Tengku Ampuan Intan Zaharah dies, 40-day mourning period in T'ganu

The country's fourth Raja Permaisuri Agong, Tengku Ampuan Intan Zaharah Almarhum Tengku Seri Setia Raja Tengku Hitam Omar passed away at Pantai Hospital in Kuala Lumpur at 3.26pm Saturday.

State secretary Datuk Osman Muda said following the death of the Tengku Ampuan Tua Terengganu, the state would observe a 40-day mourning period and the state flag would be flown at half-mast from today until March 4.

"Her remains are expected to arrive here at 10am tomorrow (Sunday) and taken to Istana Maziah and then to Abidin Mosque for the funeral prayers. She will be laid to rest at the Royal Mausoleum next to the mosque after Zohor prayers," he told reporters here.

Osman said national and state dignitaries were expected to pay their last respects on the late Tengku Ampuan Tua Terengganu from noon until 1pm Sunday at Istana Maziah while the public could do so from 11am to noon.

He said the Sultan of Terengganu, Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin and Sultanah Nur Zahirah were now on their way back to Malaysia from abroad.

Born in Singapore on April 13, 1928, Tengku Intan Zaharah married Tuanku Ismail Nasiruddin Shah on April 3, 1944, and was crowned Tengku Ampuan Terengganu on June 6, 1949.

She was Raja Permaisuri Agong from 1965 to 1970, during which she was bestowed with the Grand Order of the Mugunghwa by the President of the Republic of Korea on Feb 7, 1966 and received the Darjah Utama Mahkota Negara on April 6, the same year.

Upon the death of Sultan Ismail Nasiruddin Shah in 1979, she was made Tengku Ampuan Besar of Terengganu, and became Tengku Ampuan Tua on the death of her stepson, Sultan Mahmud Shah, in 1998.