1819 & Before: Singapore’s Pasts

Kwa Chong Guan (editor)
Hardback, 128 pages
9789814951111

The essays published here began as a series of lectures commemorating the bicentennial of Thomas Stamford Raffles’s establishment of a British Station in 1819. The essays draw on thirty-five years of archaeological investigations on and around Fort Canning, new readings of the Malay Annals, early Chinese records reporting Singapore, and the Portuguese and Dutch records to probe and challenge our understanding of Singapore’s history before Raffles. Altogether, these essays suggest that Singapore had a pre-1819 past that was deeply connected to the millennium-long maritime history of the Straits of Melaka and its links to the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean.

Contents
1. Introduction: Approaches to Singapore’s Past before 1819, by Kwa Chong Guan
2. Issues and Approaches to Studying Singapore before 1819, by John N Miksic
3. Regional Influences, International Geopolitics and Environmental Factors in the Rise and Demise of Temasek, by Derek Heng
4. The Mysterious Malay Jong and Other Temasek Shipping, by Michael Flecker
5. The Orang Laut and the Negara Selat (Realm of the Straits), by Leonard Y. Andaya
6. Avoidance of Shipwreck in the Malay Annals: A Trope in Buddhist Narratives of Maritime Crossings, by Andrea Acri
7. The Inception of Lion City, by Iain Sinclair
8. A Note on Amoghapśa-Lokeśvara in Singapura, by Kwa Chong Guan
9. Portuguese and Dutch Records for Singapore before 1819: An Overview, by Peter Borschberg
10. Zheng He’s Navigation Methods and His Visit to Longyamen, Singapore, by Tai Yew Seng