A Brief History of Taiping

          The town of Taiping was born out of the wars over the tin-fields of Larut district in the State of Perak.

          Larut was first promoted by a young adventurer named Long Ja'afar, who reportedly  found tin while bathing in a stream. Long Ja'afar brought the first group of Chinese miners from Penang to help him work the mines at Klian Pauh. These miners were Hakka Chinese members of the Hai San, a Penang based Chinese secret society, led by Chung Keng Kooi.

          Not long afterwards, another group of miners migrated to a nearby area called Klian Baru, literally, "new mines". Oral tradition has it that the deposits were discovered when a runaway elephant which strayed into the area was found with its hooves covered in tin-rich mud.

          Long Ja'afar was succeeded by his son Ngah Ibrahim, known as the Mantri of Larut. Around 1856, he built his fort, residence and store, now known as Kota Ngah Ibrahim, in Matang. He established the first modern system of administration in Perak, which had a police force, a judge and magistrate, a treasurer and a clerk.

          In 1861, a fight broke out between the miners of Klian Pauh and Klian Baru over the control of a water-course. Protracted feuding took place over the years between several groups of rival miners, from various Chinese secret societies. Consequently, Ngah Ibrahim engaged Captain Speedy and his Indian soldiers of fortune to quell the "Larut Wars", promising  Speedy a salary and a share of the revenue.

          Pressured by Chinese merchants who had invested heavily in the tin mines, the new Governer of the Straits Settlements negotiated a treaty  with Raja Abdullah and several Malay Chiefs. The historic Pangkor Treaty of 1874 obliged the British -appointed Sultan to accept the "advice" of a colonial officer, and became the starting point of British intervention into the Malay States. At the same time, a separate agreement was signed with the headmen of the warring Chinese secret societies to keep the peace.

          From being an employee of Ngah Ibrahim, Speedy became the Assistant Resident stationed at Larut. He planned for the establishment of two towns, one called Taiping, for the Hakka Chinese, and another called Kamunting, for the rival group. It was Speedy who gave the name to Taiping, which "being the Chinese for 'Everlasting Peace', I regarded as a happy omen for the future."

          With his new-found peace, miners and shopkeepers flocked to Taiping, and within a year there were 5,000 inhabitants.   Larut's development was fuelled by revenue from tin duties. A fou-mile road joining Taiping and Kamunting was one of the many roads that was built.

          In 1875, the assassination of the first British Resident of Perak, J.W.W. Birch, necessitated the use of coercion to consolidate the British position in Perak. A punitive expedition by British troops ensued. This "Perak War" eliminated  many chiefs who were hostile towards the British. Ngah Ibrahim, Sultan Abdullah and other chiefs who were implicated in Birch's murder were exiled to the Seychelles in 1877. Ngah Ibrahim never returned to Perak. He died in Singapore in 1895.

          By 1877, the seat of Perak's administration was moved from Lower Perak to Kuala Kangsar in Upper Perak, just south of Taiping. Several important institution were established in Taiping, including the gaol, the hospital, the police force and the survey office. In terms of its town plan and development, the pioneer settlement of Taiping was given a second chance:

           "On re-laying out of the town of Thaipeng, which took place after the great fires in 1880, the main streets were widened to seventy feet and  the cross streets to sixty feet. Some of these were taken through abandoned mining land which necessitated great unforeseen expense in   filling up the old pits, and the metalling of the larger streets cost much more than had been anticipated.... The result has been that, instead of a dirty village of attap huts traversed by narrow crooked lanes, the new town contains blocks of brick buildings of neat appearance equal to the best which are usually seen in the trading part of the towns of the Strait Settlements, and sanitary regulations have become hopeful..."

          The predominantly Chinese town consisted of shophouse, laid  out in a grid. At one end of this town were the British officers' detached quarters, the military cantonment and the gaol. At the other end was the Indian settlement of Kota.

          Taiping's streets were kept meticulously clean by the Taiping Sanitary Board. Its reputation as a salubrious town was enhanced by the cool weather, the excellant water supply and the nearby highlands. Maxwell Hill (now called Bukit Larut) was made a hill resort for the British Officers. Situated on a flat plain, from which the Gunung Hijau range rose abruptly to a height of over 5,000 feet, and only 13  miles from the coast, Taiping's location was strategic.

          While Taiping's ealy development was guided by Sir Hugh Low as Resident of Perak (1877-1899), it was during Frank Swettenham's term as Acting Resident (1884-1886) when many existing institutions such as the market, the gaol, the post and telegraph office, the assistant resident's house, and the police offices were rebuilt and expanded. Low commented that,

          "The architectural pretensions of all the buildings undertaken by the advice of Mr Swettenham shows a very great improvement in taste on those which were erected in the preceding years, and.... are equal in beauty of design and excellence of workmanship to anything to be found in any older Colony."

          Convict labour enabled the public works department to carry out ambitious construction and landscapping projects. In 1882, it was reported that,

          "A large number of prisoners was employed  profitably at earth work on the slopes of Fort Carnarvon, the Residency Grounds, on cutting granite for the Town Water Works, and  for the road culverts, in the conservancy of the Town of Thaipeng, at the Gaol Laundry, at the Bakery which supplies all Thaipeng with bread and on other useful works."

           The prisoners also printed the annual Perak Government Gazette at the Government Printing Office in the Taiping Gaol.

          In 1885,  the controversial 8-mile railway line from Taiping to Port Weld was completed. It was the first railway in the Peninsula, and two contingents of the Ceylon Pioneer Corps were seconded by the colonial government of Ceylon for the project.

          As clubs and schools flourished, Taiping led in sports. Personalities such as Frank Swettenham and Col. Walker played cricket regularly at the Esplanade field.

          By the 1890s, the Kinta Valley had superceded Larut as the principal tin-mining area in the Peninsula. The Federated Malay States (FMS), comprising Perak, Selangor, Pahang and Negeri Sembilan, were formed in 1896, and Kuala Lumpur was made its capital.

           The administrative centre of Perak remained in Taiping, but already talk had begun of relocating it to Ipoh. The citizens of Taiping argued for their town to remain the capital through the Taiping Weekly Record, while Ipoh's mouthpiece was the Times of Malaya.

          Taiping's importance was briefly resumed during the period of Japanese Occupation, when it became the headquarters of the Japanese military administration of Malaya and Sumatra. Many of Taiping's school buildings were turned into army bases.

          In August 1945, Sukarno and Mohd. Hatta, later first President and Vice-President of the Republic of Indonesia respectively, flew into the Taiping aerodrome for a meeting with Dr. Burhanuddin al-Helmi and Ibrahim Yaacob, leaders of the organisation called KRIS to discuss the possibility of declaring the independence of Malaya jointly with Indonesia. The meeting was arranged by the Japanese military administration, which was then occupying the two countries. The plan was not carried out and Indonesia declared its independence in 1945 without Malaya.

          After the war, Ipoh replaced Taiping as the capital of Perak by an administrative flat.

          Taiping, a town of many first, is one of Perak's foremost historic attractions. Its built environment, consisting of colonial  buildings, public gardens, old roadside trees and shophouse ensembles, tells the story of its development from 1874 to the present. This remarkable heritage, together with the town's exceptional climate and tranquil surroundings, continues to earn Taiping its reputation as the town of everlasting peace.