Temenggung Abdul Rahman (d. 8 December 1825, Singapore), also known as Dato’ Temenggung Seri Maharaja Abdul Rahman or Engku Abdul Rahman, was the first Malay chief with whom the British discussed the establishment of a British settlement in Singapore before the ...
The Southeast Asia (SEA) Collection is a significant collection of the National Library. It includes the Ya Yin Kwan Collection, the Rost Collection, the Gibson-Hill Collection and a wide range of early-19th-century literature. Its most valuable titles come from ...
Bumboats, also known as lighters, are large boats or sea-going barges. They were used in the Malay Archipelago for the loading and unloading of goods, or for the transportation of cargoes, supplies and goods from ship to shore and vice versa. In Singapore, bumboats ...
James Richardson Logan (b. 10 April 1819, Berwickshire, Scotland–d. 20 October 1869, Penang, Malaya) was the founder and editor of the Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia (JIAEA). He was one of the key advocates for freedom from Indian rule; his ...
Starfruit (Averrhoa carambola), or Carambola, is a tropical fruit native to the Malayan archipelago and belongs to the family Oxalidaceae. With its sweet-sour taste, the starfruit is a popular fruit in Singapore, most often eaten raw. The starfruit displays a star ...
The Dutch founded Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij (KPM) in 1888 as a regional shipping line in the Indonesian archipelago. At its height, KPM operated more than 140 ships ranging from small vessels of less than 50 tonnes to large passenger liners exceeding ...
The Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society was founded in November 1877 to research and document information relating to the Malay Peninsula and archipelago. It was formed by a group of colonial administrators in Singapore, and started with 150 members. Its ...
The opening of Singapore as a British free port in 1819 attracted trade from the Bugis, a group of seafarers from the southern Celebes (today’s Indonesian island of Sulawesi). Travelling on their distinctive boats known as prahus, they brought with them specialised ...
The pomelo (Citrus maxima or Citrus grandis) is the largest citrus fruit from the Rutaceae family. It is also known as shaddock, so-named after a Captain Shaddock who was said to have brought seeds of the fruit from the Malay Archipelago to the West Indies on an ...
Southeast Asia’s trade with China had taken place long before the Portuguese captured Melaka in 1511, paving the way for Western imperialism in the Malay archipelago. Trade with China was known as “Nanhai trade”, with nanhai referring to “southern seas”, an area ...
Geylang Serai is one of the oldest Malay settlements in Singapore. The significance of early Geylang Serai lies not in its architectural features but in its reputation as the Malay emporium of Singapore, known to Malays in the Malay Archipelago including Malaya, ...
The Straits of Singapore lies between Singapore and the Riau Archipelago, Indonesia, and links the Straits of Malacca to the South China Sea. It is approximately 113 km long and 5 to 12 km wide, although its narrowest navigable width is 2.9 km. It is on the shipping ...
Congkak is a popular game of logic played throughout Asia, Africa and the Americas, with many adaptations. Known elsewhere as mancala, the version commonly played in the Malay Archipelago requires two players to share a wooden board with one row of seven holes ...
Orang Laut (Malay for “sea people” or “people of the sea”) were nomadic sea gypsies organised into suku (divisions). They occupied the maritime zone surrounding the Strait of Melaka. During the period when the British thought Singapore was uninhabited, the Orang ...