Malacca

The Melaka Sultanate · Life · 10 min read

The Man Who Escaped

At the end of the 14th century, a man from Palembang boarded a ship carrying a Sanskrit title. He didn't know he was establishing a sultanate.

Between 1400 and 1403, Malacca emerged from nothing. But who its founder was, what his name was, and whether he converted to Islam — these questions, across four contradictory historical traditions, still haven't received a unified answer today. What we do know is: a man escaped from Palembang, detoured to Temasek, and eventually stopped by a river on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula called Sungai Bertam. By the time the Ming Dynasty envoy arrived, a port was already there.

The Colonial Era · Chronicle · 16 min read

What Happened After Melaka Fell in 1511?

In 1511, what the Portuguese captured was a city, not the destiny of everyone in it

In August 1511, Portuguese forces bombarded Malacca. The Sultan fled, the flags changed, but most of those on the docks who came from Coromandel, from Fujian, and from Pasai did not leave. The rules changed; some found life harder, some found it easier—but the city remained the city, merely changing hands. The greater transformation had to wait another hundred and thirty years.

The Colonial Era · Chronicle · 15 min read

What Was a Kapitan in Colonial Melaka?

The Dutch took Malacca not to make it prosper, but to ensure it didn't. Yet in a downgraded city, people learned to survive through a system called the Kapitan.

In 1641, the Dutch bombarded Malacca and ousted the Portuguese. But the very first thing they did next was not to rebuild it into a new trade centre— instead, they directed their fleets to Batavia (now Jakarta). Malacca was left as a mere outpost. In this downgraded city, the Dutch did not have enough manpower to govern every community directly, so they adopted an old method: letting each community elect a headman to govern their own people on behalf of the colonisers. That headman was called the Kapitan. This arrangement was used from 1641 all the way to 1824—a full one hundred and eighty-three years. And its lingering shadows remain today.

The Colonial Era · Life · 16 min read

Which Early Melaka Chinese Names Can Still Be Traced?

Four hundred years in Malacca left behind a few names. Those few names tell us more than just their own stories.

From 1511 to 1824, Malacca experienced Portuguese and Dutch rule. In these three hundred years, most people left no name behind. The few who did—who they were, what they did, and why they were the ones remembered—this fact itself is the most honest historical record.