Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Melaka Empire
To understand how Kuala Lumpur came to be founded it's important to first go back four-
and-a-half centuries to when the seat of Malay power was Melaka. Legend has it that this
great trading port was founded by Parameswara, a renegade Hindu prince-cum-pirate from
a little kingdom in southern Sumatra, who washed up around 1401 on the Malay coast. As
a seafarer, Parameswara recognised a good port when he saw one and immediately lobbied
the Ming emperor of China for protection from the Thais in exchange for generous trade
deals. Thus the Chinese came to Malaysia.
Equidistant between India and China, Melaka became a major stop for freighters from
India loaded with pepper and cloth, and junks from China loaded with porcelain and silks,
which were traded for local metal and spices. Business boomed as regional ships and
perahu
(Malay-style sampans) arrived to take advantage of trading opportunities. The
Melaka sultans soon ruled over the greatest empire in Malaysia's history, their territory in-
cluding what is today Kuala Lumpur and the surrounding state of Selangor.
Compared with Indian Muslim traders, the Portuguese contributed little to Malay culture; attempts to intro-
duce Christianity and the Portuguese language were never a big success, though a dialect of Portuguese,
Kristang, is still spoken in Melaka and this is also where you'll find Malaysia's oldest functioning church.
