Baling [beyl]

Baling

[beyl]

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 an hour's drive away from Betong, the southernmost town in Thailand.

Baling is well known for its beautiful waterfalls including Lata Bayu, Lata Celak and Bukit Hijau. It is also known for its local fruits, especially the durian, dokong and langsat.

Origin of Name

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 Kerbau and began removing his fangs by twisting them by hand. As a result of the twisting act, Kerbau was renamed as Kerbau Pulas where pulas in Malay means twisting.

After the king had successfully removed both his fangs, he threw them away to a faraway place, and the place believed to be the site where the fangs landed was named as Baling, which means throw away in Malay.

History

Baling was also the site where the leaders of the Malay Races Liberation Army, the newly formed Malayan Government, and the British met to try to end the Malayan Emergency. Tunku Abdul Rahman, a leader of the Malayan government, implored the Communists to give up their arms peacefully by promising that no retaliatory action would be taken against them. However, the MRLA leader Chin Peng insisted that the government and the British endorse the MRLA as a legal Communist Party so that it could run in the forthcoming elections. This was denied, however, and thus no agreement was reached.

The towns that Baling has are Kuala Ketil,Parit Panjang,Tawar, Kuala Pegang,Kupang,Baling, Kg Lalang,and Kota Baling Jaya Batu 42.

One of the small town in Baling is Parit Panjang.Parit Panjang is situated at the junction of four main road.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 13km from Kuala Ketil and 25km 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 a religious Islamic school, Sekolah Menengah Agama Yayasan Khairiah.Yayasan Khairiah is one of the biggest religious school in Baling.Now its has about 1 700 students coming from all over Malaysia.