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MALACCA
Melaka (Malacca) is rich with history. It was founded by an
exiled prince from Sumatra, Parameswara, in year 1400. It
thrived as a port-of-call to many a ship and merchant from
China, India, Arab and South America. In year 1511 it fell to
the hands of the Portuguese followed by the Dutch in year 1641
after a fierce battle. In year 1795 Melaka (Malacca) was given
to the British to prevent it falling to the French when the
Netherlands was captured during the French Revolution.
It was returned to the Dutch in year 1818 under the Treaty of
Vienna but was later exchanged by the British for Bencoleen,
Sumatra. From year 1826 onwards it was ruled by English East
India Company in Calcutta together with Singapore and Penang
under Straits Settlement administration. After World War II,
anti-colonial sentiment bred in the country among the
nationalists, the result of which the proclamation of
independence by His Highness Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj,
Malaysia's first Prime Minister, at the Padang Pahlawan
(Warrior's Field) at Banda Hilir, Melaka(Malacca) on 20th
February 1956.
The history of Malaysia begins from Melaka (Malacca). The many
remnants of the past will take a visitor on a nostalgic
journey that goes back to 600 years of glorious and colourful
past...
If the ultra-modern architecture and forward-looking citizens
of Kuala Lumpur symbolize Malaysia's hopes for the future,
then the quiet, seaside city of Malacca, about 150 kilometers
to the south, is the guardian charged with the reflective task
of preserving its past. Five hundred years ago, an
extraordinary empire rose and fell here, its power and dreams
suddenly caught off-guard by the dawn of the Colonial Era.
The city was so coveted by the European powers that the
Portuguese writer Barbarosa wrote "Whoever is Lord in Malacca
has his hand on the throat of Venice." It was a major port
along the spice-route, and its harbor bristled with the sails
and masts of Chinese junks and spice-laden vessels from all
over the hemisphere. Because the city was originally built of
wood, there are no crumbling and stately reminders of the
power once wielded by the Malaccan Sultanate, but along shores
of the Malacca River the scene has probably changed little.
Sloping rooftops of traditional Malay houses still hang over
the water, and seem to call out sleepily from the past. The
river side is a part of the city that seems to have defied the
Portuguese, who captured the city in 1511 and occupied it for
well over a century.
The Portuguese influence is visible in the city's
architecture. As they did in other colonies, they taxed
buildings relative to their width, a policy that accounts for
the deceptively thin facades along the colonial streets. A
building no more than twelve feet across can easily extend
backwards two hundred feet, its hidden interior a linear
succession of high-ceilinged rooms and courtyards.
On the streets themselves, however, it is the Chinese
influence that is felt most. As they have done for hundreds of
years, Chinese merchants advertise the wares inside their shop
houses with bright red characters. Open air fruit, vegetable,
and fish markets sing with cadences of people bargaining in
Mandarin. On the edge of the city is the largest Chinese
graveyard outside of China itself, a sprawling zone of fields,
trees, and uterus-shaped tombstones.
Because of the huge cemetery and the Cheng Hoon Teng Temple
(the oldest Chinese temple in Malaysia) there is an entire
industry in Malacca that produces goods exclusively for the
dead - paper simulacra that families burn as offerings to
their lost loved ones. Because the spirits need cash in the
next world, piles of multi-colored currency with the word
"Hell Note" hang on display in what seems like every other
shop. If your ghosts like to travel, you can get them first
class tickets on Hell Airlines or, if they are Wall Street
types, cellular phones and computers. You can buy a dead
person just about anything in Malacca.
Over the centuries, the Chinese and local Malay cultures in
Malacca intertwined, eventually producing a completely Museum
preserves typical Baba-Nyona household.
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