In the 14th century, Melaka was just another fishing village – until it attracted the attention of Parameswara. Parameswara had thrown off allegiance to the Majapahit empire and fled to Temasek (modern-day Singapore), where his piracy and other exploits provoked a Siamese attack in 1398, forcing him to flee once more to Melaka, where he established his new headquarters.
Under Parameswara, Melaka soon became a favoured port for waiting out monsoons and resupplying trading ships plying the strategic Selat Melaka. Halfway between China and India, and with easy access to the spice islands of Indonesia, Melaka attracted merchants from all over the East.
In 1405 the Chinese Muslim Admiral Cheng Ho, the ‘three-jewelled eunuch prince’, arrived in Melaka bearing gifts from the Ming emperor and the promise of protection from Siamese enemies. Chinese settlers followed, who intermarried with local Malays and came to be known as the Baba-Nonya (also called Straits Chinese or Peranakan). The longest-settled Chinese people in Malaysia, they grafted many Malay customs to their own heritage. Despite internal squabbles and intrigues, by the time of Parameswara’s death in 1414, Melaka was a powerful trading state. Its position was consolidated by the state’s adoption of Islam in the mid-15th century.
In 1509 the Portuguese came seeking the wealth of the spice and China trades, but after an initially friendly reception, the Malaccans attacked the Portuguese fleet and took a number of prisoners. This prompted an outright assault by the Portuguese, and in 1511 Alfonso de Albuquerque took the city, forcing the sultan to flee to Johor, where he re-established his kingdom. Under the Portuguese, the fortress of A’Famosa was constructed, and missionaries like St Francis Xavier strove to implant Catholicism. While Portuguese cannons could easily conquer Melaka, they could not force Muslim merchants from Arabia and India to continue trading there, and other ports in the area, such as Islamic Demak on Java, grew to overshadow Melaka.
The period of Portuguese strength in the East was shortlived, as Melaka suffered harrying attacks from the rulers of neighbouring Johor and Negeri Sembilan, as well as from the Islamic power of Aceh in Sumatra. Melaka declined further as Dutch influence in Indonesia grew and Batavia (modern-day Jakarta) developed as the key European port of the region. Melaka passed into Dutch hands after an eight-month siege in 1641. The Dutch ruled Melaka for only about 150 years. Melaka again became the centre for peninsular trade, but the Dutch directed more energy into their possessions in Indonesia. In Melaka they built fine public buildings and churches, which remain the most solid suggestions of European presence, while Medan Portugis is still home to Portuguese Eurasians, many of whom are practising Catholics and speak Kristang (Cristao), a creole littered with archaic Portuguese.
My earliest memory of Melaka, or Malacca as it was spelt in English, was from my history lessons during my school days. According to a legend, Parameswara, a prince from Palembang, was resting under a tree while hunting when he saw a deer pushed a dog into a river in self-defence. He was so impressed by the courage of the deer and took it as a good sign to create an empire in that area. He decided to name the place "Melaka" after the tree that he was sheltering under.
After many (failed) plans of going up to Melaka, we finally put our foot down and decided to drive up there in June 2009. With two cars and together with some of my colleagues, we drove up to Melaka from Singapore for a weekend trip. The plans were, or rather the only plan, was to eat, eat and eat! However, as it would be my first in the city state, I decided that I wanted to do a little sightseeing as well. Melaka was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site together with my hometown, Penang, in July 2008.
Our first stop once we reached Melaka was to find a place to park near Jonker Walk and to start eating! We started in a small shop that served laksa, a coconut curry noodle soup (below left), chendol (below right) and some other food. Chendol is probably my favourite local dessert. The ones in Melaka has very thick fragrant gula melaka (local palm sugar).
