Ms Sirintra’s life story is one of humble origins. She loved having fun with her friends, had dreams of romance, and relished in the beauty of her adolescent years. She was unashamedly normal.
Whenever Ms Sirintra laughed, she would attract attention as her shrill voice burst out from behind her glossy lips. Her thick eyebrows would tilt slightly, her tanned body shaking violently with joy.
“I can’t help it,” she always said when her friend commented about her unique laugh.
But despite her ordinary upbringing in Kamala, Ms Sirintra was no ordinary girl – at least according to Malaysia’s Kedah Historical Society.
About a decade ago they identified her as a seventh-generation descendant of the ‘white-blooded lady’, Mahsuri – a princess at the centre of a tragic legend from the Malaysian island of Langkawi during the 18th century.
Mahsuri, a woman of Thai origin, was accused of having an affair with a young man while her husband, the Prince of Langkawi, was away fighting a war.
The wife of the village chief was apparently jealous of Mahsuri’s beauty, and so spread rumours of her adultery which eventually prompted villagers to openly accuse her of the crime, which was punishable by death.
Before she was executed, Mahsuri told villagers her blood would turn white if she was innocent.
She was then stabbed in the throat, and legend has it white blood spilled from her wound. With her last breath, she cursed Langkawi to endure seven generations of misfortune.
In the decades that followed, Langkawi suffered from repeated crop failure and several invasions from the Siamese, encouraging locals to believe in the curse.
Closer to the present day, and with the seventh generation coming to pass, it was decided to locate Mahsuri’s descendent. With her family known to have moved to Phuket, Ms Sirintra was eventually tracked down and identified as that seventh descendent.
She received a warm welcome from Langkawi residents – who have recently experienced an upturn in fortunes as tourism brought new found wealth – and was offered a place there as the descendant of the Langkawi princess. However, she declined, choosing instead to continue living on Phuket.
Her life seems to have gone somewhat in reverse, from a life of reality in her early days to one of fantasy and mythology in her adolescence and early adulthood.
Now 26, she is married and has resumed her normal life. Needless to say she will always carry an air of intrigue and mystery that has been carried through the generations before her.