Naga Pelangi

Naga Pelangi (Rainbow Dragon) is a wooden junk rigged schooner of the Malay pinas type built using traditional lashed-lug techniques from 2004 to 2009 in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia.

[4] They are made of chengal wood (Neobalanocarpus heimii), a heavy hardwood of the family Dipterocarpaceae growing only on the Malay peninsula,[5] the home of the world's oldest rainforest.

The tradition of building wooden boats in modern Malaysia goes back centuries: For overseas trade, for fishing, for travelling up the many rivers, for each purpose a special design was developed.

[11] One of the stories told is that on the eastern shore of an island in the Terengganu river mouth once sat a mermaid, an indo-pacific sea cow (Dugong dugon).

[12] According to legend, an historic Sultan of Terengganu encouraged the Bugis, a seafaring people from Celebes (Sulawesi, Indonesia), to settle on the island and establish a trade post.

In the 19th century, a French captain is said to have marvelled at the sight of a flotilla of trading vessels assembled from all corners of the globe in the harbour off Duyong island: Arab dhows, Indonesian perahus, Portuguese lorchas, English schooners, and Chinese, Vietnamese, and Thai junks.

The boatbuilders of Terengganu were re-discovered during the World War II by the Japanese navy, who had wooden minesweepers built there by the carpenters and fishing folks.

Rising timber prices and lack of demand forced one yard after another out of business, so today this tradition is on the brink of extinction, with very few craftsmen still practicing the old building technique.

Naga Pelangi , after her circumnavigation sailing off Kuala Terengganu, 1998
The Naga Pelangi gobel figurehead
British postage stamp depicting a Malay pinas , 1955