"Malin Kundang", also called "Si Tanggang" in Malaysia and "Nakhoda Manis" in Brunei, is the main character of an Indonesian/Malaysian classic folk tale which serves as a warning story to always care and love your parents.
Malin Kundang is a boy who lived in poverty with his father being a sailor, and his mother selling fishes and vegetables. One day, his father vanishes so his family further sinks to poverty. Unable to withstand this further, Malin decides to travel the world and seek his fortune in hopes to eventually improve his family's standing. After receiving his mother's blessings, Malin sneaks into a rich merchant's ship and ended up being adopted by the rich merchant after noticing Malin's own hard work ethics. Malin then proceeds to earn his peers, eventually succeeding the merchant and even marrying a beautiful wife, a classic tale of Rags to Riches...
Until one day, he comes back to his home due to trade business. His mother comes to visit him, recognizing him as her son. However, Malin has grown into a different man, no longer the poor boy, but an influential rich man. Out of shame with his rich new family, he denies his mother, stating that he does not know the woman and the claim that he is born from such a poor woman like her is simply outrageous. Heartbroken, the mother steps aside and watches in anguish as Malin's ship sails away. She curses under her breath that if it was her son who just came home, all she's seeing was just a lump of rock.
In the same journey home, suddenly Malin's ship is caught in a massive storm. The ship is utterly wrecked and there are no survivors... except Malin himself. But even that is short-lived as the curse from his mother takes place. Malin Kundang survives the shipwreck long enough to see his own body turn into stone, without knowing why, or realizing too late that this is his comeuppance for being such an ungrateful son.
Depending on where the story is told, this story became the origin story of the existence of several locations: In Indonesia, there is a rock formation called 'Bukit Sampuraga', believed to be the remains of Malin Kundang ship, and in Air Manis beach, there is another lump of rock, which looks like a man in supplication pose, thus it was believed that it's the petrified Malin Kundang that lasted until today. In Malaysia, the stone hill known as Batu Caves is believed to be the remnants of his ship.
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Tropes associated with this fairy tale:
- Adaptational Badass: In some retelling, Malin Kundang is sometimes turned into a bonafide pirate-fighting badass. He's a sailor and has to protect his goods from pirates roaming in the seas after all. The original story makes no mention of pirates or at least just says that the pirates slaughter the crews of the ship he snuck in, with Malin Kundang surviving because he's hiding in a chest.
- Adaptation Name Change: In Indonesia, he's known as Malin Kundang. In Malaysia, he's known as 'Si Tenggang/Tanggang'. In Brunei, he's known by just his title 'Nakhoda Manis'. In several parts of Indonesia, sometimes Malin Kundang's story stays the same, but he's called 'Si Lancang' instead (Lancang means 'ungrateful', by the way.)
- Ambition Is Evil: Malin Kundang has big dreams—nay, ambition, to become rich. At first, with his mother nearby, he can temper it. Once he's without his mother, when he achieves his ambition, cue The Dark Side Will Make You Forget and Malin's Pride goes out of control, leading to his downfall.
- Curse: A rather severe one because it comes from a heartbroken mother to her ungrateful son.
- Depending on the Writer: As a folklore that carries a lot of retelling and the fact that it is ambiguous on how Malin turned out to be the Ungrateful Bastard, the reason why Malin ends up rejecting his mother will depend on who tells the story. Some say that Malin is intoxicated with his newfound wealth and fame on his own that he just naturally forgets his mother. Some say that his new family (including his wife) is given Adaptational Villainy and becomes a bad influence on Malin, slowly eroding his own love for his mother and he ends up giving in to peer pressure to reject his mother for his new family (and riches) (in the original story, his new family are pretty much Flat Character and don't do anything to him except to accept him and getting impressed for his hard work ethics). Both theories can be combined too.
- Downer Ending: Malin Kundang turns into stone, rendering all his hard work and riches for nothing, while his mother still remains in poverty, and now heartbroken that she's all alone, and that's if she lives. Otherwise, she suffers a Death by Despair once she delivered the curse. Malin's new family, who, for the most part, has nothing to do with Malin's ungrateful attitude, also dies as a collateral damage of Malin's sin. No one survives well enough from the tale.
- Fatal Flaw: Pride. If Malin Kundang isn't all that ashamed with his mother because of his new status, he could have avoided his fate.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: In most interpretations, the nasty storm that shipwrecks him is supposedly the wake-up call for Malin Kundang to realize that he has been an ass to his mother. But before he can try to make amends, not only he no longer have any means of transportation, the curse starts to take effect and he's turned to stone.
- I Have No Son!: The mother's curse revolve on this: if Malin Kundang, her own son, rejects her, then she truly has no son, what she was seeing was just a lump of rock. And then it happens, but she's too much in despair to care.
- Lighter and Softer: There are some re-imagining of Malin Kundang with different names, but the initial premise is the same: the Rags to Riches boy who forgot his mother, rejects her and leaves her heartbroken. However, when karma catches up to the boy, it isn't as deadly as shipwrecking and he has enough time to have a Heel Realization and returns to his mother, even for a short moment, to apologize, and his mother never curses him.
- Pose of Supplication: Many also believes that Malin Kundang is petrified in this pose. It's most likely that during the slow process of petrification, his body feels so stiff and heavy that he falls on his all fours. Other interpretation is that he finally realizes the errors of his way, but he is too late to redeem himself.
- Rags to Riches: Malin Kundang goes from a poor, no-name boy into a very influential merchant with nothing but hard work ethics.
- Taken for Granite: Malin Kundang ends up being too stoned to realize he has been such an ass to his mother.
- Tragic Hero: His issues with his mom aside, Malin Kundang was a shining example of what men could achieve with good ethics, especially hard working diligence. He attained all his riches fair and square and in the beginning, he worked hard with hopes to improve his family, including his mother's, welfare. It's only with the Pride that came with it that he's brought down.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Malin Kundang rejects the mother who raised him the best she could despite her extreme poverty and the absence of the parental figure. Karma is not amused. Due to this, as far as Indonesia/Malaysia go, 'Malin Kundang' has become synonymous to 'ungrateful children', similar with how Judas Iscariot was associated with 'traitor'.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: When he was a kid, Malin Kundang was generally a nice boy and loved his mother. Before his departure, he promised that he would share his riches with his mother to improve her life too. When he actually returns, though, he's a much more stone-hearted asshole who rejects his mother.
- You're Not My Father: Mother, in this case. This is what dooms Malin Kundang, rejecting his own mother that gave birth and cared for him before he could make his dreams come true.
- Villain Protagonist: Malin Kundang is the focus character here, but he's the villain of the story, being the ungrateful son (although he didn't start out that way).