When you walk along the River of Life in Kuala Lumpur, where the Gombak and Klang rivers meet, you will be walking on history, since this is where the city got its name.
In the Malay language, Kuala Lumpur means “muddy confluence.” Kuala means “where two rivers meet” or “estuary,” and “Lumpur” means “mud.” Together, these words mean “where two rivers meet.”
But it is said that Pengkalan Lumpur, which means “muddy harbour or landing place,” was the first name that was thought of for the city. Some people thought the name came from the Cantonese word “lam-ba,” which means “flooded jungle” or “decaying jungle.”
While there is no firm contemporary evidence for these other than anecdotes, they have one thing in common — the description of Kuala Lumpur as a muddy place.
In fact, a place’s name could tell us more about it because it’s often based on an important trait, event, or person that makes it stand out.
Here are the names of seven of Kuala Lumpur’s oldest neighbourhoods and the stories behind them.
Brickfields
Brickfields is right next to KL Sentral, which is the first and largest transit-oriented development project in Malaysia. Little India is another name for Brickfields.
The name Brickfields comes from its history. It was bought by Kapitan Yap Ah Loy as a place to make bricks and tiles for rebuilding Kuala Lumpur after a flood and fire in the 1880s.
Kerinchi
Kerinchi is on the border between Kuala Lumpur and Selangor’s Petaling Jaya. It is in a good place with lots of services and a good public transportation system. It is also becoming more upscale, with newer high-rise buildings going up.
Kerinchi used to be a small village with people from Indonesia who came from the areas of Jambi, Acheh, and Minangkabau. Most of them were from Kerinchi, which is a district in Jambi. Because of this, the area became known as Kampung Kerinchi, which is now its official name.
Sentul
The oldest Tamil Sivan temple in the whole country was built in 1937 in Sentul. It is also home to the largest complex of railway workshops and a train depot in Malaysia. These buildings date back to 1905. Today, Sentul is a vibrant town given its proximity to the Kuala Lumpur city centre.
People think that Sentul got its name from the Santol tree, a rare fruit tree that used to grow in the area and could get as tall as 150 feet.
Some people also say that the name Sentul comes from the Tamil words Senggul Tul, which mean “rock dust,” which was said to cover the area, especially the workshops, a long time ago.
Cheras
Cheras is a unique district because it is south-east of Kuala Lumpur. Some parts of the district are in Selangor, but most of it is in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur.
Even though there was an ancient Indian Kingdom called Cheras that roughly corresponds to the current Kerala region in Southern India, Malaysia’s Cheras has nothing to do with the Indian Kingdom.
Some people say that the area used to be full of rice fields, so it was called Beras, which is the Malay word for rice. But the Chinese who lived in the area at the time could have said Cheras instead of Beras because they didn’t know how to say Beras.
Ampang
Jalan Ampang goes from Ampang to the centre of Kuala Lumpur. The district is very close to the city centre of Kuala Lumpur. So, the history of Ampang is very similar to the history of Kuala Lumpur.
Ampang comes from the Malay word “empangan,” which means a dam, according to the Ampang Jaya Municipal Council website. In the past, Chinese miners built a dam from Bukit Belacan to Ampang town centre, which is now near Ampang Point.
Setapak
Setapak used to be a place where tin was mined and rubber was grown. Now, it is one of the most popular places to stay in Kuala Lumpur because it is less than 10 km from the city centre and has good public transportation.
People think that the place got its name because it is close to the city centre. In Malay, tapak means steps and setapak means one step away. So, the name Setapak probably means that the place is only one step from the centre of the city.
Another explanation for its name comes from its historical roots. The Toponymy Heritage Places of Malaysia website says that in 1884, the British Resident of Selangor, Frank Swettenham, asked for Batu Tapak to be re-appointed as the headman of the local tribe. The name Setapak could be in honour of the headman.
Kepong
The first people to live in Kepong, which is 10 km north of Kuala Lumpur, were mostly Chinese tin miners. The neighbourhood has been around for decades and has a lot of shops and small and medium-sized businesses. Kepong’s popularity as a place to invest in real estate is getting a bit of a boost from the new buildings going up around it.
The people who live there know that the name Kepong could have come from one of two places. The first is that it was named after a tree in Kepong called Pokok Meranti Kepong, which is a common type of tree there.
Another possibility is that Kepong got its name from the Malay word for “enclose” or “surround,” since the town is surrounded by forests and is between the Bukit Lagong Recreational Forest and the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia.
source: EdgeProp