Mesmerising Melaka

I cannot remember Melaka the first time I visited in the 1960's. Maybe because it was just a fleeting visit  with my father, an uncle and two siblings, on a road trip from Gemas.

In Melaka town with Bro MN, Uncle IA
& Sis CY (Ba 1962)

Nearly 30 years later, I revisited Melaka, this time with my Bro AW, wife & child, and B & A. It was the school holidays, so from Pulau Pinang, AW drove us down to KL where we stayed a few days for some sightseeing. From KL, our friend FD joined us and we went to Seremban and on to Port Dickson, to enjoy a few days of sun, sand and sea.

Then it was on to Melaka; where it all began ... more than 600 years ago and the Melaka sultanate became the basis for our country today.

Everywhere in Melaka oozes history. It was an important and strategic port city, founded by Parameswara on the banks of a river flowing into the Straits, famous later for the spice trade route. The Admiral Zheng He, the great Chinese Muslim envoy of the Chinese emperor visited Melaka which had come under Chinese protection (from old enemies of the Majapahit and Ayutthaya Kingdoms). Parameswara was said to have converted to Islam then with the name Sultan Iskandar Shah. The golden age of Melaka was under Sultan Ahmad Shah, successor to Sultan Iskandar Shah.

And then there is the story/legend (?) of Princess Hang Li Po who arrived in Melaka to marry Sultan Mansur Shah (1456 - 1477). She'd come with 500 retainers, and they were said to have married locals and settled in what is now Bukit China.

But Hang Tuah, Hang Jebat, Hang Kasturi, Hang Lekiu and Hang Lekir are real legendary warriors who served Sultan Mansur Shah. Although Hang Tuah supposedly vanished after an unsuccessful mission to court the Puteri Gunung Ledang for the Sultan, yet there is his grave in Tanjung Keling which is said to be growing ever longer.

At the grave of legendary warrior Hang Tuah (FD 1990)

A & B at the grave of Hang Jebat (CNB 1990)

The first Europeans, the Portuguese came in 1511, and destroyed Melaka's position as the Asian trade centre (said to be through inept administration) and the trade was scattered to other parts of the area. The Portuguese left behind the ruins of a Fort A Famosa, and a people with partial Portuguese ancestry, the Kristang.

The ruins of A Famosa (FD 1990)

A and Malay & Kristang ladies in Portuguese Square, within
the Portuguese Settlement (CNB 1990)

The Dutch conquest was in 1641 but then they were really more interested in Batavia, Java. The distinctive Dutch Red Building or Stadthuys (pronounced Stat-house?) that was the residence of the Governor and his deputy now houses the Museum of History & Ethnography. Many other buildings remain from the Dutch era - St John's Fort, St Peter's Church, St Paul's Church (originally Portuguese), and Christ Church.

We front the Dutch Square, Stadthuys on the right (FD 1990)

Near the Christ Church of Dutch architecture
(FD 1990)

Melaka was ceded to the British in 1824, was part of the Malayan Union in 1946 and then the Federation of Malaya in 1948 (and Malaysia 1963). Today Melaka is a Unesco World Heritage site, since 7th July 2008. With so much history, of course it deserves to be listed.

B at Masjid Tengkera/Tranquerah Mosque,
oldest in Melaka (CNB 1990)

Stopping by a Belacan and Cincaluk stall on the road to
Tanjung Keling (CNB 1990)

May 1990