Larut Wars
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The Larut Wars were a series of four wars that began in July 1861 and ended with the signing of the
Pangkor Treaty of 1874 The Pangkor Treaty of 1874 was a treaty signed between Great Britain and the Sultan of Perak on 20 January 1874, on the Colonial Steamer ''Pluto'', off the coast of Perak. The treaty is significant in the history of the Malay states as it legit ...
. The conflicts were fought among local
Chinese secret societies A triad ( zh, t=三合會, s=三合会, hp=sān hé huì, cy=sāam hahp wúi) is a Chinese transnational organized crime syndicate based in Greater China with outposts in various countries having significant overseas Chinese populations. The tri ...
over the control of mining areas in
Perak Perak (; Perak Malay: ''Peghok'') is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula. Perak has land borders with the Malaysian states of Kedah to the north, Penang to the northwest, Kel ...
which later involved a rivalry between Raja Abdullah and Ngah Ibrahim, making it a
war of succession A war of succession is a war prompted by a succession crisis in which two or more individuals claim to be the Order of succession, rightful successor to a demise of the Crown, deceased or deposition (politics), deposed monarch. The rivals are ...
.


First war (1861–1862)

The First Larut War began in July 1861 when arguments over control of watercourse to their mines escalated and led members of the
Hai San Secret Society The Hai San Society (; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: ''Hói-sân''), which had its origins in Southern China,Encyclopædia Britannica was a Penang-based Chinese secret society established around 1820 and in 1825 led by Low, Ah ChongTriad Societies: Western Ac ...
to drive the members of the Ghee Hin society out of Klian Baharu (now
Kamunting Kamunting ( Malay pronunciation: /Kemunting/) is a town in Larut, Matang and Selama District, Perak, Malaysia. It is the biggest satellite town of Taiping. During the Malayan Emergency between 1948 and 1960, Kamunting was the site of a major Br ...
). The Governor of the
Straits Settlements The Straits Settlements () were a group of British territories located in Southeast Asia. Originally established in 1826 as part of the territories controlled by the British East India Company, the Straits Settlements came under control of the ...
, Orfeur Cavenagh intervened and the Mentri of Larut,
Ngah Ibrahim Ngah Ibrahim was a Malay headman who succeeded his father Long Jaafar as headman and administrator of the district of Larut upon the death of his father in 1857. By the time of Sultan Ismail Mu'abbiddin Riayat Shah of Perak, Ngah Ibrahim ha ...
, was made to compensate the Ghee Hin with $17,447 on behalf of the Sultan of Perak.


Second war (1865)

The Second Larut War took place in 1865 and was sparked by a gambling quarrel in June between members of the two opposing secret societies. The Hai San members took 14 Ghee Hin as prisoners, 13 of whom were killed. The 14th escaped to inform his clan and the Ghee Hin retaliated by attacking a Hai San village, razing it to the ground and killing 40 men in the process. The battle continued back and forth and spread to
Province Wellesley A province is an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outside Italy. The term ''provin ...
and the island of
Penang Penang is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia along the Strait of Malacca. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay Peninsula. Th ...
while other secret societies started to join the fray. Both sides were later exhausted and came to terms. An official inquiry took place and both the Hai San and Ghee Hin societies were fined $5,000 each for violating the peace of Penang and their leaders exiled. By around 1870, there were a combined total of about 40,000 Hakka and Cantonese mine workers in the Larut district and the mining areas between the two groups were near to each other. It is this proximity that might explain how the next battle began.


Third war (1871–1872)

The Third Larut War was rumoured to have erupted in 1871 over a scandal – an extra-marital relationship involving the Ghee Hin leader and the wife of a nephew of the Hai San leader,
Chung Keng Quee Kapitan China Chung Keng Quee (; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: Chhang Kín-kui, 182713 December1901) was the founder and administrator of modern Taiping in Perak, Malaysia. Appointed "Capitan China" by the British in 1877, he was a millionaire philanthropi ...
. Upon discovery, the couple was caught, tortured, put into a pig basket and thrown into a disused mining pond where they drowned. Avenging the death of their leader, the Ghee Hin had 4,000 mercenaries imported from mainland China via Penang attacked the Hai San and for the first time, the Hai San were driven out of Larut. About 10,000 Hai San men sought refuge in Penang. Months later, the Hai San supported by Ngah Ibrahim recovered their Matang and Larut mines. At this time, Raja Abdullah a claimant to the throne of Perak (in opposition to Sultan Ismail who was installed in Abdullah's absence) after Sultan Ali () died in 1871, and an enemy of Ngah Ibrahim, took sides against the Hai San and Ngah Ibrahim and the wars between the Chinese miners transformed into civil war involving the Malay chiefs of Perak.


Fourth war and the Pangkor Treaty (1873–1874)

The Fourth Larut War occurred in 1873. Weeks after the Hai San regained Larut, the Ghee Hin, supported by Raja Abdullah, counter-attacked with arms and men from Singapore and China. Ngah Ibrahim's properties in Matang were destroyed. Local Malay residents were also killed and their property, destroyed. Trouble spread to Krian,
Pangkor Pangkor Island (; Tamil: பங்கோர் தீவு) is an island in Manjung District, Perak, Malaysia. It has a population of approximately 10,000. Nearby islands include Pangkor Laut Island, Giam Island, Mentagor Island, Simpan Isl ...
and
Dinding The Manjung District, formerly known as Dindings, is a district in the south-western part of the state of Perak, Malaysia. It is the 26th-most populated district in Malaysia. It is administered by the Manjung Municipal Council (), formerly kn ...
. The Malay chiefs who had taken sides in the Larut Wars were now alarmed at the disorder created by the Chinese miners and secret societies. The Straits Settlement Penang Chinese seeing their investments destroyed in the Larut Wars sought intervention from the British. Over 40,000 Chinese from the Go-Kuan and Si-Kuan were engaged in the war. The Perak Sultanate, involved in a protracted succession struggle, was unable to maintain order. Things were increasingly getting out of hand and chaos was proving bad for the Malays, Chinese and British. In her book ''The Golden Chersonese and The Way Thither'' (published in 1892) Victorian traveller and adventuress Isabella Lucy Bird (1831–1904) describes how Raja Muda Abdullah as he turned to his friend in Singapore,
Tan Kim Ching Tan Kim Ching (; 1829 – 27 February 1892), also known as Tan Kim Cheng, was a Chinese politician and businessman. He was the eldest of the three sons of Tan Tock Seng, the founder and financier of Tan Tock Seng Hospital. He was consul for ...
. Tan, together with an English merchant in Singapore drafted a letter to Governor Sir Andrew Clarke which Abdullah signed. The letter expressed Abdullah's desire to place Perak under British protection, and "to have a man of sufficient abilities to show (him) a good system of government". On 26 September 1872, Chung Keng Quee had already presented a petition, signed by himself and 44 other Chinese leaders, seeking British interference following the attack of 12,000 men of Chung Shan by 2,000 men of Sen Ning ( The Petition). The need to restore law and order in Perak gave cause for a new British policy concerning intervention in the affairs of the Malay States which resulted in the Pangkor Treaty. In 1874, the
Straits Settlements The Straits Settlements () were a group of British territories located in Southeast Asia. Originally established in 1826 as part of the territories controlled by the British East India Company, the Straits Settlements came under control of the ...
governor Sir Andrew Clarke convened a meeting on Pulau Pangkor, at which Sultan Abdullah was installed on the throne of Perak in preference to his rival, Sultan Ismail. Documents were signed on 20 January 1874 aboard ''The Pluto'' at Pangkor Island to settle the Chinese dispute, clear the succession dispute and pave the way for the acceptance of British Residency – Captain Speedy was appointed to administer Larut as assistant to the British Resident.
Chung Keng Quee Kapitan China Chung Keng Quee (; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: Chhang Kín-kui, 182713 December1901) was the founder and administrator of modern Taiping in Perak, Malaysia. Appointed "Capitan China" by the British in 1877, he was a millionaire philanthropi ...
and Chin Ah Yam, leaders of the Hai San and Ghee Hin, respectively, were ennobled by the British with the title of Chinese
Kapitan Capitan and Kapitan are equivalents of the English Captain in other European languages. Capitan, Capitano, and Kapitan may also refer to: Places in the United States * Capitan, Louisiana, an unincorporated community * Capitan, New Mexico, a villa ...
and the town of Larut was renamed Taiping ("太平" in Chinese, meaning "everlasting peace") as a confirmation of the new state of truce. Three days later,
Chung Keng Quee Kapitan China Chung Keng Quee (; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: Chhang Kín-kui, 182713 December1901) was the founder and administrator of modern Taiping in Perak, Malaysia. Appointed "Capitan China" by the British in 1877, he was a millionaire philanthropi ...
was appointed a member of the Pacification Commission headed by Captain S. Dunlop and Messrs.
Frank Swettenham Sir Frank Athelstane Swettenham (28 March 1850 – 11 June 1946) was a British colonial administrator who became the first Resident general of the Federated Malay States, which brought the Malay states of Selangor, Perak, Negeri Sembilan and ...
and
William A. Pickering William Alexander Pickering (9 June 1840 – 26 January 1907) was the first Protector (title)#Colonial administration, Protector appointed on 3 May 1877 by the British government to administer the Chinese Protectorate in colonial Singapore. H ...
– one of the objectives of the commission was to arrange an amicable settlement of the squabbles over the tin mines at Larut. The Commissioners decided to allocate the mines in Klian Pauh (Taiping) to the Hai Sans and the mines in Klian Bharu (Kamunting) to the Ghee Hins. Scholar Irene Liao has connected with this settlement the establishment in the 1880s in Taiping of the first temple in the Malay peninsula devoted to goddess
He Xiangu He Xiangu, birth name He Qiong, is a Chinese mythological figure and one of the Eight Immortals in the Taoist pantheon. She is often seen as the only female among the Eight Immortals (though the sex of Lan Caihe, another of the Eight Immortals, ...
(何仙姑). Liao sees the establishment of the temple as an "effort to reconcile" after the wars, and "as part of a cultural strategy to symbolically integrate all
Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...
immigrants into one community". Many Chinese miners came from
Zengcheng District Zengcheng District ( alternately romanized as Tsengshing) is one of 11 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province, China. History was established under the Qin following their conquest of ...
, the main center of the cult of He Xiangu.Irene Liao, “拉律戰爭與何仙姑信仰在英屬馬來亞的開展” (The Larut Wars and the Beginning of the He Xiangu Cult in British Malaya), ''Bulletin of the Institute of Modern History Academia Sinica'' 100 (2018), 47–84 (47).


Aftermath

The newly appointed British Resident Minister James W. W. Birch was assassinated in 1875 on the orders of
Lela Pandak Lam Dato Maharaja Lela or Lela Pandak Lam (died on 20 January 1877) was a tribal chief from Perak, who is known for his assassination of James W. W. Birch, the British Resident of Perak, on 2 November 1875. He was a local leader who later led the ...
(alias Dato Maharaja Lela). Lela was a prince and mufti from Upper Perak, who was either motivated to protect his economic interests by restoring
slavery Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
, which had been prohibited by the British or to restore Perakian independence, a view commonly held by modern Malaysian nationalists. In the resulting Perak War (1875–1876), the British defeated the rebels, executed Lela and expelled both Raja Abdullah and Ngah Ibrahim to the
Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (; Seychellois Creole: ), is an island country and archipelagic state consisting of 155 islands (as per the Constitution) in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, Victoria, ...
on the accusation that they had been involved in the conspiracy to assassinate Birch. The British appointed Yusuf Sharifuddin Muzaffar Shah as regent of Perak in 1877 and appointed him as the new Sultan of Perak in 1886.


See also

*
Klang War The Klang War or Selangor Civil War was a series of conflicts that lasted from 1867 to 1874 in the Malay state of Selangor in the Malay Peninsula (modern-day Malaysia). It was initially fought between Raja Abdullah, the administrator of the ...


References


Further reading

*
Chung Keng Quee Kapitan China Chung Keng Quee (; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: Chhang Kín-kui, 182713 December1901) was the founder and administrator of modern Taiping in Perak, Malaysia. Appointed "Capitan China" by the British in 1877, he was a millionaire philanthropi ...
* Southeast Asia: a historical encyclopaedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor, Volume 2Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor, Edited by Keat Gin Ooi, Published by ABC-CLIO, 2004, , , P775 * Ipoh: when tin was king By Ho Tak Ming, Perak Academy, 2009, , , PP9&67 * Thai south and Malay north: ethnic interactions on the plural Peninsula, Michael John Montesano, Patrick Jory, NUS Press, 2008, , , P208 * Fifteenth Report of the United States Civil Service Commission, Congressional edition, Volume 3826, United States Congress, US G.P.O., 1899, PP529, 530, 534 * The New Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 9, 2003, , , PP113,278 * Sir Frank Swettenham's Malayan journals, 1874-1876 by Sir Frank Athelstane Swettenham, illustrated, reprint, Oxford University Press, 1975 * Nineteenth-century Malaya: the origins of British political control, Volume 11 of London oriental series, Charles Donald Cowan, Oxford University Press, 1967 * In search of Southeast Asia: a modern history, David P. Chandler, David Joel Steinberg, University of Hawaii Press, 1987, , {{ISBN, 9780824811105 * In quest of unity: the centralisation theme in Malaysian Federal-State relations, 1957–75, Issue 39 of Occasional paper, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Robert O. Tilman, Institute of Southeast Asian, 1976 * Monthly summary of commerce and finance of the United States, United States. Dept. of the Treasury. Bureau of Statistics, United States. Dept. of Commerce and Labor. Bureau of Statistics, United States. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, GPO, 1901, PP1249&1250 * The protected Malay States, 1874-1895, Emily Sadka, University of Malaya Press, 1968 * Papers on Malayan history, K. G. Tregonning, Journal South-East Asian History, 1962 * Papers on Malay subjects,
Richard James Wilkinson Richard James Wilkinson (29 May 1867 – 5 December 1941) was a British colonial administrator, scholar of Malay, and historian. The son of a British consul, Richard James Wilkinson was born in 1867 in Salonika (Thessaloniki) in the Ottoman E ...
, Oxford University Press, 1971 * A history of Perak, Issue 3 of M.B.R.A.S. reprints, Sir Richard Olof Winstedt,
Richard James Wilkinson Richard James Wilkinson (29 May 1867 – 5 December 1941) was a British colonial administrator, scholar of Malay, and historian. The son of a British consul, Richard James Wilkinson was born in 1867 in Salonika (Thessaloniki) in the Ottoman E ...
, Sir William Edward Maxwell, MBRAS, 1974 * Pickering: protector of Chinese, Robert Nicholas Jackson, Oxford U. P., 1966 * The development of the
tin mining Tin mining began early in the Bronze Age, as bronze is a copper-tin alloy. Tin is a relatively rare element in the Earth's crust, with approximately 2 ppm (parts per million), compared to iron with 50,000 ppm. History Tin extraction and use ca ...
industry of Malaya, Yat Hoong Yip, University of Malaya Press, 1969 * The Malayan tin industry to 1914: with special reference to the states of Perak, Selangor, Negri, Sembilan, and Pahang, Volume 14 of Monographs of the Association for Asian Studies, Lin Ken Wong, University of Arizona Press, 1965 * The Malay States, 1877-1895: political change and social policy, Philip Fook Seng Loh, Oxford University Press, 1969 History of Perak Larut, Matang and Selama District Wars involving pre-independence Malaysia Conflicts in 1861 Conflicts in 1862 Conflicts in 1865 Conflicts in 1871 Conflicts in 1872 Organized crime conflicts Civil wars in Malaysia 1860s in British Malaya 1870s in British Malaya Triad (organized crime)