Tok Janggut (Pahlawan Kelantan) : Memiliki Ilmu Kebal

Pada hari ini, pengkaji cuba menjelajah ke negeri Cik Siti Wan Kembang iaitu Negeri Kelantan Darul Naim. Tok Janggut atau nama sebenarnya Haji Mat Hassan Bin Panglima Munas merupakan seorang Pahlawan Melayu yang menentang penjajah pada zaman lampau. Menurut Barbara Watson Andaya dalam karyanya iaitu A History of Malaysia (1982) :

In the past, peasant response to undue exaction or injustice had been flight, but there was no refuge in a peninsula dominated by a single colonial power. It is not surprising, therefore, that oppressed peasants, even lacking the traditional leaderships of a Chief or Anak Raja, occasionally resorted to rebellion. Two of the most well known of these are the Tok Janggut uprising in Kelantan in 1915 and the rebellion in Terengganu in 1928. I both cases the leader could lay claim to spiritual powers, attracting followers who believed in his supernatural abilities and the invulnerability imparted by special objects such as a charmed keris.

Kebangkitan Tok Janggut telah menyebabkan Sultan Kelantan berasa terancam dan menganggap Tok Janggut adalah penderhaka. Ini ditambah lagi dengan peristiwa abang Tok Janggut telah dibunuh oleh 'Budak Raja' oleh Sultan sebelumnya menambah kebimbangan Sultan mengenai kebenaran dakwaan British (Journal of the Malaysian Branch Royal Asiatic and Society, volume 72). Dalam pertempuran di Kampung Pupuh, Tok Janggut berjaya dibunuh oleh British. Mayatnya digantung beberapa hari sebelum dikebumikan di Pasir Pekan.

This photograph labelled MS. IND. OCN. 5.67 in the A.G. Morkill collection at corpse of Tok Janggut after it had been brought to Kota Bharu for public display from Pasir Putih by Indian troops, who had carried it in a bamboo and matted stretcher. This display, made on the Sultan Kelantan's orders is believed to have been done at behest of the British Police Officer G.J. Jackson and was intended to demolish the myth of Tok Janggut's alleged invulnerability. He was believed to have been (kebal) invulnerable (Boon Kheng Cheah, 2006).

Rujukan :

Barbara Watson Andaya and Leonard Andaya (1982). A History of Malaysia. Hongkong: Macmillan Education LTD.

Boon Kheng Cheah (2006). Tok Janggut (Old Long Beard) : Legend, Histories and Perceptions of the 1915. Rebellion in Kelantan. Singapore : Singapore University Press Sdn. Bhd.