Subzone of Bukit Merah Planning Area & Housing Estate
Telok Blangah
(
Chinese
:
直落布?雅
,
Tamil
:
?????? ????????
) is a subzone region and housing estate located in the area behind
Keppel Harbour
in
Bukit Merah
,
Singapore
.
Teluk Blanga
is the district between
Pasir Panjang
and
Tanjong Pagar
.
Name
[
edit
]
The region is named after the
bay
.
Telok Blangah
(
Jawi
: ???? ????) is a
Malay
compound of
blanga
"a type of cooking pot" and
telok
"bay" and so literally means "cooking pot bay", so named on account of its shape.
In the olden maps, Telok Blangah's name spelling was written as Teluk Blanga, Teluk Belanga and Teluk Blangah.
Teluk Blanga
is known as
石?門
in
Hokkien
(
POJ
: Sit-Lat mn?g), meaning "Singapore gate". It is the namesake of the
Teluk Belanga
(modern Malay spelling) style of
Baju Melayu
, the traditional costume of Malay men.
History
[
edit
]
Historically, this area is as old as the thirteenth century city of
Temasek
. The area is rich with
Malay
aristocratic history of past royal events. According to the
Malay Annals
,
Sang Nila Utama
's boat ran into a storm and he threw everything overboard, including his
crown
before landing just off Telok Blangah beach.
The area gained prominence again during the
British
period when
Sir Stamford Raffles
in 1823 assigned
Temenggong Abdul Rahman
(died 1825) and his followers 200 acres (0.81 km
2
) of land for their
residence
and a
cemetery
. The area flourished under Temenggong Abdul Rahman because of his
monopoly
over the
gutta percha
trade.
Temenggong Abdul Rahman's eldest son, Tun Haji Abdullah, informally took over as
Temenggong of Johor
after his death in 1825, followed by his second son
Daeng Ibrahim
informally in 1833 and officially on 19 August 1841.
In 1845,
Telok Blangah Hill
(
Malay
:
Bukit Telok Blangah
) was renamed to
Mount Faber
after Captain
Charles Edward Faber
.
Following
Temenggong Daeng Ibrahim
’s death in 1862, his first son
Temenggong Abu Bakar
succeed him and moved his Istana to
Tyersall
. In 1885, when Maharaja Abu Bakar became the
Sultan of Johor
, he moved to
Johor Bahru
.
The former royal audience hall (now a mosque,
Masjid Temenggong Daeng Ibrahim
) and the
Johor Royal Mausoleum
still remain today at Telok Blangah Road, near
VivoCity
and Sentosa Gateway. The last to be buried was Ungku Modh. Khalif (or Khalid), the younger brother of Sultan Abu Bakar in 1900.
Another Malay royal cemetery and
shrine
nearby is
Keramat Bukit Kasita
at
Bukit Purmei
, which is the final resting place of the
Riau-Lingga
royal family, a split of the
Johor
royal family.
[1]
Telok Blangah Road was officially named in 1907. The
sacred shrine
of Puteri
Raden Mas Ayu
, a sixteenth-century Javanese princess, is located at Mount Faber Road, near the junction with Telok Blangah Road.
Other Landmarks
[
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]
There are several century-old Chinese temples constructed to meet the spiritual and social needs of the Chinese immigrants who settled in the area around Telok Blangah in the late 1800s.
Ban Siew San Kuan Imm Tong
(萬壽山觀音堂) and
Koon Seng Ting
(?成堂) were built in 1880 and managed to weather through more than 100 years at the same location.
[2]
Both temples were proposed for conservation under the Draft Master Plan 2013 by Urban Redevelopment Authority.
[3]
Another prominent old temple in the area will be Telok Blangah Ting Kong Beo (直落布蘭雅天公廟) which was built in 1923 or earlier.
[4]
References
[
edit
]
- Victor R Savage, Brenda S A Yeoh (2003),
Toponymics - A Study of Singapore Street Names
, Eastern Universities Press,
ISBN
981-210-205-1