Rigel Kent

Sungai Tmbk in the Sultan's letter (1876) Approximately 3 years after Kuala Lumpur was liberated by Tunku Kudin and Pahang army, a peculiar place name was mentioned, not once, but twice, by Sultan Abd al-Samad in a letter written on 20 Rabi al-Awal 1293 (14 April 1876). The name of the place was ‘Sungai Tmbk': . . . memberitahu kepada sekalian orang-orang di dalam Sungai Tmbk serta sekalian daerahnya sebelah barat dan sebelah timur daripada Sungai Tmbk itu, Melayu dan Cina, jikalau orang itu dapat sesuatu pergaduhan dan kesusahan, maka boleh bilang kepada mata-mata di situ . . . First, the people living along Sungai Tmbk was referenced. Then, Malay and Chinese people living in the greater Tmbk regions were called out and the areas were to referred to as western Tmbk region (sebelah barat) and eastern Tmbk region (sebelah timur). It appears to me that the Sultan was using the river either as t...

Water disruption at Pangkalan Lumpur On 29 March 1877, Yap Tet Loy 葉德來 wrote a letter to Bloomfield Douglas to relay a water-related grievance at Pangkalan Lumpur tin mine. This letter is important because it contains several important metadata: An Indic title was invoked by Yap Ah Loy and he called himself Kaptan Klang dalam Kuala Lumpur. This wooden stamp (shown in mirrored form) can be found in the Sin Sze Si Ya Temple Pioneers of Kuala Lumpur Museum 吉隆坡師爺廟拓荒博物館. This stamp is likely a replacement copy built later since its impression does not perfectly conform to the Chinese characters found in the letter dated 29 March 1877. In the stamp, the Captain styled his residence/office as Tet Sang of Klang 吉隆德生. The two place names, Kuala Lumpur کوال لمفر and Pangkalan Lumpur فڠکالن ل...