Article

The origin of some Malay place-names

From Munshipedia, the MBRAS digital historical encyclopedia

The origin of some Malay place-names

Zainal Abidin bin Ahmad, a Malay scholar and antiquarian, published this short survey of Malay place-name etymologies in 1925, drawing on folklore, local oral traditions, and literary sources to explain the origins of toponyms across the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States. The article argues that most place-names derive from geographical features, prominent landmarks, founding incidents, or superstitious associations, and that many of the explanatory legends attached to them are later inventions that have calcified into folklore.

Summary

The article opens with a methodological observation: most place-name traditions are unrecorded, forgotten, or embellished by later generations, and many are simply “grandmothers’ tales” that have been absorbed into a country’s folklore. Ahmad then categorises the principal sources of Malay toponyms—geographical features (Pasir Panjang, Batu Kikir), prominent landmarks such as trees or rocks (Ipoh, Pulau Pinang), discoveries made at founding (Linggi), and incidents or superstitions associated with the opening of a place (Tanjong Malim, Labu, Rembau). He also notes that many places changed their names within living memory, citing the colonial-era renaming of Kuala Kelang to Port Swettenham and Semujong to Seremban.

The bulk of the article is devoted to individual case studies. For Seremban, Ahmad presents the traditional legend of Jong Tersemu—a petrified junk whose story is a variant of the Nakhoda Ragam tale—and contrasts it with the alternative derivation from Sungai Ujong (the “end” or source of the principal river, or the fallen end of an enormous merbau tree). He records his own visit to Bukit Jong in April 1916, finding only a cave sheltering a Chinese temple, and notes that the Chinese were the principal worshippers there. For Tanjong Malim, he presents two competing accounts: one linking the name to a living saint (alim) who practised austerities at the angle of the Bernam river, and another deriving it from Berenam (six brothers from Sumatra who settled there). The article closes with a brief treatment of Ipoh (from a giant ipoh tree) and an invitation for other local antiquaries to document the folk-tales behind names such as Malim Nawar, Kajang, and Kota Tinggi.

Key Findings

  • The article records at least five colonial-era or modern name changes: Kuala Kelang → Port Swettenham, Semujong → Seremban, Durian Sa-batang → Telok Anson, Pengkalan Batu → Kelang, and Sungai Genta → Tanjong Malim (p. 79).
  • The Jong Tersemu legend for Seremban is explicitly identified as a variant of the Nakhoda Ragam story, with cross-references to J.R.A.S. M.B. II p. 266 and Notes and Queries II pp. 40–46 (p. 80).
  • Ahmad’s personal field observation of Bukit Jong (April 1916) found only a cave with a Chinese temple, a big bell, and red candle wax, noting that “the Chinese are the greatest frequenters of the place as suppliants and worshippers” (p. 80).
  • Linggi is described as a village approximately 200 years old, founded by Bugis settlers from Riau, and is mentioned in the Hikayat Abdullah as a location where branches of Chinese secret societies were found (p. 80).
  • The Kubang Nyiru legend (a jin inhabiting a huge winnowing basket in a pool near the present Sultan Idris Training College) required the offering of a buffalo to avert sickness or death (p. 81).
  • The old name of Tanjong Malim is given as Sungai Genta by a resident claiming to be 103 years old, or alternatively as Berenam, from six Sumatran brothers who settled there (p. 81).

Conclusion

Ahmad’s definitive takeaway is that Malay place-names are a rich but fragile repository of local history, most of which exists only in oral tradition and is rapidly being lost or distorted. By documenting the legends and their variants while acknowledging their uncritical and often invented character, he positions the work as an urgent act of preservation before these traditions disappear entirely.

Context

  • Zainal Abidin bin Ahmad was a Malay literary figure and antiquarian writing from within the Malay scholarly tradition; the article reflects a Malay intellectual’s interest in preserving local folklore against the backdrop of colonial renaming and modernisation.
  • The piece draws on the Malay Annals, the Hikayat Abdullah, and prior publications in the J.R.A.S. Straits Branch (Blagden, Macfadyen), situating it within the early twentieth-century antiquarian tradition of the Royal Asiatic Society’s Malayan branches.

References