TIOMAN
Folklore of Malaysia
A Princess that was turned into a Dragon
This is the name of a princess who became a dragon in the Mythology and Folklore of the Malay people of West Malaysia. TIOMAN fell in love with the son of a neighboring king, and , although she was a princess in her own right, the prince did not return her devotion. In the agonies of unrequited love, she brooded and was so consumed with tortured thoughts that her outward appearance metamorphosed into that of a DRAGON with horns on her head and a vast, swirling tail. Despairing even further in her reptilian form, she swam into the South China Sea and sat in the waters, where she again transformed. Soon her vast bulk became an island called PULAU TIOMAN, where her hors showed as the two peaks standing high from her back as the mountains of Bali Hai, and the great tail swirled above the waves to Salang. This is now the most beautiful of the Malaysian islands off the eastern coast and was used as the location for the Bali Hai of the film South Pacific
Source: Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth