Melaka river cruise at night

OK. So went around and visited certain places in Melaka. Actually on the same day we also went to Muar before going back to Melaka at night. The mission is to take the Melaka river cruise at a time when we could get a good view of the lights. Here's a number of video clips following the night cruise. Enjoy it! :]

On to the tomb of Tun Teja...

After we're done at the city of Melaka, we next head southwards towards Muar and decided to visit the tomb of Tun Teja.

Who is Tun Teja? She was said to be an astounding beauty from a noble family in Pahang...



There is a long story regarding how the admiral Hang Tuah came to Pahang and managed to lure her to come to Melaka and marry the Sultan...

It is said that she died while retreating with the royal entourage following the conquest of the city of Melaka by the Portuguese in 1511 and that is why she was buried here, in the middle of a paddy field.

There is reason to believe that there was a settlement here once, even for a short while. This well in the compounds of the Tun Teja tomb complex should attest to that...

Visiting the Tengkera Mosque...

After the tomb of Hang Tuah, we next went to Masjid Tengkera, the mosque of Tengkera...

Built in the 1720s or so, it is one of the oldest still-existing mosque in Malaysia...


It used to be the state mosque of Melaka...

For information the word Tengkera came from Portuguese word tranquerah which means rampart or a low-built fortification. The surrounding area used to be a busy suburb lying just outside the main fort of A Famosa, the Portuguese military stronghold after they conquered the city of Melaka in 1511 AD. Thus it was protected by such a rampart. However this mosque was built only after the Dutch took over rule starting in 1641. The Portuguese were very much against Islam and used to destroy every mosque they could get their hands on while the Dutch adopted a more egalitarian policy to get the Muslims to work alongside...

At the grounds of the mosque lies the tomb of Sultan Hussin Shah. For the record he was the ruler of the remnants of the Johor-Riau-Lingga empire which used to inherit the colonies of the Melaka Sultanate. Too bad the empire was broken apart by the Dutch-Anglo Treaty of 1824, during his rule...

A family visit to the tomb of Hang Tuah...

OK. Let's continue the process of releasing stories based on my December 2009 picture file. Consider this the continuation from the article Kampung Morten at night ...

After spending the night at my brother-in-law's place at Tanjung Puteri, we visited the tomb of Hang Tuah in Tanjung Keling...

For information, Hang Tuah was a well-reknowned Malay warrior who used to be the admiral leading the Melaka Sultanate army in the 15th century AD...

To the right one could see a monument engraved with the words "tidak Melayu hilang di dunia (the Malays won't ever disappear from the world)" said to be uttered by the very famous olden admiral.

Hang Tuah's prowess in the Malay martial arts called Silat is legendary. Some even said he was a wali, a person who has attained saintly status in the eyes of God.

That is why his tomb is is some 20 metres-long they said! Then again, make no mistake. Just because someone's tomb is 20 metres long, it doesn't mean he is 20 metres tall. If that is the case, shouldn't logic dictates that the tomb should also be 5 metres wide to accomodate the commensurating width and physical size? Otherwise, there is no way anyone could be 20 metres tall but yet has a body of the normal 0.5 to at most 1 metres-wide as attested by the width of the tomb. There is no way someone with such a figure would be able to walk properly what more perform feats of martial arts.

No sir. Such long tombs actually exist to signify a person's saintly status, at least in the eyes of men. Anyway this tomb of Hang Tuah in Tanjung Keling is not his original tomb. No one actually knows where Hang Tuah died or where he was buried at. The tomb in Tanjung Keling is said to be just a reminder and tribute to the great warrior. It is said that after Hang Tuah disappeared from Melaka, the Sultan tends to stare out into the window right towards Tanjung Keling and thus a tomb was erected in his remembrance...

p/s: This is the 454th article in this blogspot.