The Origin of Kuala Lumpur 吉隆坡由來

Most of the people know Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, for its Petronas Twin Towers. But not much knows that it's once rich and well known for the tin mining. Merely some knows that the name of Kuala Lumpur actually came from a story related to tin mining.

一般人對吉隆坡的認識都只限於那地標建築物 - 馬來西亞國油雙峰塔。鮮少人知道它曾經是以出產錫礦而聞名全世界，也很少人知道 "吉隆坡" 的地名背後其實是有一個有關採錫礦的故事。

It all began here, the confluence of two river - Gombak River (left) & Klang River (right).
It was back in 19th century when the river banks were germinated with tall coconut trees and thick forest. It's  an excellent place for adventurers and the miners, when the news that tin were found at Ampang on the upper river rang the bell. A member of the Selangor Royal family, Raja Abdullah, with the sensitive smell of opportunity and fortune, quickly imported some 87 Chinese from China in 1857 to dig the tine ore.

吉隆坡的起源與由來跟市中心裡的兩條河 - 鵝麥河和巴生河有很大的關係。

It was easy to come in through Klang river by boat. But when it came to the confluence of Gombak River & Klang River, it was too shallow for a boat to pass through, especially when the boat was full with miners. So everyone has to get down and started walking in the mud. If you have the chance to walk in the mud, you will know how hard to just move a step. There's a saying that the name of "Kuala Lumpur" actually came from this incident.

I believe that "Kuala Lumpur" actually means "kuala yang berlumpur", which literally means "muddy rivermouth" and muddy confluence for this situation. Imagine how hard our ancestors had to go up the river to reach Ampang which was around 8km away. Nowadays it only takes about an hour plus by walk to reach Ampang but over one and half century ago our ancestors had to walk in the jungle for many days to reach the destination.

After only two months, only 18 people out of 87 survived. Most of them died of malaria. But this didn't stop Raja Abdullah from gaining his wealth. He got another batch of 150 new miners to keep on the project. With two years of hard work, in 1859 they started to export tin using the same river they got up. It's a business that makes money. More feet stepping into the muddy confluence. Who cares about how dirty it is when it's a road leading to endless wealth?

picture source

photo source

People moving in and the population started to grow. The boat remained as the main transportation to bring in the flow. The local Malay gathered along the river banks to form a business area called Lebuh Pasar Besar (formerly called Market Street) to sell goods to miners to bring up to the mine. A piece of triangle land on the confluence of the Gombak & Klang rivers which was a Malay cementry was taken up to build a mosque. On 23rd December 1909, the opening of Masjid Jamek by Selangor Sultan Sir Alauddin Sulaiman Shah made it the first large mosque to be built in Kuala Lumpur of that time.

After a long time, from a muddy confluence Kuala Lumpur turned into a blooming city. The development continues and more feet stepping in, just that they are stepping on cement now instead of mud.