Lord Minto dan Emas Gunung Ledang

Tentera British Hindia dari 3 ketumbukan divisyen dan 2 skuadron telah tiba di Melaka pada 1.6.1811. Tentera seramai 30,000 orang yang tiba dengan 33 buah kapal ini diketuai sendiri oleh Lord Minto iaitu Gabenor Jeneral British Hindia. Seramai 1,200 dari mereka dikatakan telah jatuh sakit dan terpaksa direhatkan di Melaka; di mana selebihnya telah meneruskan pelayaran pada 11.6.1811 untuk menyerang tentera Belanda di Pulau Jawa (The Invasion of Java).

Apa yang menarik, dari pengalamannya di Melaka, Lord Minto secara spesifik mencatat perkara berikut tentang kewujudan emas di Gunung Ledang:

"Of the distant mountains the most important is Mount Ophir, which has pretensions, of which I will not pretend to judge, to be the true Mount Ophir. Certain it is that gold is collected there at this day."

Mount Ophir "sebenar" (true Mount Ophir) yang disebut Lord Minto adalah Mount Ophir yang dirujuk dalam Kitab Injil (Old Testament) yang menyatakan Nabi Sulaiman AS pernah dipersembahkan dengan emas dari Mount Ophir setiap 3 tahun sekali. Rujukan yang sama juga terdapat dalam Kitab Zabur Nabi Daud AS. Walaupun Lord Minto meragui samada ianya "Mount Ophir" sebenar, beliau menyatakan bahawa terdapat aktiviti perlombongan emas di Gunung Ledang ketika itu. Ini disokong catatan Kolonel GE Gerini iaitu bahawa emas diekstrak dari kawasan Gunung Ledang oleh orang-orang Melayu sehingga tahun 1817 (Children of the Sun, JP William, 1923).

Jadi benarkah tentera British Hindia seramai 1,200 orang jatuh sakit sejurus tiba di Melaka? Atau mungkin mereka mempunyai tugasan lain disana? Apa yang pasti, Lord Minto sendiri telah mengetuai ekspedisi 'Invasion of Java' ini walhal tiada keperluan beliau berbuat demikian. Seterusnya semasa di Melaka, Lord Minto telah mengarahkan Lieutenant James George menghasilkan beberapa lukisan landskap untuk rekod simpanan British Hindia. Antara lukisan yang dihasilkan mungkin dapat mengambarkan kawasan tugasan bagi 1,200 tentera yang perlu direhatkan tersebut:

1) sebuah lukisan air yang mengambarkan pemandangan dari arah bukit St Paul ke arah muara sungai Melaka dan kawasan penempatan di Tengkera sekitar 1811 (Gambar 1);

2) sebuah lukisan air yang menggambarkan pemandangan Gunung Ledang (Mount Ophir) dari arah bukit St Paul (1815) (Gambar 2);

Gambar 1: 'Town of Malacca in 1811', by James George (1818). Sumber: National Gallery Singapore

Gambar 2: 'Gunung Ledang (Mount Ophir)', by James George (1815). Sumber: National Gallery Singapore

Seperti yang kita maklum ramai dari turus tertinggi tentera British Hindia menjadi kaya raya selepas bersara. Antaranya adalah doktor yang mengikuti ekspedisi Lord Minto bernama Thomas Phillips (1760-1851) (menurut John Morgan-Guy, 2010). Mungkinkah beliau antara doktor yang merawat askar-askar di Melaka tersebut? Apa yang pasti selepas bersara, doktor tersebut mampu untuk membeli ladang tebu di Pulau St Vincent yang berharga £40,000 (kini £3.3 juta menurut kadar inflasi), dan juga berjaya mengumpul 29,000 manuskrip lama termasuk Hikayat Hang Tuah dan Sulalatus Salatin (Sejarah Melayu) versi Sultan Abdul Rahman Muazzam Shah (1785-1832), iaitu Sultan Johor ke-17 & Sultan Riau-Lingga Pertama.

Nota: Saya percaya Thomas Phillips (doktor ekspedisi Lord Minto) ini juga adalah pemilik keris sundang yang ditemui di Sungai Towy, Wales, pada tahun 2017 - Lihat: How Did An 18th Century Sword Ended Up In Wales?

Malaya Pavilion Di Wembley Park

Malaya Pavilion, Wembley Park

'British Empire Exhibition' ialah suatu pameran jajahan takluk Inggeris yang telah diadakan di Wembley Park, Wembley, England dari 23.4.1924 hingga 31.10.1925. Ianya dibahagikan kepada dua sessi dan telah dikunjungi seramai 25 juta orang pelawat.

Peta Pameran British Empire Exhibition

Sultan Perak ke-30 iaitu Sultan Sir Iskandar Shah Ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Sir Idris Murshidul Azzam Shah (1876-1938) bersama Tengku Permaisuri Perak ketika melawat 'British Empire Exhibition', 1924.

Ekshibit dari Negeri-Negeri Selat, Negeri Melayu Bersekutu dan Negeri-Negeri Melayu Tidak Bersekutu dipamirkan di sebuah bangunan yang didirikan khas di Wembley Park dan dinamakan Malay atau Malaya Pavilion. Lihat gambar:

Juga terdapat Sarawak Pavilion yang didirikan bersebelahan Malaya Pavilion. Lihat Malaya Pavilion di 4:03 dan Sarawak Pavilion di 4:21 dalam rakaman dibawah:

Sebuah stadium juga telah didirikan khusus untuk upacara pembukaan ekspo ini dan dinamakan Empire Stadium. Lihat video upacara pembukaan yang dirasmikan oleh King George V:

Pembinaan tapak ekspo dan stadium di kawasan seluas 220 ekar tersebut mengambil masa 10 bulan dengan menggunakan 2,000 orang pekerja. Ianya direka oleh arkitek bernama John William Simpson dan Maxwell Ayrton; dan dibina oleh syarikat pembinaan Sir Robert McAlpine & Sons Ltd.

Apa yang menarik adalah Empire Stadium ini mempunyai rekabentuk sama dengan Malaya Pavilion iaitu kedua-duanya mempunyai pengaruh arkitektur Roman bercampur Mughal. Bentuk rekaan sebegini boleh kita lihat di bangunan-bangunan era Empayar Mughal di India, dan juga dalam rekabentuk Bangunan Sultan Abdul Samad, Masjid Jamek, dan Bangunan Stesyen Keretapi di Kuala Lumpur.

Setelah tamat ekspo, Malaya Pavilion bersama-sama Pavilion jajahan British lain telah dirobohkan. Atas cadangan ahli exco penganjur British Empire Exhibition iaitu Sir James Stevenson, dan juga campurtangan Arthur Elvin yang ditugas untuk kerja-kerja meroboh, perintah untuk meroboh Empire Stadium telah dibatalkan. Ianya kemudian ditukar nama kepada Wembley Stadium, iaitu stadium bagi pasukan bolasepak England, dan bagi perlawanan FA Cup Final dari 1923 sehingga ianya dirobohkan 80 tahun kemudian iaitu pada tahun 2003.

Wembley Stadium
(c.1937)

The Old vs The New Wembley Stadium

Juga diselamatkan adalah bangunan Palace of Engineering, British Government Pavilion, Palace of Industry dan sebahagian dari Palace of Arts. Kawasan bangunan Malaya Pavilion tersebut kini menjadi tapak bagi bangunan apartmen Quadrant Court Wembley.

Palace of Engineering

British Government Pavilion

Palace of Industry

Palace of Arts

Rujukan:

1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Empire_Exhibition

2. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wembley_Stadium_(1923)

3. Clendinning, Anne. “On The British Empire Exhibition, 1924-25.” BRANCH: Britain, Representation and Nineteenth-Century History. Ed. Dino Franco Felluga. Extension of Romanticism and Victorianism on the Net. Web accessed on 13.11.2019.

4. British Pathé and the Reuters historical collection.

How did Selat Tebrau Get Its Name?

Contrary to popular belief, the Malay name for Johor Strait i.e. Selat Tebrau does not originate from the tebrau plant, which is a coastal tall perennial true grass which looks similar to a sugarcane plant. Instead, it originated from the word "Tambrau" which comes from the sub-Austronesian language spoken by the Orang Seletar. To the Orang Seletar a.k.a orang laut or sea gypsies who occupies the coastal region along the Johor Strait, the word “Tambrau” means guardian spirit or ghost that guards or haunts the area.

Orang Seletar worship the numerous spirits that they believe are inhabited everywhere; failing to appease these spirits would cause them harm or impede their daily activities. It has been reported that until now when the Orang Seletar are out at sea and encounter a tideline, or a sinuous line where two currents converge, they will still lift their oars and ask permission from the guardian spirit to cross over. See news article: Seafaring Orang Laut strive to stay afloat

There is a place named "Tambrauw" highlands and "Tambrauw" province in West Papua, Indonesia, which may have shared the same etymology. See: Tambrauw Regency - Wikipedia

Central Dusun or Kadazan Dusun language (a branch of the Austronesian language) also has the same sounding word "Tombiruo" with the same meaning i.e. guardian spirit. See: Tombiruo: Penunggu Rimba - Wikipedia

A book titled 'Singapore Street Names' by Victor R Savage & Brenda Yeoh (2003), stated that the word "Tebrau" originates from "a kind of a large fish". This theory may have been based on an article written by John Crawfurd in the Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, dated 2.10.1856, which he described the strait as "Salat Tambrau (strait of the tambrau fish)". See 1856 article:-

This article is based on Crawfurd's 1856 book titled 'A Descriptive Dictionary of the Indian Island and Adjacent Countries'. See extract from Crawfurd’s book:

Nevertheless, by examining the list of known species, no such fish ever existed except for similar sounding Kurau fish (Mango fish / Indian Threadfin). It is to be noted that Crawfurd's works met much criticism at the time, and has also been scrutinised in the 21st century (See: Ellingson, Terry Jay (2001) in 'The Myth of the Noble Savage'). Although Crawfurd wrote prolifically, his views have been seen as inconsistent. As such, it is safe to conclude that there is no evidential basis to relate the word "Tebrau" or "Tambrau" with any marine species.

It is interesting to note that reference to old colonial maps would show that the use of the word "Tambrau" predates the word "Tebrau". The strait appears in Manuel Godinho de Erédia’s 1604 map as “Salat Tubro” (a variation of Selat Tambrau); and in Jean-Baptiste d’Apres de Mannevillette’s 1775 map as “Det. De Salete Baro”. Further, the East India Company's 1848 map as well as The Chronicle & Directory for China, Corea, Japan, the Philippines, Cochin-China, Annam, Tonquin, Siam, Borneo, Straits Settlements, Malay States & c (1888) describes the strait as "Silat Tambrau". See map & directory:

Analysis of maps produced by the Surveyor General of Straits Settlement from 1855 to 1871 shows the strait being correctly described as "Tambrau".

I believe that the error started with a 1885 map by the Public Works Department (PWD) which describes it as "Silat Tĕbrau" (with short "e" vowel sound replacing the existing letters “a” & “m”). See the 1885 map:-

The error persisted with the 1898 map by PWD which continued to describe it as "Selat Tĕbrau". See the 1898 map:-

As such, the name Tebrau, which is also used to describe the biggest sub-district in Johor Bahru as well as the name for roads, buildings, schools, and housing areas, could be based on an error by the surveyor of PWD that occurred around the 1880s to 1890s causing the strait (and a river) to be renamed "Tebrau" (the plant) instead of maintaining its original name "Tambrau" (the guardian spirit).

Note: This article is based on Yusrin Faidz Yusoff answers What is the Origin of the name 'Selat Tebrau' in the South of Peninsula Malaysia?