wasabiroots
1. Langkawi Island, Malaysia
Langkawi is one of those islands that you’d want to visit for a vacation. Though, before Langkawi prospered as a tourism hot spot, there was a curse that was put on it and the story goes like this:
In the late 18th century a woman by the name of Mahsuri lived in Langkawi. She was the daughter of a couple that came from Phuket, Thailand in search of a better life. She was the most beautiful in Langkawi that its a given men wanted her for themselves and one man managed to marry him. He was a warrior called Wan Darus who was the brother of the village chief.
One day, Wan Derus as a warrior was stationed to fight in a war with the attacking Siamese leaving his beautiful wife at home. While her husband was away, she befriended a bard called Deraman. He was there for quite a long time that people started gossiping. The gossip and rumours got very out of hand that people openly accused her of adultery. So severe that the towns people wanted her dead even after her plee of being innocent.
The chief and his wife who was apparently the source of the rumour issued her condemnation. As she died, she managed to curse the whole island saying that the island will see no peace nor prosperity for the next seven generations. Why seven generations? Maybe its her kindness while still wanting revenge.
Anyways, since then, starvation was a problem as crops just seem to not grow and attacks from the sea kept coming. But the curse seems to have been lifted in 1980 when the 7th generation descendant was born because that was when the Malaysian prime minister declared to make the island a tourist spot and it has prospered ever since.