The Historical City Of Malacca

Welcome to Malacca World Heritage City. On this site you
will find comprehensive listing with information on almost
every aspect of visiting and living in Malacca.

Malacca Tourism
· Chinese temples
  · Cheng Hoon Teng Temple
· Hindu temples
  · Comming soon
· Churches
  · Christ Church
  · St. Francis Xavier's Church
  · St. Paul's church
· Mosques
  · Comming soon
· Museums
  · Cheng Ho Cultural Museum
  · Governor's Museum
  · Malaysia Youth Museum
  · Maritime Museum
  · Melaka Islamic Museum
  · Melaka Umno Museum
  · Museum of Architecture
  · Museum of History and Ethnography
· Heritage Sites
  · 8 Heeren Street
  · Bastion House
  · Dutch Graveyard
  · Dutch Square
  · Fortaleza de Malaca
  · Hang Jebat Mausoleum
  · Malacca River
  · Porta de Santiago
  · Proclamation of Independence Memorial
  · Stadthuys
  · St. Paul's Church
  · Tan Kim Seng Bridge
· Malacca clan associations
  · Eng Choon Association
  · Melaka Hainan Association
· Street names
  · Blacksmith Street / Jalan Tukang Besi
  · Church Street / Jalan Gereja
  · Fort Road / Jalan Kota
  · Jonker Street / Jalan Hang Jebat
  · Jonker Walk (Night Market)
  · Riverside / Jalan Laksamana
  · Temple Street / Jalan Tokong

Street names

In Malacca as in elsewhere, the street names tell their own stories. Malacca is a surprisingly small town. That being the case, the old quarters have very few streets. The streets in Malacca are some of the oldest in Malaysia. Many of these streets started off as dirt roads which were only paved in the early part of the 20th century. With the possible exception of Heeren Street (Heerenstraat) and Jonker Street (Jonkerstraat), which derived their names from the Dutch, from most of these streets the names can only be traced back to the British era.

The British had been quite sloppy in naming the streets. Perhaps to Malaysians, Malacca is an important and historic city, but to the British in the 19th century, it was just an outdated settlement which they were keen to let George Town overshadow. Hence, we have such street names as First Cross Street, Second Cross Street, and such. How unimaginative can you get! Heeren Street and Jonker Street were not even named by them. And then there are the streets named after the trades: Blacksmith Street and Goldsmith Street. If there's an ethnic settlement, quite likely the street will be named after them, hence Java Lane. If there's a bridge around, call it Bridge Street. A few Taoist temples are sufficient for the street running through them to be slapped the name Temple Street. It must have been so easy for the colonial British, they probably named all the streets in Malacca in five minutes.

When Malacca gained independence, the streets gained new name. Except, many still retain their unimaginative British names, just translate it into Malay. So the trade streets were simply named Jalan Tukang Besi and Jalan Tukang Emas. To glorify Malacca's historic warriors, Jonker Street became Jalan Hang Jebat. Hang Lekiu, Hang Lekir and Hang Kasturi, all get a street named after them, even though Hang Kasturi's mausoleum ends up at Jalan Hang Jebat while Hang Jebat's mausoleum is at Jalan Kampung Kuli. And I do wonder why Hang Tuah was absent. Perhaps the only flesh-and-blood personality of the present age to get a street named after him was Tun Tan Cheng Lock.

If the British were unimaginative, the present authorities were not any better. Unlike in George Town, were "street" is translate as "lebuh", in Malacca, whether street or road, either is translated simply as "jalan". So Church Street became Jalan Gereja, not Lebuh Gereja as in Penang. Confusingly, Bridge Street became Lorong Jambatan, not even Jalan Jambatan, let along Lebuh Jambatan. On the other hand, Java Lane became Jalan Jawa, not Lorong Jawa.

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We recommend the following site(s):
· The Dutch in Malaysia: Dutchmalaysia.net
· Malacca on Wikipedia: Wikipedia.org