Research & Article

In  Penang,  history  is  being  kept  alive  through  a  growing  appreciation  of  the  heritage  of  its  historic  port,  which  once  served  as  a  regional  port  for  Thailand’s  south-western  seaboard,  Sumatra,  and  the  northern  peninsular  Malay  states.  The  local  heritage  movement  pushed  for  international  recognition  of  George  Town,  which was jointly nominated by the Malaysian government together with the older city  of  Melaka,  to  the  UNESCO  World  Heritage  list.  The  “Historic  Cities  of  the  Straits of Malacca” were gazetted as UNESCO sites on 7 July 2008. As part of this movement,  the  Penang  Heritage  Trust  organized  “The  Penang  Story,”  a  series  of  colloquia and an international conference in 2001–2002. This multi-level exercise involved both academics and community historians in sharing the social histories of the port city’s diverse multicultural population. In the following year a conference on “Shared Histories” explored Penang’s historical connections beyond borders. These two conferences have stimulated historical interest in Penang, uncovered Penang’s links to its Siamese past, and also helped to identify Siamese and Thai heritage in Penang.

The pre-British history of Penang is inseparable from the history of Kedah, a kingdom which has been under the sway of Sri Vijaya, the Chola dynasty of South India, and then Siam. Ancient Kedah was at a confluence of maritime and overland trading networks – sea routes poised at the entrance to the Straits of Malacca and fanning  out  to  the  Indian  Ocean  and  trans-peninsular  land  routes  reaching  over  to  the  Gulf  of  Siam  and  South  China  Sea.  This  strategic  position  was  usurped  by  the  British  trading  post  at  Penang,  which  emerged  as  the  most  modern  nexus  of  old regional trading networks.1 Envisioned by the English trader Captain Francis Light, Penang offered free port facilities, favourable terms of land alienation and freedom of worship, and succeeded in attracting thousands of settlers within the first few years. Chinese, Indians, Hadrami Arab and other foreign traders created permanent trading colonies, using Penang as a convenient station to venture into the surrounding hinterland.