Eissya Thong, 21, from Ipoh, Perak was crowned Ratu Bumi Malaysia 2021 (Queen of Earth Malaysia 2021) in the pageant final at The Grand Campbell Hotel Kuala Lumpur on Nov 25, 2021.
Thong, who studies B.Sc. (Hons) in Physiotherapy at INTI International University, beat eight other finalists to win the title.
The 177cm tall lass also won three subsidiary titles – Darling Of The Crowd, Best Advocacy and Sport Spider.
Winning the beauty pageant came as a surprise for Eissya.
“I never expected to win the title. Now that I did it I feel excited and happy,” she said.
”This is my first pageant and I joined it for the experience of new things after years of being an athlete, and also because pageants are one of the ways to share my advocacy to others.”
Eissya excelled as a tennis star in her school student years. She has been playing tennis since she was eight. She participated and won in many tournaments, and represented the country at the ASEAN School Games 2017 and Asian Schools Tennis Championships 2017. She hopes to represent the nation in world-class tournaments one day.
In 2018 she won the Popularity Award at the MonStar Awards 2018 organized by students from education institutions across Malaysia.
Eissya is a passionate advocate for planting trees and speaks against deforestation to ensure long term survival of elephants.
“My advocacy is to raise more awareness on the human-elephant conflict which is happening due to deforestation and how I aim to resolve it by replanting the logged areas with trees for the animal food corridor.”
“I’m looking forward to my human-elephant project that’ll be starting soon in January next year, and we are looking to collaborate with various government agencies such as Jabatan Perhutanan, Jabatan Perhilitan and Jabatan Pertanian.”
For Eissya, the experience of seeing her grandmother who had physical therapy treatment after a fall reflected her own passion for studying physiotherapy to learn new things and to help people.
“I chose physiotherapy because my grandma had a fall a few years back which required physio treatment. It was interesting to see the physios treating my grandma so that’s how it started.”
“My ambition is to be a physiotherapist specialized in working with either children or elderly people.”
Eissya enjoys hobbies such as listening to music, meditating and working out in the gym.
Second place of the pageant went to part-time model Nadjwa Halimi, 18, from Johor Bahru, third place went to student Sanglisha a/p Kunasekaran, 25, from Subang Jaya and fourth place to brand ambassador Nur Alia Zakaria, 24, from Kuala Lumpur.
The Ratu Bumi Malaysia pageant is organized by Double Event Management.
Its founder Faiz Noh said,” Here at Ratu Bumi Malaysia 2021, we wanted to host a beauty pageant that truly cares about giving back to the community and goes beyond the beauty standards regardless of social standings, appearances and religion.”
He said despite the Covid-19 situation, they managed to host the pageant while ensuring strict compliance to the given standard operating procedures.
“Our new winner, Eissya Thong from Ipoh, Perak will do Malaysia very proud when she represents us internationally next year.
“The other finalists did equally amazing and we here at Double Event Management wish them nothing but the best in all their future endeavours,” he added.
RATU BUMI MALAYSIA 2021 WINNERS LIST
Main Titles
Champion: Eissya Thong, 21, student, Ipoh
1st Runner-up: Nadjwa Halimi, 18, part-time model, Johor Bahru
2nd Runner-up: Sanglisha a/p Kunasekaran, 25, student, Subang Jaya
3rd Runner-up: Nur Alia Zakaria, 24, brand ambassador, KL
Subsidiary Titles
Darling of The Crowd: Eissya Thong
Best in Catwalk: Nadjwa Halimi
Miss Body Beautiful: Nadjwa Halimi
Best in Evening Gown: Ella Apit
Miss Beautiful Smile: Nur Alia Zakaria
Miss Congeniality: Nur Ezzrienasha Ridzuan
Best Advocacy: Eissya Thong
Best Speech: Sanglisha a/p Kunasekaran
Sport Spider: Eissya Thong
