The Invasion of 1821 The site commemorates a desperate defensive act during the Siamese invasion of 1821. Fearing that their vital food supply would fall into the hands of the invading Siamese army, the village chief, Dato' Kerma Jaya, ordered the villagers to gather their entire rice harvest and bury it in a massive pit. They then set the rice on fire to ensure the enemy could not sustain themselves on the island's resources. The Legend of Mahsuri Local lore deeply intertwines this event with the Legend of Mahsuri. It is said that the invasion and the subsequent starvation caused by burning the rice were part of the seven-generation curse placed on Langkawi by Mahsuri, a woman wrongly accused of adultery and executed just months prior to the attack. To this day, it is believed that grains of burnt rice still rise to the surface of the soil after heavy rainfall.