Iconic motifs that feature Johor's economic crops - pepper and gambier - on lamp posts throughout the city |
When you drive
along the streets in the city and on the expressways, do you take notice of the
designs that decorate the lamp-posts? Look
closer and you will see that the design features intertwined sprigs of pepper
and gambier plants. This motif is
repeated in several variations on lamp-posts at different locations in the
state and is consistently used as a Johor icon. This motif however, has become so common that even
many local people may not know the historical significance of these plants.
Pepper and gambier have earned a place of honour in Johor
because their widespread cultivation played a vital role in the state’s economy
in the 1800s. At that time, Johor was
the world’s largest producer of gambier because large plantations were
cultivated with pepper and gambier as the state’s economic crops.
This is a mind-boggling historical achievement
for Johor and it made me think about the strong relationship between the
Chinese and Malay communities in the pioneering era. When I saw the set of Chinese couplets
displayed in the Sultan Abu Bakar Royal Museum within Istana Gardens, presented
by Chinese community leaders to the sultan at the inauguration of the Johor
Sultanate, I started to dig into history to find out more.
Samples of pepper and gambier displayed in the JB Chinese Heritage Museum |
In the 1800s
gambier plantations in Singapore and the Riau Islands were run by Chinese and
Malay farmers and the produce was mainly exported to China. Pepper and gambier plants were usually
planted together as these plants share a symbiotic relationship and tend to
grow entwined around each other. The
remains of gambier leaves on the ground act as nutrients or fertilizers for
pepper plants while protecting the pepper plant roots. Europe was a major market and the peak of the
gambier trade lasted from the 1830s to 1850s.
Gambier had a big market in the British dyeing and tanning industry
which resulted in increased prices and encouraged the Chinese to find fresh
land for new plantations.
Pieces of processed gambier in a bowl, cutting tool and gunny sack hook - tools used in the gambier industry - are preserved in the JB Chinese Heritage Museum |
In Singapore,
the Teochew clan dominated the trade and after about 15 years, when the land
they cultivated had become exhausted and infertile, they cleared more forests
for fresh land. In 1844, when Johor’s
ruler, Temenggong Daeng Ibrahim, the father of Sultan Abu Bakar, invited the
Chinese from Singapore and Riau to open up land in Johor for pepper and gambier
cultivation, Ngee Heng society leader, Tan Kee Soon, led his followers to
settle in Tanjung Puteri, the place we now call Johor Baru.
At
that time Temenggong Daeng Ibrahim,
adopted the kangchu system that was
first introduced by Sir Stamford Raffles in Singapore. As the waterways was the main mode of
transport to Johor from Singapore, early settlers arrived by boat up the
infamous Sungai Segget into the
heart of Johor Baru. Under this
administration, Chinese planters who arrived from Riau and Singapore obtained a
permit known as, surat sungai, from
the ruler to cultivate pepper and gambier.
A road in Johor Baru is named after the prominent Ngee Heng society |
The Teochew clan
was the dominant Chinese clan who made Johor their new home and they settled in
designated areas to cultivate pepper and gambier plantations in the kangchu system. Kang
means “river” in Teochew dialect, while a kangkar
is the disembarking point, usually its middle or upper reaches along the
river. The permit holders were called kangchu’s or river masters and their
plantations were named after them as Tan chu
kang or Lim chu kang.
Even though the
Ngee Heng society started as a quasi-military revolutionary brotherhood that
was opposed to the Ching dynasty, their activities in Johor Baru gradually
evolved into valuable social, political and administrative work which
contributed to Johor’s early economic growth. Tan Kee Soon was trusted by Sultan Abu Bakar
who recognised the strength and solidarity of a brotherhood like the Ngee Heng
society but Tan died in 1864 and did not live to see his society legalised by
the sultan as an association in 1873.
This Chinese association, with its membership opened to the other Chinese
clans and assigned to take charge of Chinese community affairs in Johor, was
the forerunner of the Johor Baru Tiong Hua Association.
The pepper and gambier motif is carved into a wooden design that adorn the entrance to the Johor Chief Minister's office in the Sultan Ibrahim Building at Bukit Timbalan |
Gambier was
traditionally prepared by boiling the young leaves, pressing them to extract
juice and then drying the juice concentrate and moulding it into a block, cake or
cube form. For a glimpse of how
processed gambier looks like, visit the JB Chinese Heritage Museum to see some
samples of gambier in the displays.
Plantations in
Johor sold their gambier to businessmen in Singapore, the main centre for
gambier trade in collecting and exporting the produce, until the dawn of the 20th
century. The introduction of pineapple
canning in 1888 resulted in the expansion of the pineapple industry in Johor
and the rapid development of the motorcar industry sparked off a very high
demand for rubber. By the early 20th
century, gambier was replaced by pineapple and rubber as the most important
plantation crops in this region.
The pepper and gambier motif rendered in pewter is beautifully applied to the decor in the Johor State Assembly Hall in the Sultan Ismail Building, Kota Iskandar |
Some of Johor’s
prominent kangchu’s were Tan Kee Soon, Tan Hiok Nee, Lim Ah Siang and Wong Ah
Fook. The roles of these people and the
Ngee Heng society in Johor’s history are recognised by roads in our city like
Jalan Wong Ah Fook, Jalan Tan Hiok Nee, Jalan Ah Siang and Jalan Ngee Heng.
Today, areas in Johor Baru that were once huge
plantations still use names like Kangkar Tebrau and Kangkar Pulai as a legacy
of this plantation culture. The Tan chu
kang, established by Tan Kee Soon in Kangkar Tebrau, is the oldest known
Chinese settlement in Johor. Incidentally,
Yeo chu kang and Choa chu kang in Singapore, also retained their plantation
names even though the sites have been redeveloped into modern precincts.
So the next time
you pass a lamp-post designed with the pepper and gambier motif or saw it on
other Johor emblems, you know how these humble plants earned its place of honour
in this state. While its cultivation
contributed significantly to Johor’s economic progress, it also represents the
legacy of the strong relationship between the Chinese and Malay communities in
Johor.
A version of this article was published in the September 2014 issue of The Iskandarian
Nice post, thanks for the history lesson.
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