Badang the Strongman: A Miracle-Working Grave, A Folk Tale and a Nation’s Mythology

Many people know of the story of Badang the strongman, an aboriginal slave who gains supernatural strength after eating the vomit of a spirit. He throws a stone, which might or might not be the Singapore Stone, and his miracle-working grave is believed to be on Pulau Buru in the Riau Archipelago. However, independent scholar William Gibson tells us the tale of Badang (and the location of his grave) is much more complicated than is generally known.Dr William L. Gibson is an author and researcher based in Southeast Asia since 2005. A former Lee Kong Chian Research Fellow of the National Library Singapore, he is the author of Keramat, Sacred Relics and Forbidden Idols in Singapore (Routledge, 2024). His articles have appeared in Signal to Noise, PopMatters.com, The Mekong Review, Archipel, History and Anthropology, the Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient and BiblioAsia, among others.What William Talked About00:00 – What a keramat is01:13 – Legend of Badang the strongman02:20 – William's past research on keramat03:07 – Badang as a national icon and his myth in the Malay Annals04:43 – British interest and early translations of Badang’s story06:26 – The rock-throwing legend and its transformation into a national tale08:26 – Origins of the Singapore Stone and colonial myth-making11:00 – The three different rocks associated with Badang13:02 – The search for the real burial site of Badang18:08 – The shrine’s transformation into a government-designated cultural site20:40 – The Karimun inscription and its link to Badang folklore22:00 – Other stones with footprints and mythical associations24:00 – Theories of Badang’s burial sites26:00 – Other folktales with vomit-eating as a power transfer motif28:00 – Broader meaning and significance of keramat and nature shrines31:05 – Existing keramat in Singapore35:10 – Stories of the keramat Habib Noh39:01 – Challenges of preserving keramat in Singapore42:00 – Fates of kermat in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia44:07 – The heritage value of keramat 47:55 – Mythology is…Transcript and ResourcesRead the transcript: https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/all-sections/podcast-badang-the-strongman-a-miracle-working-grave-a-folk-tale-and-a-nations-mythology/Read the BiblioAsia article: https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/all-sections/vol-21-issue-1-apr-jun-2025-origins-badang-strongman-singapore-stone/Subscribe to BiblioAsia for more stories about Singapore.This episode of BiblioAsia Podcast was hosted by Jimmy Yap and produced by Soh Gek Han. Sound engineering was done by Nookcha Films. The background music “Di Tanjong Katong” was composed by Ahmad Patek and performed by Chords Haven. Special thanks to William for coming on the show.The BiblioAsia Podcast by the National Library Singapore tells stories about Singapore history.