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Introduction
Accommodation
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Travel Agencies |
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| State Flag |
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State Emblem / Logo |
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The colours blue, yellow, red and white on the Melaka flag reflect the exact
colours of the flag of Malaysia. This marks Melaka as a Malaysian state. The
crescent moon and star are the symbols of Islam, the official religion of the
state and country.
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The various colours are the colours of the Federation of Malaysia and indicate
that the State is part of the Federation. The five keris represent the five
famous warriors of old Melaka. The star and crescent stand for Islam, the
religion of the State. The Melaka tree is the tree from which the State derives
its names. The two mouse deer supporting, the shield serve to recall the
incident involving the mouse deer, which led the first ruler of Melaka to
choose the site and found the city. The State motto reads: "Unity is Strength"
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| Area : 1,683 sq km
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| State Capital : Melaka
Town
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| Head of State : Tuan Yang
Dipertua Tun Datuk Seri Utama Mohd. Khalil Yaakob |
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| Chief Minister : Y.A.B
Datuk Seri Haji Mohd Ali Mohd Rustam DCSM, DMSM, DSM, PBM
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| District : Alor Gajah,
Jasin, Melaka Tengah, Pulau Besar |
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Malacca |
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Introduction |
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Destinations |
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Getting
to Malacca |
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Photo
Gallery |
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Accommodation |
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Location
Map |
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Malacca
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| Historical City |
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With its glorious past, Malacca (Melaka in Bahasa Malaysia) undoubtedly has the
wealthiest history. Facing the Straits of Malacca and located about 150
kilometres south of Kuala Lumpur, it is a place of intriguing Chinese streets,
antique shops, old temples and reminders of European colonial powers. The
historical melting-pot of cultures and races – Malay, Chinese, the Baba, and
Nyonya and the Portuguese, has very much influenced the cultural
designs of homes and buildings in its capital, the Malacca city.
The history of Malacca is largely the story of the city for which it is named,
and the story of the city of Malacca begins with the fascinating and partly
legendary tale of the Hindu prince Parameswara.
The Malay Annals relate that Parameswara was a fourteenth-century Palembang
prince who, fleeing from a Japanese enemy, escaped to the island of Temasik
(present-day Singapore) and quickly established himself as its king. However,
Parameswara was driven out of Temasik by an invasion, and with a small band of
followers set out along the west coast of the Malay peninsula in search of a
new refuge. The refugees settled first at Muar, but they were quickly driven
away by a vast and implacable horde of monitor lizards; the second spot chosen
seemed equally inauspicious, as the fortress that the refugees began to build
fell to ruins immediately. Parameswara moved on. Soon afterward, during a hunt
near the mouth of a river called Bertam, he saw a white mouse-deer kick one of
his hunting dogs. So impressed was he by the deer's defiant gesture that he
decided immediately to build a city on the spot. He asked one of his servants
the name of the tree under which he was standing and, being informed that the
tree was called a Malacca, gave that name to the city. The year was 1400.
Situated midway along the straits that linked China to India and the Near East,
Malacca was perfectly positioned as a center for maritime trade. The city grew
rapidly, and within fifty years it had become a wealthy and powerful hub of
international commerce, with a population of over 50,000. It was during this
period of Malacca's history that Islam was introduced to the Malay world,
arriving along with Gujarati traders from western India. By the first decade of
the sixteenth century Malacca was a bustling, cosmopolitan port, attracting
hundreds of ships each year. The city was known worldwide as a centre for the
trade of silk and porcelain from China; textiles from Gujarat and Coromandel in
India; nutmeg, mace, and cloves from the Moluccas, gold and pepper from
Sumatra; camphor from Borneo; sandalwood from Timor; and tin from western
Malaya.
The city’s fame arrived at just the moment when Europe began to extend its
power into the East, and Malacca was one of the very first cities to attract
its covetous eye. The Portuguese under the command of Alfonso de Albuquerque
arrived first, taking the city after a sustained bombardment in 1511. The
Sultan fled to Johor, from whence the Malays counterattacked the Portuguese
repeatedly but without success. A Famosa, the massive fortification was one
reason for the strength of the Portuguese defense and only a small portion of
it survives today.
A Famosa ensured the Portuguese control of the city for the next one hundred
and fifty years, until, in 1641, the Dutch invaded Malacca after an eight-month
siege and a fierce battle. Over the next century and a half, the Dutch re-built
the city and deployed it largely as a military base, using its strategic
location to control the Straits of Malacca. In 1795, when the French
Revolutionary armies captured Dutch and Malacca was handed over to the British
to avoid capture by the French. Although they returned the city to the Dutch in
1808, it was soon given over to the British once again in a trade for
Bencoleen, Sumatra. From 1826, the English East India Company in Calcutta ruled
the city, although it experienced Japanese occupation from 1942 to 1945.
Independence did not arrive until 1957, when anti-colonial sentiment
culminated in a proclamation of independence by His Highness Tunku Abdul Rahman
Putra Al-Haj, Malaysia's first Prime Minister.Culture
The people in Malacca comprise of Malay, Chinese, Chittys, the Baba, and Nyonya
and the Portuguese, living up to its reputation as the melting
pot of cultures and races. The Eurasian community still speaks a
dialect from the 16th century.
The quiet, seaside city of Malacca, about 150 kilometers to the south of Kuala
Lumpur, is the guardian charged with the reflective task of preserving its
past. Sloping rooftops of traditional Malay houses still hang over the water,
and seem to call out sleepily from the past. The riverside 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-ceiling rooms and
courtyards.
On the streets however, it is the Chinese influence that is most felt. 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.
Over the centuries, the Chinese and local Malay cultures in Malacca
intertwined, eventually producing a completey unique society, the Baba-Nyonya.
This fascinating micro-culture reached its height around the
turn-of-the-century, and Malacca's Baba-Nyonya Heritage Museum preserves
typical Baba-Nyona household.
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Dining |
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Since the state has Portuguese, Dutch,
Chinese and Indian influences, Malaccan food is quite unique.
Nyonya food, a combination of Chinese and Malay cooking styles, is a
fovourite with many people. Among the common dishes are acar, sambal, duck soup
with salted vegetables, banana shoots (jantung pisang) and crab meat cooked in
coconut milk (ketam lemak). Many dishes cross ethnic borders and are served in
most households. The devil curry for instance, is a spicy chicken dish of
Portuguese origin. Portuguese food is generally sourish and spicy.
As many Portuguese in Malacca are involved in the fishing industry, fish play
an important part of their diet. In Malacca there is a local version of the
popular satay dish called satay celup. It consists of prawns, squids, cockles,
pork and vegetables skewered on a stick and cooked in a pot of hot bubbling
spicy peanut sauce. The kuih koci is made of glutinous rice flour with filling
of grated young coconut cooked in a rich syrup of gula melaka. It is wrapped in
banana leaf and then steamed.
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Portuguese Square. This is perhaps the best place for food and
entertainments in Malacca town as visitors are able to check out the seafood
restaurants and pubs within the Square. There also cultural and pop band
performances on some of the nights.
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