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Introduction
Penang (Malay: Pulau Pinang, [pi.naŋ]) is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia, by the Malacca Strait. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay Peninsula. The two halves are connected by the Penang Bridge and the Second Penang Bridge; the latter is also the second longest sea crossing in Southeast Asia. The second smallest Malaysian state by land mass, Penang is bordered by Kedah to the north and the east, and Perak to the south.
Penang is the 8th most populated state in Malaysia. Its population stood at 1.74 million as of 2020 while its population density of 1,661/km2 (4,300/sq mi) was among the nation's highest; Penang is also one of the country's most urbanised states. Seberang Perai is Malaysia's second-largest city by population. Its heterogeneous population is highly diverse in ethnicity, culture, language and religion. Aside from the three main races, the Malays, Chinese, and Indians, Penang is home to significant Eurasian, Siamese and expatriate communities. A resident of Penang is colloquially known as a Penangite or Penang Lang (Penang Hokkien: 庇能儂; Tâi-lô: Pī-néeng-lâng) in Penang Hokkien due to the significant Penangite Chinese population.
Penang's modern history began in 1786, upon the establishment of George Town by Francis Light. Penang formed part of the Straits Settlements in 1826, which became a British crown colony in 1867. Direct British rule was only briefly interrupted during World War II, when Japan occupied Penang; the British retook Penang in 1945. Penang was later merged with the Federation of Malaya (now Malaysia), which gained independence from the British in 1957.
Following the decline of its entrepôt trade towards the 1970s, Penang's economy was reoriented towards electronics manufacturing, diversifying towards the end of the 20th century with the growth of the tertiary sector. Today, it has become one of Malaysia's most vital economic powerhouses. Penang has the third highest Human Development Index (HDI) among Malaysia's states and territories, after Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.
Etymology
The name Penang comes from the modern Malay name Pulau Pinang which means "areca nut island". The State of Penang is also referred to as the Pearl of the Orient and "The Island of Pearls" (in Malay: Pulau Mutiara).
Penang Island was originally known by native seafarers as Pulau Ka-Satu, meaning The First Island, because it was the largest island encountered on the trading sea-route between Lingga and Kedah. Similarly, the Siamese, then the overlord of Kedah, referred to the island as Koh Maak (Thai: เกาะหมาก).
In the 15th century, Penang Island was referred to as Bīngláng Yù[citation needed] (traditional Chinese: 檳榔嶼; simplified Chinese: 槟榔屿; pinyin: bīng láng yǔ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Pin-nn̂g-sū; lit. 'areca nut island') in the navigational drawings used by Admiral Zheng He of Ming China. Emanuel Godinho de Eredia, a 16th-century Portuguese historian, also referred to the island as Pulo Pinaom in the Description of Malacca.
History
Prehistory
Human remains, dating back to about 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, have been uncovered in Seberang Perai, along with seashells, pottery and hunting tools. These artifacts indicate that the earliest inhabitants of Penang were nomadic Melanesians during the Neolithic era.
Early history
The Cherok Tok Kun megalith in Bukit Mertajam, uncovered in 1845, contains Pali inscriptions, indicating that the Hindu-Buddhist Bujang Valley civilisation based in what is now Kedah had established control over parts of Seberang Perai by the 6th century. The entirety of what is now Penang would later become part of the Sultanate of Kedah up to the late 18th century.
Founding of Penang
Fort Cornwallis in George Town was built on the spot where Francis Light first set foot in 1786.The first British vessel arrived in Penang in June 1592. This ship, the Edward Bonadventure, was captained by James Lancaster. However, it was not until the 18th century did the British establish a permanent presence on the island. Prior to the first British settlement, in the early 18th century, three brothers of cross-strait traders from Minangkabau of Sumatra establish settlements on the island. They were Nakhoda Bayan, Nakhoda Intan, and Nakhoda Kecil who brought several followers from Batubara, northeast of Sumatra. They received the appropriate permissions by Ahmad Tajuddin, the sultan of Kedah, and then establish the settlements in Bayan Lepas, Balik Pulau, Gelugor, and Tanjung (now George Town). Other Minang merchants, Datuk Jannaton and Datuk Maharaja Setia who came in 1749, establish Batu Uban area.
In the 1770s, Francis Light was instructed by the British East India Company to form trade relations in the Malay Peninsula. Light subsequently landed in Kedah, which was by then a Siamese vassal state. Aware that the Sultanate was under external and internal threats, he promised British military protection to the then Sultan of Kedah, Sultan Muhammad Jiwa Zainal Adilin II; in return, the Sultan offered Penang Island to the British.
British acquisition and expansion of Penang (in yellow) occurred between 1786 and 1874, when the final alterations to Penang's boundaries were enacted.It was only in 1786 when the British East India Company finally ordered Light to obtain the island from Kedah. Light negotiated with the new Sultan of Kedah, Sultan Abdullah Mukarram Shah, regarding the cession of the island to the British East India Company in exchange for British military aid. After an agreement between Light and the Sultan was ratified, Light and his entourage sailed on to Penang Island, where they arrived on 17 July 1786. Light took formal possession of the island on 11 August "in the name of His Britannic Majesty, King George III and the Honourable East India Company". Penang Island was renamed the Prince of Wales Island after the heir to the British throne, while the new settlement of George Town was established in honour of King George III.
Unbeknownst to Sultan Abdullah, Light had been acting without the authority or the consent of his superiors in India. When Light reneged on his promise of military protection, the Kedah Sultan launched an attempt to recapture the Prince of Wales Island in 1791; the British East India Company subsequently defeated the Kedah forces. The Sultan sued for peace and an annual payment of 6000 Spanish dollars to the Sultan was agreed.
In 1800, Lieutenant-Governor Sir George Leith secured a strip of hinterland across the Penang Strait which in subsequent years was named Province Wellesley (now Seberang Perai). The treaty, negotiated between Leith's First Assistant George Caunter and the new Sultan of Kedah, superseded Light's earlier agreement and gave the British permanent sovereignty over both Prince of Wales Island and the newly ceded mainland territory. Province Wellesley was then gradually expanded up to its present-day boundaries in 1874. In exchange for the acquisition, the annual payment to the Sultan of Kedah was increased to 10,000 Spanish dollars per annum. From 1874 until 2018, the Malaysian federal government (and its historical predecessors) paid Kedah, on behalf of Penang, RM 10,000 annually as a symbolic gesture.
Since 2018, the Malaysian federal government revised the payments to Kedah, increasing to RM 10 million a year to Kedah (whilst in 2021, the Menteri Besar of Kedah, Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor, in reference to the annual payments, demanded the payments be raised to RM 100 million annually. Despite claims by Sanusi, there was never a lease agreement between Kedah and Penang.)
Colonial Penang
A 1799 map of George TownLight founded George Town as a free port to entice traders away from nearby Dutch trading posts. Simultaneously, spices were harvested on the island, turning it into a regional centre for spice production. Consequently, maritime trade at the Port of Penang grew exponentially; the number of incoming vessels rose from 85 in 1786 to 3,569 in 1802.
In 1805, Penang became a separate presidency of British India, sharing similar status with Bombay and Madras. By 1808, a local government for George Town was in place, whilst the establishment of the Supreme Court of Penang marked the birth of Malaysia's modern judiciary. In 1826, Penang, Singapore and Malacca were incorporated into the Straits Settlements, with George Town as the capital.
However, Penang's importance was soon supplanted by Singapore, as the latter rapidly outstripped the Port of Penang as the region's premier entrepôt. In 1832, Singapore replaced George Town as the capital of the Straits Settlements.
The Port of Penang in George Town in the 1910sEven so, the Port of Penang retained its importance as a vital British entrepôt. Towards the end of the 19th century, it became a major tin-exporting harbour. George Town concurrently evolved into Malaya's principal financial hub, as banks and mercantile firms flocked into the city. Meanwhile, other towns, including Bayan Lepas on the island, and Butterworth and Bukit Mertajam in Province Wellesley, emerged due to agricultural and logistical developments.
Throughout the century, Penang's cosmopolitan population, comprising Chinese, Malay, Indian, Peranakan, Eurasian, Thai and other ethnicities, grew rapidly in tandem with the economic prosperity. However, the population growth also led to social problems, such as inadequate sanitation and public health facilities, as well as rampant crime, with the latter culminating in the Penang Riots of 1867. Also in 1867, the Straits Settlements was made a British crown colony. Direct British rule meant better law enforcement, as the police force was beefed up and the secret societies that had previously plagued Penang were gradually outlawed. More investments were also made on health care and public transportation.
Due to the improved access to education, the active participation in municipal affairs by its Asian residents and substantial press freedom, George Town was perceived as being more intellectually receptive than Singapore. The city became a magnet for reputable English authors, Asian intellectuals and revolutionaries, including Rudyard Kipling, Somerset Maugham and Sun Yat-sen.
World wars
The Cenotaph in George Town, erected after World War I, commemorates fallen Allied soldiers.During World War I, in the Battle of Penang, the German cruiser SMS Emden surreptitiously sailed to Penang Island and sank two Allied warships off its coast, Russian protected cruiser Zhemchug and the French destroyer Mousquet. One hundred and forty-seven French and Russian sailors perished during the battle.World War II led to unparallelled social and political upheaval. Although Penang Island had been designated as a fortress, Penang fell to the Imperial Japanese Army on 19 December 1941, after suffering devastating aerial attacks. The British covertly evacuated Penang's European populace; historians have since contended that the moral collapse of British rule in Southeast Asia came not at Singapore, but at Penang.
British Royal Marines liberating George Town on 3 September 1945.Penang Island was subsequently renamed Tojo-to, after Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo. The period of Japanese occupation was renowned for the Imperial Japanese Army's massacres of Penang's Chinese populace, known as Sook Ching to the locals. Women in Penang were also coerced to work as comfort women by the Japanese. Meanwhile, the Port of Penang was put to use as a major submarine base by the Axis Powers.
In the last years of the war, Allied bombers from India repeatedly bombed George Town, seeking to destroy the naval facilities and administrative centres. Several colonial buildings were destroyed or damaged, such as the Government Offices, St. Xavier's Institution and Hutchings School (now Penang State Museum). The Penang Strait was also mined to constrict Japanese shipping. Following the surrender of Japan, British forces launched Operation Jurist to recapture Penang Island on 3 September 1945, making George Town the first city in Malaya to be liberated from the Japanese.
Post-war years
Flag of the Crown Colony of Penang between 1949 and 1957.Penang was placed under a military administration until 1946. Subsequently, the Straits Settlements was abolished, as the British sought to consolidate the various political entities in British Malaya under a single polity named the Malayan Union. The now separate Crown Colony of Penang was consequently merged into the Malayan Union, which was then replaced by the Federation of Malaya in 1948.
The idea of the absorption of Penang into the vast Malay heartland initially proved unpopular amongst Penangites. Economic and ethnic concerns led to the formation of the Penang Secessionist Committee in 1948. However, the committee's attempt to avert Penang's merger with Malaya ultimately petered out due to British disapproval.
The British government allayed the concerns raised by the secessionists by guaranteeing George Town's free port status, as well as reintroducing municipal elections in George Town in 1951. By 1956, George Town became the first fully elected municipality in Malaya and in the following year, it was granted city status by Queen Elizabeth II, becoming the first city within the Federation of Malaya, and by extension, Malaysia.
Post-independence era
The Komtar Tower, Penang's tallest skyscraper, was built in the 1970s.George Town was, since colonial times, a free port—until its sudden revocation by the Malaysian federal government in 1969. Penang subsequently suffered an economic crisis, with the loss of maritime trade resulting in massive unemployment and brain drain. To alleviate the downturn, the then Chief Minister, Lim Chong Eu, masterminded the construction of the Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone. The zone, regarded by many as the Silicon Valley of the East, proved instrumental in reversing Penang's economic slump and led to the state's rapid economic growth until the late 1990s.During Lim's tenure, a number of major infrastructural projects were also undertaken, chiefly the Penang Bridge, the first road link between Penang Island and the Malay Peninsula. Completed in 1985, it was the longest bridge in Southeast Asia until 2014 when it was superseded by the Second Penang Bridge.
The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami hit parts of Penang Island, killing 52 people (out of 68 in all of Malaysia).However, the persistent brain drain, exacerbated by federal government policies that favoured the development of Kuala Lumpur, meant that Penang was no longer at the forefront of the country's economy by the 2000s. Penang's economy slowed down in the early 2000s, while the deteriorating state of affairs in general, including an incoherent urban planning policy, poor traffic management and the dilapidation of George Town's heritage buildings due to the repeal of the Rent Control Act in 2001, led to simmering discontent within Penang's society.
In response, George Town's non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the national press galvanised public support and formed strategic partnerships to restore the city to its former glory. Also as a result of the widespread resentment, the then federal opposition coalition, Pakatan Rakyat (now Pakatan Harapan), was voted into power within Penang in the 2008 State Election, replacing the erstwhile administration led by the Barisan Nasional. Meanwhile, the efforts to conserve George Town's heritage architecture paid off, when in 2008, the city's historical core was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city of George Town along with Malacca City was confirmed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011.
The Indian Ocean tsunami which struck on Boxing Day of 2004 hit the western and northern coasts of Penang Island, claiming 52 lives (out of 68 in Malaysia).
Culture
Festivals
Penang's diverse, cosmopolitan society means that there are a great many celebrations and festivities in any given year. The major cultural and religious festivities in the state include, but not limited to, the Chinese New Year, Eid ul-Fitri, Deepavali, Thaipusam, Vaisakhi, Christmas, Vesak Day and Songkran.
Expatriates residing in Penang have also introduced a host of other celebrations. Bon Odori is celebrated yearly by the Japanese in George Town, while St. Patrick's Day and Oktoberfest, traditionally celebrated by the Irish and the Germans respectively, have also been gaining popularity amongst the locals.
Moreover, Penang hosts several major festivals in any given year. The George Town Festival, first held in 2010, has evolved into one of the largest arts events in Southeast Asia, while the Penang Hot Air Balloon Fiesta attracts close to 200,000 visitors from all over the world.
Performance arts
A Chingay troupe in George TownGeorge Town is the birthplace of a unique form of the Chingay procession. Introduced in 1919, Penang's variant of Chingay includes the act of balancing gigantic flags on one's forehead or hands. A yearly Chingay parade is held in the city every December, though Chingay performances are also a common feature of Chinese festivities and major state celebrations in Penang.
Bangsawan, which was also developed in Penang, is a type of Malay theatre that incorporates Indian, Western, Islamic, Chinese and Indonesian influences. Boria is also indigenous to Penang, featuring singing accompanied by violin, maracas and tabla.
Aside from these, the state has orchestras based in George Town, the Penang Philharmonic Orchestra, Penang Symphony Orchestra, as well as several chamber and musical organisations, including the award-winning social enterprise, The Rondo Production . Dewan Sri Pinang and Penangpac within Straits Quay are two of the major performing venues in the city.[citation needed]
Street art
Ernest Zacharevic's Children on a Bicycle in George TownIn 2012, as part of the George Town Festival, Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic created a series of 6 wall paintings depicting local culture, inhabitants and lifestyles. In addition, several wrought iron caricatures have been installed within George Town, with each caricature detailing the city's history and the daily lives of its inhabitants. In recent years, the street art scene has also begun to grow out of the city, in areas such as Balik Pulau and Butterworth.
In addition, art exhibitions are frequently held at cultural centres within George Town, such as the Hin Bus Depot.
Museums
The Penang State Museum and Art Gallery in George Town is the state's primary public museum; it houses relics, photographs, maps, and other artefacts that document the history and culture of Penang.
Other museums in the city focus on religious and cultural aspects, as well as famous personalities, including the Penang Islamic Museum, Sun Yat-sen Museum, Batik Painting Museum, and Universiti Sains Malaysia Museum and Gallery. Besides that, the birthplace of Malaysia's legendary singer-actor, P. Ramlee, has been restored and turned into a museum
In recent years, private-run museums have sprung up throughout the city, such as the Camera Museum and the Penang Toy Museum. A handful of newer 3D visual and interactive museums have also been established, such as the Made-in-Penang Interactive Museum and the Penang Time Tunnel.
Architecture
Wat Chaiyamangkalaram is a Thai Buddhist temple at Pulau Tikus.Penang is home to a relatively wide variety of architectures, both historical and modern. The historical core of George Town has been inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its unique architectural and cultural townscape without parallel anywhere in East and Southeast Asia.
Skyscrapers at Gurney Drive in George TownFort Cornwallis, in George Town, was the first structure built by the British in Penang. The city's UNESCO World Heritage Site also covers several important landmarks, including the City Hall, the Penang High Court, St. George's Church, the Eastern & Oriental Hotel and the Central Business District at Beach Street. Aside from European architecture, a huge assortment of Asian architectural styles also exists throughout George Town, exemplified by buildings like the Kong Hock Keong Temple, Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, the Pinang Peranakan Mansion, Khoo Kongsi, Snake Temple, Kapitan Keling Mosque and Sri Mahamariamman Temple. Meanwhile, the Siamese and the Burmese have also left a visible impact on certain landmarks within the city, such as Wat Chaiyamangkalaram, Dhammikarama Burmese Temple and Kek Lok Si.
Aside from the colonial era architecture, Penang Island contains most of the skyscrapers within Penang, with the state's tallest buildings all located within the island. The tallest skyscrapers in George Town, and by extension, Penang, include the Komtar Tower, Setia V, Gurney Paragon and Arte S.
Cuisine
A bowl of Penang Hokkien meeGeorge Town, popularly regarded as the food capital of Malaysia, is renowned for its good and varied cuisine which incorporates Malay, Chinese, Indian, Peranakan, Thai and European influences. The city has been recognised by various publications, such as Time Magazine, CNN and Lonely Planet, as one of the Asian cities with the best street cuisine. According to Time Magazine in 2004, "nowhere else can such great tasting food be so cheap," whilst Robin Barton of the Lonely Planet described George Town as the culinary epicentre of the many cultures that arrived after it was set up as a trading port in 1786, from Malays to Indians, Acehenese to Chinese, Burmese to Thais.
The various street dishes and delicacies of Penang include (but not limited to) asam laksa, Nasi Lemuni, char kway teow, curry mee, Hokkien mee, nasi kandar, oh chien (fried oyster omelette), lor bak, rojak, pasembur, chendol, ais kacang, and tau sar pneah (bean paste biscuit).
In art and literature
In her poetical illustration Pulo Penang., to a drawing by Samuel Austin, Letitia Elizabeth Landon compares the beauties of the island with those of the speaker's beloved.
Geography
Aerial view of George Town. The city is physically separated from Butterworth (bottom) by the Penang Strait.Enlargeable, detailed map of PenangWith a total land area of just 1,048 km2 (405 sq mi), Penang is the second smallest state in Malaysia by area after Perlis. Penang, situated at the northwestern coastline of Peninsular Malaysia, lies between latitudes 5.59° and 5.12°N, and longitudes 100.17° and 100.56°E. The state consists of Penang Island, Seberang Perai (a narrow strip of the Malay Peninsula) and a handful of smaller islets. Its capital city, George Town, is located at the northeastern tip of Penang Island.
Topography
Penang is geographically divided into two major halves physically divided by the Penang Strait.
- Penang Island, a 293 km2 (113 sq mi) island.
- Seberang Perai, a 751 km2 (290 sq mi) hinterland on the Malay Peninsula. It is bordered by Kedah to the east and north, and by Perak to the south.
The Penang Strait is further divided into the North Channel and the South Channel. At the strait's narrowest section, George Town on the island is separated from Butterworth on the mainland by a mere 3 km (1.9 mi).
View of George Town as seen from Seberang Perai, with Penang Hill in the backgroundPenang Island is irregularly shaped, with a hilly and mostly forested interior; its coastal plains are narrow, the most extensive of which is at the northeastern cape. With a height of 833 m (2,733 ft), Penang Hill, at the centre of the island, is the tallest point within Penang. From a small settlement at the northeastern tip of Penang Island, George Town has expanded over the centuries, particularly in the northwestern, western and southern directions, eventually linking up with Bayan Lepas at the island's southeast and urbanising the entire eastern coast of the island. In contrast, much of the western coast of Penang Island has seen little development beyond a few scattered fishing villages, and is dominated by mangrove swamps. Meanwhile, the topography of Seberang Perai is mostly flat, save for a few hills such as Bukit Mertajam.
The major rivers within Penang include the Pinang, Perai, Muda and Kerian rivers. In particular, the Muda River serves as the northern border between Seberang Perai and Kedah, while the Kerian River forms the southern boundary between Seberang Perai, Kedah and Perak.
Due to land scarcity, land reclamation projects have been undertaken in high-demand areas such as Tanjung Tokong, Jelutong and Gurney Drive. The latter is being transformed into Gurney Wharf which is a planned seafront park, with land for this purpose currently being reclaimed off Gurney Drive in George Town. Intended as a "new iconic waterfront destination for Penang", Phase 1 of the development is scheduled for completion by 2018. Upon the expected completion of Gurney Wharf by August 2021, the 24.28-hectare seafront park will comprise four distinct recreational areas - a beach, a coastal grove, a water garden, and a seaside retail food and beverages (F&B) area. An additional reclamation project at Bayan Baru themed “Linear Waterfront" would extend the electronics-dominated Free Industrial Zone and would include improving and adding fishermen's wharves set up as well also have hotels, restaurants, medical and other developments.
Nature and parks
The Penang Botanic Gardens was built in 1884.In spite of rapid urbanisation, Penang has still managed to safeguard a considerable area of natural environment. Within the state, 7,761 ha (77.61 km2) have been designated as protected forest reserves.
The central hills of Penang Island, including Penang Hill, serve as the green lung for the urbanised island. Two of the major parks within George Town - the Penang Botanical Gardens and the City Park - are situated near the hills.
Penang is also home to the smallest national park in the world - the Penang National Park. Covering 2,562 ha (25.62 km2) of the northwestern tip of Penang Island, it encompasses mangrove swamps, rainforest interspersed with hiking trails and tranquil beaches. Other notable natural attractions nearby include the Tropical Spice Garden and the Entopia Butterfly Farm, the latter of which was Malaysia's first butterfly sanctuary.
In Seberang Perai, the Penang Bird Park, established in 1988 in Seberang Jaya, was the first aviary in Malaysia.
Outlying islets
Penang also consists of nine other islets off its coasts. The biggest of all, Jerejak Island, is located in the South Channel of the Penang Strait. Once the site of a leper asylum built in 1868, which was later converted into a maximum-security penitentiary, Jerejak Island remains heavily forested. The other islets under the jurisdiction of Penang include Aman, Betong, Gedung, Kendi and Rimau.
Climate
As in the rest of Malaysia, Penang has a tropical rainforest climate bordering on a tropical monsoon climate, although the state does experience slightly drier conditions from December to February of the following year. The climate is very much dictated by the surrounding sea and the prevailing wind system.
Penang's proximity with the island of Sumatra makes it susceptible to dust particles carried by wind from perennial but transient forest fires, creating a phenomenon known as the Southeast Asian haze.
The Penang Meteorological Office in Bayan Lepas is the primary weather forecast facility for northern Malaysia.
Urban and suburban areas
A map of Penang with the locations of the capital city of George Town and its suburbs, and other major towns.George Town Conurbation
Map of the George Town Conurbation, which encompasses Penang, southern Kedah and northern Perak.Penang forms the heart of the George Town Conurbation, Malaysia's second largest metropolitan area after the Klang Valley. Centred in George Town, the metropolitan area encompasses the entire State of Penang, southern Kedah and northern Perak. As of 2020, Greater Penang had over 2.83 million residents. Greater Penang also generated a GDP of US$13,596,418 in 2010, making the conurbation one of the biggest contributors of Malaysia's GDP.
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