Home » Nusantara
More Kuching Waterfront
13 October 2003
4 Comments
Petrajaya as seen from the waterfront.
Here’s one last picture that should have gone with the last set. It’s the city hall of North Kuching, perched on a hill. Some of the older neighborhoods of Petrajaya, the city’s north bank, can be seen in the middleground. Kuching is split into two separate cities, North and South Kuching. It’s a very arbitrary divide; the boundary doesn’t really follow the river or any other natural division. In fact, the city was split only several decades ago. If I had to speculate, I’d say it was a political move. Kuching North is majority Malay, Kuching South majority Chinese. What I’m still curious about is the origin of the name Petrajaya; is it synonomous with Kuching North? I don’t know. Kuching South has a very pretty city hall as well; I’ll try to get a picture some time.
Erm… as exotic as Zanzibar!
Petra Jaya is a satellite city, conceived in (I believe) 1970s, for the new seat of State (Note that the D.U.N. MASJA etc etc is there)
For me, it’s not synonomous, for Kuching North extends all the way up north till Santubong.
Kuching North incorporates Petra Jaya and part of what is the southern city area.
The boundaries between Kuching North and Kuching South are marked by the big white cat statue and the Holiday Inn Hotel.
Petra Jaya is Kuching’s suburb and the seat of the state government. It is the northern bank of the Sarawak River.
It is named after the sixth King of Malaysia, Sultan Yahya Petra who ruled from 1975 to his death in 1979.
He was the sultan of Kelantan.
It was during his reign that Petra Jaya was mooted by the then chief minister Tun Abdul Rahman Yaakub, the uncle of the incumbent chief minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud.
Coincidentally, both Abdul Rahman and Abdul Taib are related to Sultan Yahya Petra.
A great, great grandfather of Abdul Rahman was a prince of Kelantan and he married into the Melanau aristocracy in Sibu, to produce the family of Abdul Rahman and his elder sister, the mother of Abdul Taib.
Sultan Yahya Petra’s son Sultan Ismail Petra, the present sultan of Kelantan, is set to be elected deputy king of Malaysia in 2006 and king in 2011.
i like kuching!!!
Leave your response!
Ephemera
Pete O'Neal, former Black Panther, is running an orphanage in rural Tanzania and confronting his mortality.
Author and Professor Dr Jamillah Karim spent a year living in Kuala Lumpur. Read this great interview by Sister Brooke, and then visit Dr Jamillah's blog for a series of thoughtful reflections on what living in Malaysia was like for her as an African American Muslim, what insights she gained about the immigrant Muslim experience in America and more.
Granfalloon (n) : "A proud and meaningless association of human beings." A word coined by Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) in his book Cat's Cradle. I was recalling the concept recently for some reason but couldn't bring the term to mind. There it is: A granfalloon. The idea is illustrated in the book by a woman from Indiana who is just thrilled to meet Hoosiers everywhere she goes, a Hoosier being a name for people from the state of Indiana, but the shared qualities she recognizes in Hoosiers exists only in her own mind. Thanks, Kurt.
Recent Photos on Flickr
Recent Comments
Subscribe
Meta
Blogroll
Most Commented