanese occupation, it was said that strange incidents often occurred where people frequently went missing in an area near a Japanese military camp settlement. Consequently, the Japanese military commander ordered his patrol team to scout the area, which was said to be very dense with forest and hills. The Japanese military patrol team went there to scout the area and investigate the conditions where these strange incidents were said to occur. After a week passed, the scouting team did not return to submit a report, and the commander suspected that some misfortune had befallen his men. Immediately, the Japanese military officer sent another team of soldiers, increasing the strength to about 50 troops, to search for those who had not returned. Unfortunately, they also did not return after a week of operations. In that situation, the Japanese military commander became convinced that his theory about the disaster befalling his men was correct. He suspected that his soldiers had been killed or captured by Malay fighters and British troops. Without thinking twice, the Japanese military commander gathered over 300 Japanese soldiers to search for the two missing teams in the forest. They searched by following the tracks that could still be traced by the previous teams. After a day of walking through the dense jungle, they all felt they were in a strange area—a clearing with no grass. It was as clean as if there were a supernatural village (kampung bunian) in the middle of the forest. There were also beautiful trees that looked well-maintained. While scouting the area they had just reached, the Japanese military commander's eyes were drawn to the condition of the trees and the size of a large hole at the foot of the hill. What caught his attention was that the surrounding trees were all bent toward the hole at the foot of the hill. The Japanese military commander assumed that Malay soldiers were hiding in the hole and ordered his soldiers to throw all the hand grenades they had into it. Explosion after explosion occurred, followed by the sound of a large animal's loud snorting. The continuous grenade blasts caused the hillside to collapse, covering the large hole. As soon as the grenade explosions stopped, the Japanese military commander ordered his soldiers to check what was behind the collapsed hill. It was shocking when they found a snake's eye that was very large—as big as a young coconut. Because of this, the Japanese military commander immediately ordered his soldiers to bomb the rubble again from above. This second bombing exposed the body of a giant-sized snake with a circumference as large as a cauldron and a head that had been destroyed by the Japanese hand grenades. There were small plants growing on the body of the giant snake, indicating that it had lived in the hole for so long that plants had grown on its body. After the rubble was cleared, the Japanese soldiers found dozens of rifles belonging to their comrades, who were believed to have been eaten by the giant snake. The large hole was filled in again by bombing the higher hillside, and the debris buried the snake's carcass. The authenticity of this story cannot be proven because it is a folktale told orally by the elders to the orangperak.com editors, and there is no concrete evidence other than oral tradition passed down to this day. It is said that this story of the giant snake took place in the Slim River area, near the dense forest leading towards the Titiwangsa mountain range.