Batu Pahat, also sometimes known as Bandar Penggaram or by its initials as BP, is a town and capital of

Batu Pahat District The Batu Pahat District is a district in the state of Johor, Malaysia. It lies southeast of Muar (district), Muar, southwest of Kluang, northwest of Pontian, Johor, Pontian, south of Segamat and Tangkak District. The capital of the district is ...

, Johor, Malaysia. It lies south-east of Muar (a royal town), south-west of

Kluang Kluang, formerly Keluang, is a town in Kluang District, Johor, Malaysia. Kluang was founded in 1915 as the administrative capital of central Johor by the British. It is located in the centre of the state and is within 90 minutes of all major ...

, north-west of Pontian and south of

Segamat The Segamat District () or simply Segamat is a List of districts in Malaysia, district in the Malaysian states of Malaysia, state of Johor. Segamat (town), Segamat is also the name of the district's primary town. Segamat district is one of the t ...

. The town is in Simpang Kanan parish. As of 2009, Batu Pahat town is the 20th largest urban area in Malaysia in population. In 2006 Batu Pahat surpassed Muar to become the second largest urban area in Johor and by 2012 Batu Pahat was the 16th largest urban area in Malaysia in population. Chinese make up the majority of the population at 62% followed by Malays at 36% and Indians at 2%.

Etymology

The name Batu Pahat means "chiselled rock" in Malay. The origin of this name can be traced back to a local lore in the 1546, when the invading Siamese troops led by Admiral Awi Di Chu were chiselling rocks at a rocky spot in the coastal village of Kampung Minyak Beku, in hope of getting fresh water during their siege on the Malacca .

History

Batu Pahat was a remote residential area for the Johore Royal Family and village mayors. There was already a successful township nearby, Bandar Maharani that was established in 1885 by Dato' Muhamad Salleh bin Perang or popularly known as Dato' Bentara Luar. It was until in the year 1892, the local mayors (Penghulu) such as Penghulu Rahmat bin Ragam (Simpang Kanan) dan Penghulu Kitam bin Mohd. Shah (Simpang Kiri) requested audience with Sultan Abu Bakar to develop a township in Batu Pahat. They believe that Dato' Bentara Luar will once more duplicate the success of Muar known by other name, Bandar Maharani into new up and coming township. On 4 November 1892, Sultan Abu Bakar orders Dato' Bentara Luar who was then living in Kampung Senangar to come over to Johor Bahru palaces to seek for an audiences related to new township development matters. The next month, Dato' Bentara Luar started on the Batu Pahat township development. He chooses the development places in Simpang Kanan parishes which are about 15 km away from Batu Pahat river bay. The locations is strategic as the river's berth are wide enough to let the ship passing thru as well as the construction of docks will facilitate the trading in that areas. On 2 December 1892, the

fakir Fakir, faqeer, or faqīr (; (noun of faqr)), derived from ''faqr'' (, 'poverty'), is an Islamic term traditionally used for Sufi Muslim ascetics who renounce their worldly possessions and dedicate their lives to the worship of God. They do ...

already starts to survey the land from Mount Penggaram to the Penggaram river for the township planning purposes. Within the next year, he succeeded in building up roads, offices, courts, hospital, police stations and also homes around that area. The development is sustained by the finances support by Orang Kaya Bagan, taxes from local populaces and as well as the personal wealth of the Dato' Bentara Luar himself. On 1 January 1894, Dato' Bentara Luar officiates the Batu Pahat opening ceremony in Bukit Bendera which are now the official residency of the Batu Pahat town administrator. In Dec. 1894, another events held to commemorates the naming of Batu Pahat into Bandar Penggaram which had taken names from Kampung Penggaram where the Penghulu Rahmat resides. During his reign as the Government Commissioner, Dato' Bentara Luar modernised the administrative duties by appointing the administrative officers to do their duties. He also encourage the villagers to plant crops for self-sufficiency and pulls in investment from Chinese businessman to set up plantations or set up trading in Batu Pahat. This led to increases in the town council income from RM1,500 in 1894 to RM55,375 in 1910.

Geography

Batu Pahat is situated at 1°51′N, 102°56′E in the state of Johor in southern

Peninsular Malaysia Peninsular Malaysia, historically known as Malaya and also known as West Malaysia or the Malaysian Peninsula, is the western part of Malaysia that comprises the southern part of the Malay Peninsula on Mainland Southeast Asia and the list of isla ...

. It is located 239 km to the south of

Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur (KL), officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, is the capital city and a Federal Territories of Malaysia, federal territory of Malaysia. It is the largest city in the country, covering an area of with a census population ...

. The closest town to Batu Pahat is Muar, which is located 50 km to the northwest of this town. The town of

is located about 52 km to the southeast.

Johor Bahru Johor Bahru, abbreviated as JB, is the capital city of the Malaysian state of Johor. It is the core city of Johor Bahru District, Malaysia's second-largest district by population and the second-largest district economy. Covering an area of ...

, the capital of Johor, is located about 130 km to the south east of the town. 95 km to the north west is the Malaysian historical city,

Melaka Malacca (), officially the Historic State of Malacca (), is a state in Malaysia located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, facing the Strait of Malacca. The state is bordered by Negeri Sembilan to the north and west and Johor to t ...

. The district itself borders the district of

to the north,

to the east, Muar to the west and shares a border in the southeast with the district of Pontian. The coast of the

Strait of Malacca The Strait of Malacca is a narrow stretch of water, long and from wide, between the Malay Peninsula to the northeast and the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the southwest, connecting the Andaman Sea (Indian Ocean) and the South China Sea (Pa ...

lies to the south.

Administration

Batu Pahat Town and its surrounding areas are administered by Batu Pahat Municipal Council (MPBP), which was upgraded from the former Western Batu Pahat District Council. Eastern Batu Pahat District Council, meanwhile, has been renamed to Yong Peng District Council. However, the areas administered by this council still remain within Batu Pahat District and yet to secede as a separate district. Batu Pahat district has 525 gazetted villages (kampung-kampung) and village-clusters (kampung rangkaian) where smaller villages were annexed to their bigger immediate neighbours for the purpose of administration. The villages are represented by their village heads (ketua-ketua kampung) who answer to the subdistrict chief (Penghulu) administering the Mukim. The Mukim itself however is under the jurisdiction of the Pegawai Daerah or District Officer. The district office of Batu Pahat also has five district engineers (Jurutera Daerah) to oversee all the sub – districts.

Demographics

Population

The town of Batu Pahat has a population of more than 300,000. There are more than 100,000 households with 468,058 population in this district. The most populated mukim is Simpang Kanan with more than 250,000 people and the least populated is Bagan with a population of only 4,692. Overall district-wide population distribution based on gender are almost equal with a male population of 169,087 and female population of 166,281. Batu Pahat town is made up of 62%

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

, 36% Bumiputeras (mainly Malays) and 2%

Indians Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

and other minority races.

Languages

The Chinese community in Batu Pahat town is the majority ethnic group and most of them are

Hokkien Hokkien ( , ) is a Varieties of Chinese, variety of the Southern Min group of Chinese language, Chinese languages. Native to and originating from the Minnan region in the southeastern part of Fujian in southeastern China, it is also referred ...

. They are the descendants of people migrated from southern Fujian Province (

Quanzhou Quanzhou is a prefecture-level city, prefecture-level port city on the north bank of the Jin River, beside the Taiwan Strait in southern Fujian, China, People's Republic of China. It is Fujian's largest most populous metropolitan region, wi ...

Xiamen Xiamen,), also known as Amoy ( ; from the Zhangzhou Hokkien pronunciation, zh, c=, s=, t=, p=, poj=Ē͘-mûi, historically romanized as Amoy, is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Stra ...

and

Zhangzhou Zhangzhou (, ) is a prefecture-level city in Fujian Province, China. The prefecture around the city proper comprises the southeast corner of the province, facing the Taiwan Strait and (with Quanzhou) surrounding the prefecture of Xiamen. Nam ...

). Therefore,

or Min Nan is vernacular in this region, followed by Teochew from

Chaozhou Chaozhou ( zh, t=潮州), alternatively Chiuchow, Chaochow or Teochew, is a city in the eastern Guangdong province of China. It borders Shantou to the south, Jieyang to the southwest, Meizhou to the northwest, the province of Fujian to the east, ...

region of Guangdong province, with significant minorities of

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka-speaking Chinese, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas, are a southern Han Chinese subgroup whose principal settlements and ancestral homes are dispersed widely across the provinces of southern China ...

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

and

Hainanese Hainanese ( Hainan Romanised: ''Hái-nâm-oe'', Hainanese Pinyin: ''Hhai3 nam2 ue1'', ), also known as Qiongwen (), Qiongyu () or Hainan Min () is a group of Min Chinese varieties spoken in the far southern Chinese island province of Hain ...

dialect speakers. Batu Pahat Chinese community usually converse in Southern Malaysia Hokkien or

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

due to its media reception in the area. The form of

spoken by most of the citizens of Batu Pahat is Southern Malaysia Hokkien, which is distinct from

Penang Hokkien Penang Hokkien ( zh, c=庇能福建話, tl=Pī-néeng Hok-kiàn-uā, poj=Pī-né͘ng Hok-kiàn-ōa; IPA: ) is a local variant of Hokkien spoken in Penang, Malaysia. It is spoken natively by 63.9% of Penang's Chinese community, and also by ...

or Northern Malaysia Hokkien. The Malays usually spoke the Johorean Malay dialect also known as the Johor-Riau dialect which was literary standard language derived from the Johor Sultanates and Malacca Sultanates. The Malays in Batu Pahat are descended from different sub ethnic groups such as Johor-Riau Malays proper, Javanese, Bugis, Banjar and Orang Kuala (the indigenous group). The Indian community in Batu Pahat is mostly made up of ethnic

Tamils The Tamils ( ), also known by their endonym Tamilar, are a Dravidian peoples, Dravidian ethnic group who natively speak the Tamil language and trace their ancestry mainly to the southern part of the Indian subcontinent. The Tamil language is o ...

which speak

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

language with a distinctive Malaysian accent.

Religion

In Batu Pahat, there are several religious faiths and the major ones are

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

Taoism Taoism or Daoism (, ) is a diverse philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, emphasizing harmony with the Tao ( zh, p=dào, w=tao4). With a range of meaning in Chinese philosophy, translations of Tao include 'way', 'road', ' ...

Confucianism Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, Religious Confucianism, religion, theory of government, or way of li ...

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

and

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...

. A historic mosque located in the Town of Batu Pahat is Masjid Dato Bentara Luar, built in the 1930s. Another old mosque here is Masjid Jamek Bukit Pasir Batu Pahat. There are more than four hundred Chinese temples in Batu Pahat district and the temples have become one of the unique tourist attractions for tourists (and devotees) from other states of Malaysia (especially tourists from

Negeri Sembilan Negeri Sembilan (, Negeri Sembilan Malay: ''Nogoghi Sombilan'', ''Nismilan''), historically spelled as Negri Sembilan, is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state in Malaysia which lies on the Peninsular Malaysia#Other features, wes ...

Selangor Selangor ( ; ), also known by the Arabic language, Arabic honorific Darul Ehsan, or "Abode of Sincerity", is one of the 13 states of Malaysia. It is on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and is bordered by Perak to the north, Pahang to the e ...

and

) and even

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

during public holidays and weekends. Temples located in Segenting, Senggarang and

Bukit Pasir Bukit Pasir ( Jawi: بوكيت ڤاسير; ) is a small town in Muar District, Johor, Malaysia. Chinese is the majority ethnic group in this town and follow by Malays and Indians. Bukit Pasir is a small town between Muar and Pagoh. It is about ...

are the popular places to be visited by tourists. Some of the prominent Temples in Batu Pahat: * Chong Long Gong Temple (海口石文丁崇龙宫), founded in 1864 * Lim Sz Chong Su Tian Hou Temple (峇株吧辖林氏宗祠天后宫), founded in 1912 * Tian Hou Gong Temple (峇株吧辖天后宫), founded in 1913 * Pu Tuo Jing Si Temple (普陀净寺), founded in 1924 * Kian Nam Shee Temple (峇株吧辖建南寺), founded in 1950 * Si Hai Long Wang Temple (福德坛四海龙王大伯公) * Qi Tian Da Sheng Fu Temple (新加兰路八支齐天大圣府)

Economy

Batu Pahat is one of the

Johor Johor, also spelled Johore,'' is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia in the south of the Malay Peninsula. It borders with Pahang, Malacca and Negeri Sembilan to the north. Johor has maritime borders with Singapore ...

's manufacturing industrial town which includes textiles, electronics, food-processing, timber, porcelain and plastic industry. There are several industrial zones including Tongkang Pecah, Parit Raja, Sri Gading, Sri Sulong, Lian Aik and Buditama, ranging from to . There are few foreign multi national company setup in Batu Pahat during 80's and 90's such as Sharp Roxy, Fujitsu and

Mitsumi is a Japanese manufacturer of consumer electronic components, founded in 1954. Mitsumi has been a subsidiary of MinebeaMitsumi since 27 January 2017, when it merged with Minebea to form the parent company. Mitsumi is primarily known as an O ...

as well as many other local public listed companies. Agriculture is another important source of income for the locals. Batu Pahat has some of the largest rubber, oil palm, coconut and cocoa plantations in Johor. Fruit produce such as

watermelon The watermelon (''Citrullus lanatus'') is a species of flowering plant in the family Cucurbitaceae, that has a large, edible fruit. It is a Glossary of botanical terms#scandent, scrambling and trailing vine-like plant, and is plant breeding ...

papaya The papaya (, ), papaw, () or pawpaw () is the plant species ''Carica papaya'', one of the 21 accepted species in the genus '' Carica'' of the family Caricaceae, and also the name of its fruit. It was first domesticated in Mesoamerica, within ...

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...

pineapple The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a Tropical vegetation, tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been culti ...

durian The durian () is the edible fruit of several tree species belonging to the genus ''Durio''. There are 30 recognized species, at least nine of which produce edible fruit. ''Durio zibethinus'', native to Borneo and Sumatra, is the only species ...

s and 20 varieties of vegetables are exported. There are also several fishing villages such as Segenting which provides sources of fisheries.

Education

Educational institutions in Batu Pahat include primary, secondary and tertiary education

Primary schools

There are 101 national primary schools whose medium of instruction is Malay language and 38 Chinese primary schools. Most well known is Montfort Primary School which caters to boys and Convent Girls' School which caters to girls.

Secondary schools

The best secondary schools are Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Dato' Bentara Luar, High School Batu Pahat, Temenggong Ibrahim Girls School, Chinese High School Batu Pahat, Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Tunku Aminah and Sekolah Menengah Sains Batu Pahat

Hospital/Medical centres

There are government owned and private owned hospital and medicare centres: * Sultanah Nora Ismail Hospital (located at Jalan Korma, Taman Soga) * Putra Specialist Hospital (at Jalan Peserai)
Pantai Hospital Batu Pahat
(located at Taman Koperasi Bahagia) * Klinik Kesihatan Batu Pahat (located at Jalan Kluang) * KPJ Hospital Batu Pahat – (located at Sri Gading)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Batu Pahat Town Batu Pahat District Towns in Johor