Lela'site: November 2007

historical of malacca

Historical Melaka(Malacca) is indeed the soul of the nation. It is here where we link our past to the present, on how we have grown and changed along the centuries. The highlight is the historic port city, also called Melaka. In the 14th century, Melaka was just a fishing village until it attracted Parameswara, a Hindu prince from Sumatra. He had fled Majapahit Empire in Sumatra and went to Temasik(Singapore) before finally settling in Melaka in 1396. Under Parameswara, Melaka soon became a favoured port for merchants resupplying their ships or waiting out the monsoons. Halfway between China and India, Melaka attracted merchants from all over the East. In 1405 Admiral Cheng Ho of China arrived in Melaka bearing gifts from the Ming emperor and protection from Siamese enemies. Chinese settlers followed and intermingled with the locals, married them and adopted Malay customs. They came to be known as the Peranakan or Straits Chinese. The husband is called Baba and the wife Nyonya and speaks the Baba Malay, a mix of Malay and Chinese Hokkien. Like the Chinese Peranakan, Indians traders from Panai, Tamil Nadu India also settled, married the locals and adopted Malay customs. These Indian peranakans are called Chitty and most are unable to communicate in Tamil fluently. By the time of Parameswara’s death in 1414, Melaka was already a bustling trading state. Islam was introduced here through traders from India. The third ruler of Melaka, Maharaja Mohammed Shah, converted to Islam, and his son, Mudzaffar Shah, took the title of sultan and made Islam the state religion. Soon the religion spread to most of the peninsula.

A Famosa, or "The Famous" in Portuguese, is among the oldest surviving European architectural remains in Asia. Once part of a mighty fortress, this tiny gate (called the Porta de Santiago) is all that is left of a once-mighty fortress. In 1511 a Portuguese fleet arrived under the command of Alfonso de Albequerque. His forces attacked and successfully defeated the armies of the native Sultanate. Moving quickly to consolidate his gains, Albequerque had the fortress built around a natural hill near the sea. Albequerque believed that Melaka would become an important port linking Portugal to the spice trade from China. At his time other Portuguese were establishing outposts in such places as Macau, China and Goa, India in order to create a string of friendly ports for ships heading to China and returning home to Portugal.

The fortress once consisted of long ramparts and four major towers. One was a four-story keep, while the others held an ammunition's storage room, the residence of the captain, and an officers' quarters. As the plan below shows, most of the village clustered in town houses inside the fortress walls. As Melaka's population expanded it outgrew the original fort and extensions were added around 1586. The fort changed hands in 1641 when the Dutch successfully drove the Portuguese out of Melaka. The Dutch renovated the gate in 1670, which explains the logo "ANNO 1670" inscribed on the gate's arch. Above the arch is a bas-relief logo of the Dutch East India Company.