Langkawi had long been at the periphery of, but closely associated with, the domain of the
Kedah Sultanate. Legend tells of a great snake
ular besar, the custodian of the Langkawi Islands, to which a new king of Kedah must sacrifice a virgin daughter whenever he ascended the throne, or when war was declared with another state. from
Wubei Zhi, derived from the 15th century navigation maps of
Zheng He, shows Langkawi () next to
Penang Island () The island of Langkawi was recorded in history by various travellers to the region. It was called
Lóngyápútí () in the 14th century by the
Yuan dynasty traveller
Wang Dayuan. When the
Ming dynasty admiral
Zheng He visited the region, the island was marked as ,
Lóngyájiāoyǐ, on his map. In the 15th century, it was known to the
Acehnese as
Pulau Lada ('Pepper Island'). In 1691, the French general
Augustin de Beaulieu recorded going to the island of "Lancahui" (Langkawi) to buy pepper, and de Beaulieu was required to obtain a license from Kedah's heir apparent in
Perlis before the
penghulu or chief of Langkawi would sell pepper to him. Langkawi was historically home to
Austronesian peoples, such as the
Orang Laut, originally from the southern part of the
Malay Peninsula and
Malay people. It had been thought to be cursed for a couple of centuries. According to local legend, in the late 18th century, a woman named
Mahsuri was wrongfully accused of adultery and put to death. Before she died, she placed a curse on the island that would last for seven generations. Not long after Mahsuri's death, in 1821, the Siamese army invaded Kedah and attacked Langkawi. In the first attack, the locals burned down the granary at
Padang Matsirat to starve the Siamese army. The Siamese nevertheless captured the island in May 1822, killed its leaders, and took many islanders as slaves, while others fled. Before the Siamese invasion, there was an estimated island population of 3,000–5,000, but only a small proportion was left after the invasion. The island was recaptured from the Siamese in 1837. In 1840–1841, the Sultan of Kedah, who went into exile after the Siamese attacks, was allowed to return by the Siamese. The Langkawi islands' population recovered afterwards. However, the Orang Laut who fled after the Siamese attacks did not return. In 1909, the islands came under British rule following the
Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909. The middle of the channel between
Tarutao National Park and Langkawi became the
Siamese border. During
World War II, Siam took control briefly as
British Malaya fell to the Japanese. Langkawi was a haven for pirates who attacked
junks in the northern part of the
Strait of Malacca. In a series of operations, between December 1945 and March 1946, the British cleared the pirates' land bases on Langkawi and Tarutao. The British continued to rule until Malaya gained its independence in 1957. Langkawi remained a quiet backwater until 1986, when Prime Minister
Mahathir Mohamad transformed it into a major tourist resort, helping to plan many of the islands' buildings himself. Mahsuri's seven-generation curse was said to have been lifted after a seventh generation descendant of Mahsuri was born in the Thai
province of Phuket. The island rapidly grew as a tourist destination, and by 2012, it received over three million tourists a year. == Geography ==