(c) May 2010 Oliver Bonten
The City
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Date: Images: |
The City
May 2010 27 |
Kuala Lumpur was founded near the confluence of Klang and Gombak rivers, and was named for this place: muddy estuary. The original settlers were Chinese tin miners, and my personal opinion is that this name was meant as a joke. "Kuala" is a typical part for a Malay place name, and the tin miners must have hated this malaria-infested tropical swampland despite prospecting there for tin.
The British resident chose Kuala Lumpur as his residence precisely because it was as good as no-mans-land: situated in the state of Selangor, but far from what in those days was considered "civilisation": the coastal areas. There were four British protectorates to govern, and by placing the administration far from the coast, Britain would not favour any of their four subjects by being geographically remote from all of them.
This means of course that there is no pre-colonial history in Kuala Lumpur. The oldest buildings, oldest parts of town, are Chinese and British. But the post-independence sprawl was Malay-planned and -goverened, and therefore outside the center Kuala Lumpur is designed as a garden city with parklands and open areas.
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