Kuala Lumpur: The village by two rivers

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If you step out the back of Jamek Mosque, where the Gombak and Klang Rivers converge, you're looking right where Kuala Lumpur was founded. 

Where the Gombak and Klang Rivers meet in Kuala Lumpur

You'll often hear that 'Kuala' means 'confluence' in Malay and 'Lumpur' means 'mud' - literally the muddy place where two rivers meet. But, as is often the case, there are alternate histories. One version is that KL was originally called 'Pengkalan Lumpur' or 'muddy wharf' - with 'Pengkalan' later bastardised to 'Kuala' (which apparently meant 'estuary' in those days, not 'confluence'). Another version is that 'Lumpur' came from the old name of the Gombak, which was the Lumpur River.

Humble names for humble beginnings. 

It was 1857 and the tin rush was in full swing. But the inhospitable upper reaches of the Klang Valley - inhabited only by scattered groups of aboriginals and the Mendailing refugees from war-torn Sumatra - had yet to be exploited.

Hoping to find new deposits, Raja Abdullah, member of the Selangor state royal family and chief of the Klang Valley, sent an expedition up the Klang River. It stopped where the Gombak and Klang Rivers met: the current was too strong and the waters too shallow for the heavily laden boats to go further. The prospectors endured brutal conditions in the jungle - most of the 87 men perished from malaria, cholera or dysentery. But their efforts uncovered rich reserves. 

Raja Abdullah brought in many migrant Chinese labourers to work the new mines. Seeing the need to provision them, Sutan Puasa - a Mendailing leader and wealthy tin entrepreneur - convinced two Chinese merchants to set up a trading post at the fledgling settlement. 

One of them - Hiu Siew - became the first Kapitan Cina ('Chinese Captain') of KL. His was a title traditionally conferred by Malay rulers - and later the British - allowing leaders of local Chinese communities to administer law and order. 

But it was the swashbuckling third Kapitan Cina, appointed in 1868, who is most famous today: Yap Ah Loy. He's the stuff of legend - penniless Chinese immigrant, wealthy tin magnate, fearless fighter, philanthropist, administrator, leader. Gangster too, as head of the notorious Hai San triad. It was a time when Chinese secret societies openly flourished as a means of protecting, governing and dispensing justice to immigrant Chinese populations. 

Yap's frontier town was the Wild East, with opium dens, brothels, gambling halls and saloons. Gang warfare often broke out between the triads for control of the tin mining fields. Rival Malay chiefs soon got in on the action, seeking alliances with the Chinese factions. Murder, mayhem and civil war ensued, with more political manoeuvrings and betrayals than you could shake a stick at. 

In 1872, KL fell to the opposition, burned to the ground, mines destroyed. Yap Ah Loy fled downriver. But he didn't lie low for long; the next year, with ally Tungku Kudin from the Selangor royal family and troops from neighbouring Pahang state, he recaptured KL.

Yap set about rebuilding the town and its mining industry - but it pushed him to the edge of bankruptcy. When all seemed lost, the price of tin suddenly doubled, making Yap once again a wealthy man. It's not hard to see why so much myth surrounds the man.

Where were the British in all this? 

At the time, only Penang, Malacca and Singapore - the Straits Settlements - were under colonial rule. But the Selangor war - and others taking place up and down the peninsula - posed a threat to British interests. Despite this, however, and despite siding with Tungku Kudin, the British kept to a policy of non-intervention.

At least officially. I've read that they "encouraged" Pahang state to help Tungku Kudin recapture KL. I've even read that they "arranged" the alliance with Pahang. But such titbits are few and far between, so I don't know what really happened.

It wasn't until 1874 that the British formally intervened in the affairs of the Malay states, signing the Pangkor Treaty with the Sultan of Perak. This paved the way for a series of British 'advisors' to take up residency in Selangor and other states. In 1880, the British moved their Selangor headquarters to KL.

The village by two rivers had arrived. 

Who should be credited with founding it? Was it Raja Abdullah, who sent an expedition to the confluence of the two rivers? Was it Hiu Siew, the first Kapitan Cina of KL? Was it Yap Ah Loy, the third Kapitan Cina, who developed much of early KL? 

Or was it Sutan Puasa, the Mendailing entrepreneur who established a trading post in KL? That's the view scholar Abdur-Razzaq Lubis takes in his book Sutan Puasa, Founder of Kuala Lumpur, which reignited the debate when when it was published in 2017. I was delighted to meet Abdur-Razzaq, quite by accident, a year later in a bookstore in Penang, where he was kind enough to pose for a photo with me.

This being Malaysia, where nothing is black-and-white, I doubt if the debate will ever end. But whether or not any these historic figures can be called the founding father of KL, one thing is clear: all of their efforts helped to make the little tin mining village the cosmopolitan city it is today.

Want to experience KL's history? Read my post on the River of Life & Colonial Walk to find out about KL's waterfront clean-up and heritage trails.

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