Chetti : A unique community in Malacca that is struggling to survive

1.0 ABSTRACT

This report presents worked progress of Chetti : A unique community in Malacca that is struggling to survive. It is implemented because to help public especially university students. The objective of this case study are to study the transformation or evolution of the Chetti society from 1950 to the present, to study the cultural changes of the Chetti community and to know the cause of Chetti population getting reduced and whose cultures and traditions are quickly fading away. Above all, I would like to thank my lecturer, Puan Nur Annizah Binti Ishak who has guided me in the best possible way through constructive criticism and providing flexible working times and places. I thank her for the feedback on my live presentation about my case study during lecture.

 

2.0 OBJECTIVE

1. To study the transformation or evolution of the Chetti society from 1950 to the present

2. To study the cultural changes of the Chetti community

3. To know the cause of Chetti population getting reduced and whose cultures and traditions are quickly fading away

 3.0 CONTENT

3.1 Introduction

Chitty is a distinctive community of Tamil people, primarily found in Malay and Singapore in Melaka, known as the Chetty or Chetti Melaka, who are also known as Peranakan Indian and have adopted the cultural tradition of the Chinese and Malay, while also maintaining the Hindu heritage. Their residents are 2,000 in the 21st century. The group of Chitty / Chettiar, from Southern India, is devoted to Hindus.

3.2 Language

The mother tongue of the Chetti community is a Malay-based creole which reflects the diverse roots of the community. Termed Chetti Creole by researchers JA Grimes in 1996 and Noriah Mohamed in 2009, it is a rare mixture of the predominant languages of the Straits comprising Bazaar Malay, Tamil and Chinese. For instance, the terms for grandmother are nenek (Malay), grandfather thatha (Tamil) and uncle mama (Tamil) respectively.

Chetti Creole shares similarities with several Malay dialects and creole languages spoken in Singapore and Malaysia, including the Baba Nyonya Malay creole language of the Peranakan Chinese, the Melayu Ambon creole language and the Jakarta Malay creole language (Betawi Malay). It is also similar to the creole language spoken by Sri Lankan Malays.

The Malay language plays a key role in Chetti Creole and this is evident in the fact that the Chetti Melaka still pray in Malay while retaining some common Sanskrit and Tamil religious terms used by the Hindu Chetti. Besides the use of Malay terms and phrases, the Chetti Melaka are also fluent in English due to British influence. English is also used as a common medium of communication for day-to-day interactions with other ethnic groups as well as by Chetti Melaka who have married outside the community.

Chetti Creole	English
Ijo	green
Mangkok	cup
Kalo	if
Pande	smart
Nyari	today
Napas	breath
Lu orang	everybody
Bikin apa	What to do

 

 3.3 Appearance

The Chitty seems to be a mixed person. While they consider themselves ethnically Tamil, with a Dravidian appearance and a dark complexion, the Chitty appears to have varying degrees of Southeast Asian and Dravidian appearance. This was due to the fact that the first Tamil settlers had taken local wives, as they had not brought any of their own women with them. Over time, the Chitty had gathered physical features that were less Dravidian and more Malayan-looking.

3.4 History

 A small group of hindu peranakan - descendants of Tamil traders who settled in Melaka over five hundred years ago during Sultanate Malacca, live in the Chitty Village in Jalan Gajah Berang, Melaka. Chitty (or Chetti) means "trade" in Tamil and traders from Southern India visited Malaysia for trade spices and other products in southern India as long back as the 15th century. During their trading journeys to the east, the mercants who were known for their sailing skills would stop at various trading posts including the well known port of Malacca. As the journey between India and Malacca often took a long time, many of the merchants lived in Malacca to manage their business and barter for products such as gold, spices and porcelain to be brought back to their own country. As there were many Indian merchants in Malacca at that time, they were allowed to trade in certain areas that were authorised by the Sultan of Malacca. One area that the Sultan provided for them to live and carry out their business was Kampung Keling.

 They came for extended trips as bachelors or without their wives and they married local women in Melaka - Malays, Chinese, Javanese and Batak. They adapted to local traditions, became Malay speaking, and introduced some Malay dishes into their diet, but clinged to their Hindu faith. The Chitty gradually started to streamline their culture and traditions by adopting local customs under the Portuguese, Netherlands and British settlers' administration. This can be seen in the architecture of the Sri Poyatha Moorthi temple that was built in 1781 by the Dutch colonial government, Thaivanayagam Pillay, the chief of the Chitty people.

Over the years, they have grown into a special hybrid group now known as the Chitty or Hindu Peranakans. They began as merchants, but they faced growing competition from Indian Muslim traders during the Malacan Sultanate, so they turned their hand to agriculture. At this time, they moved from Kampung Kling to their present site, Jalan Gajah Berang, Tengkera, which in those days would have been agricultural land on the edge of Melaka. Some people speculate that the name Gajah Berang is a corruption of Kanchipuram, a town in Tamil Nadu near Chennai, where many of the Chitty's may have originated. The Chitty's were not used to farming and over time, they abandoned agriculture and found jobs as unskilled farmers, clerks, teachers or technicians, which is how most of them are working to this day. Many with better education have migrated from Melaka to KL, Penang and Singapore for better paying salary positions. It is estimated that there are about 50,000 Chitty's in all of Malaysia and another 5,000 in Singapore. The Chitty's ethnic identity is almost lost. Since many of them are culturally incorporated into the mainstream Indian, Chinese and Malaysian ethnic groups, this little but different community that has been on the verge of extinction for hundreds of years. The Chitty Museum in Chitty Village, Melaka, Malaysia is the location of the exhibition of Peranakan Chitty history, antiquities and culture. The construction of Kampung Chitty, a historical and cultural village, has recently been controversial at the cost of demolishing it in 2013. The plan to create an apartment, a hotel and the village road is perceived as a challenge to the inhabitants and a temple, which was built in 1827.

 

3.4.1 Indian Trade and Settlement in Early Melaka

The Indian presence in Southeast Asia dates back to prehistoric times. The intensity in interactions between these regions increased during the Christian era with constant movement traders and priests between the Indian subcontinent and numerous city states of Southeast Asia. The traffic led to the establishment of a cross-cultural link between India and Southeast Asia, and laid the foundation for the growth of several other city states in the region, and paved the way for the ‘Indianization’ of the Malay way of life. Melaka emerged as a prominent city-state in the 15th century, benefiting greatly from the trade activities brought by the Indian traders. It rapidly developed into a bustling international port and premier entreport for the Malay Archipelago. It is said that within three years of the formation of Melaka, its inhabitants had risen to around 2000 and to another 6000 within 10 years, and by 1510 the population has risen to around 40-50,000 cosmopolitan polyglot inhabitants. Tome Pires has cited that no fewer than 84 different languages could be heard in the streets of Melaka. The Indians in Melaka were largely traders or persons connected to trade activities. The core trade activities involve the exchange of staple raw produces collected from many parts of Southeast Asia for manufactured goods of India. Melaka became an important collecting point for produces like species for Southeast Asia and the Chinese coast. It became the distribution centre for Indian articles like the textile and also for the goods from farther west. Indian trade in Melaka flourished, with its trading networks expanding to many parts of Southeast Asia. Indian goods were fed into the trade streams originating from the Straits to almost every part of Southeast Asia and South China Sea. In addition, the annual arrival of Chinese junks supplied products like brocades, silks, satins, porcelain and copper, which found its way westward in Indian vessels. The trade between India and Melaka brought great fortunes to both sides. It did not only bring great fortunes of the Indian merchants but also enriched the Melaka port. It is said that Indian traders made profits at times as high as 300 percent on their business transaction in Melaka, while increased trade brought vast revenues and incomes to the city by way of trade, levies and presents. Although the Indian merchants called on other Malayan ports on trading voyages and may have resided there during the period of the Melaka Sultanate (1400-1511), the available historical record shows that the only Indian settlement was in Melaka

 

3.5 Religion

The Chitty are a closely knit Saivite Hindus community, which worships in its three temples. Gods like Ganesha and Shiva are gladly worshipped. Their religious practises also show Taoist and Islamic influences. The Melaka Chitty community still retains its religious rituals as strong faith believers in the Hindu faith. The festivals are held in Deepavali, Ponggal, Tamil New Year in Malaysia, Navratri and other typical Hindu festivals. However, as in most Hindu communities, the Chitty does not engage in Thaipusam. In May, in their local temple, called Mengamay, they celebrate a similar festival to the Thaipusam. The Parchu Festival is a special celebration for the city of Chitty. The day before Ponggal in January is celebrated with Parchu Ponggal (Bhogi), and the fruit season is celebrated twice a year.

 

3.6 Culture

Culturally, Chitty has mainly assimilated the Malaysian community with a few influences from China, the Netherlands and Portugal. This relates particularly to weddings, in which fruit offerings and incense burning are used. With food, the Indian style was largely substituted by Malay spices, ingredients, and the cooking process. Chinese cultural effect, in particular in ancestral worship, is also apparent. The Chinese have used sacred artefacts used to perform ceremonies. In their ceramic arts the Chitty are also influenced to some degree by the Chinese. There is also a simplification of Chitty's Tamil architecture. Separate for Tamils, whose sculpture has been magnificent, in several rows, the Dravidian Temple, or the one god in each of its three rows, Chitty Temple appears to only have one row or one image, as evidenced  in the Temple of Sri Poyatha Morti, designed by Thaivanayagam chittie in 1781. Tamils have a complex Dravidian Temple Architecture in the Pallava style.

3.7 Dress and lifestyle

The traditional attire of the Chetti Melaka is an indicator of cross-cultural influences over time and mirrors centuries of Javanese, Bugis, Achenese, Batak and Tamil styles. Within the community, the traditional attire for men comprises a checkered sarong like the kain pulicat or the batik sarong, a tunic and a headgear of knotted batik cloth called talapa (headgear). Chetti Melaka men traditionally wore wooden clogs with silver pegs although these clogs have since been replaced by leather slippers.

The traditional attire for women comprised the sarong kebaya and the baju kurung, fastened with three keronsang(brooches). Affluent Chetti Melaka women also wore brooches made with gold studded with diamonds for their baju panjang. These brooches and other accessories were often crafted by Tamil goldsmiths, and featured elements such as addiggai (a gold choker usually studded with semi-precious stones), thali (a wedding pendant), and silambu (anklets).

In addition to local and Tamil styles, jewellery and accessories for women also reflected British influence and 20th century British gold sovereigns were often worn as pendants. The women also wore their hair in tight buns called sanggul nyonya which are held together using a combination of three hair pins, and their footwear comprised beaded slippers known as kasut manek-manek, which were often painstakingly handmade over many weeks.

The Chitty live in Kampong houses alongside their Chinese and Malay neighbours. Photos of Hindu gods and Indian names can be seen only outside their homes, as they prefer to follow Indian surnames rather than Malay. A traditional Chitty house with mango leaves arranged in a row from above the front door is distinguished. This is also how chitty temples are decorated. This is the oldest tradition of the ancient Tamil Nadu from ancient times.

 

3.8 Food

Chetti Melaka cuisine is a fascinating blend of Indian, Malay and Nonya (Peranakan Chinese) culinary styles and offers a wide variety of delicacies for every occasion. For Chetti Melaka cuisine, traditional Indian spices are typically combined with Malay ingredients such as belacan (shrimp paste), serai (lemongrass), lengkuas (wild ginger), pandan leaf and coconut milk to create uniquely Chetti dishes.

Traditional Chetti Melaka favourites include ikan parang (fish curry), lauk pindang (fish in a tamarind curry), ikan sipat masek nanas (fish in a pineapple curry), and sambal belimbing (pickled sour fruit). The curry dishes are typically accompanied by rice dishes like nasi lemak (fragrant rice dish) prepared in a uniquely Chetti manner using cooled steamed rice boiled with coconut milk and pandan leaves.

For the Chetti Melaka, festivals and special occasions are marked by the preparation of specific dishes. For instance, Chetti Melaka prepare nasi lemak for prayer offerings and nasi kembuli (rice cooked with cashew nuts and spices) for new brides. Puttu, a traditional south Indian dish is served during the puberty ceremony while dosai (rice flour pancake) and fish curry, are associated with Deepavali.

As with many communities, food remains a central part of Chetti identity and brings the young and old together. For the Chetti Melaka, special occasions are marked by an abundance of sweets and cakes. These cakes are usually prepared using a combination of coconut, palm sugar and flour based on Malay recipes. Some popular Chetti Melaka cakes and desserts include pulot tekan, kwey wajek, kwey ondei ondei, kwey kanda kasturi, and penggat durian.

3.9 Chetti village

For the Chetti Melaka, Gajah Berang is the only known home town since most Chettis are unaware of the places of origin of their forefathers in India. The majority of the Chetti families live in Land Lots 28, 94, 118 and 138, in clusters around Gajah Berang, Bachang and Tranquerah which constitute Kampung Chetti. This clustering of the community in Kampung Chetti has resulted in the preservation of the community’s distinct lifestyle and cultural heritage.

The community’s affairs and temple properties are managed by the community’s headman in the style of the Indian panchayat (Hindi: village council) system. In accordance to Hindu practice where devotees donate properties to the service of the deity, a number of Chetti Melaka have donated lands to the Sri Poyatha Vinayagar Moorthi Temple Trust.

By the 1980s, scholars estimated that there were around 400 families living in Melaka. Since then, the size of the community has dwindled considerably and Melaka is home to fewer than fifty Chetti Melaka families today. However, Chetti families from Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, who are now second or third-generation diaspora, still visit the kampung regularly, and in doing so, maintain their connections with their hometown.

 

 3.10 Chetti temple

There are three Hindu temples in the village, including the 190 year old Sri Maha Mariamman Temple, where religious ceremonies such as Deepavali, Bhogi, Pongal and the main festival, Amman Thirunal (Datuk Cacar), are celebrated every year in May. In 1781, the Dutch government gave a piece of land of approximately 15,879 square feet to Teivanayagam Chitty, the leader of the Chetties at that time to build a temple. The temple, the oldest in Malaysia, is named Sri Poyatha Venayagar Moorthi temple and is located in Jalan Tukang Mas in Malacca. The Chetty community who turned to agriculture continued to build a few more temples around the land they cultivated. To date, there are nine temples around the Chetty settlement in Gajah Berang.

 

 3.11 Chetti museum

The Chetti Museum is located next to the entrance to the village. It shows a variety of artefacts, handicrafts and old photos. It is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. but is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Admission costs are RM2 for adults and RM0.50 for children. The museum was founded in 2003 with the assistance of and donations received from the local community that have been collected, recorded and they have preserved their cultural heritage. Even though the museum receives limited support from the Melaka Museum Corporation (Perbadanan Muzium Melaka, PERZIM, the museum is operated by the Chittis (local community) which charges a small entrance fee for visitors.

3.12 Chetti marriage history

The Chittys have no roots in India. After settling in Melaka, they have gradually severed their relationships with their relatives in India. Out of caste marriages were unacceptable in the conservative caste conscious Indian system, as such their non-Indian wives and children were not taken back to India. With no ties with India, the Chittys see Melaka as they native domicile. Chittys are staunch followers of the Hindu faith. It is interesting to observe that despite substantive assimilation into the Malay way of life, the Chittys managed to preserve their Hindu belief. Chittys did not convert to Islam despite being married to Malays. It appears that the onslaught of Islamisation in the Melaka period and later Christianity during the Portuguese and the Dutch did no harm to Hindu followers. This is often reflected as the greatest source of pride by this community. Like most Malaysian Indian, the Chittys belongs to the Saivite sect of Hinduism, and they steadfastly observe Hindu religious ceremonies and practices but with a unique blend of the local culture. They maintain traditional Hindu names and faithfully observe religious rites in the temples that they manage in and around their present domicile in the Kampung Tujuh vicinity, in Melaka town.

 

3.13 Ceremonies and rituals

The Chetti Melaka community’s lifecycle rituals and ceremonies closely follow traditional Tamil Hindu practices. They include coming-of-age ceremonies such as kaadhu kuthal (ear piercing) for both girls and boys, and the fertility ceremony sadanggu for girls to mark puberty. The latter 16-day long, female-only ceremony is held at home, and the girl is ritually bathed, given special foods and blessed by the women of the family.

The traditional wedding rituals for the Chetti community are elaborate, and the wedding typically takes place between four days to three weeks. The key components of a Chetti wedding include parisom (engagement ceremony), hantar sireh koil pathiram (delivery of the invitation card to the temple), berhinai (application of henna), menepah thali (making the wedding pendant), berarak (wedding procession) and the wedding ceremony itself.

The Chetti Melaka practice burying their dead and, according to traditional Chetti Melaka funerary practices, the deceased would be bathed, dressed and placed in a coffin, and carried by men to the cemetery. In Melaka and Singapore, deceased Chetti Melaka would be buried at Batu Berendam and Choa Chu Kang Hindu Cemetery respectively.

In Singapore, many Chetti Melaka life cycle rituals and ceremonies are rapidly evolving or even disappearing. Many Chetti families have forsaken traditional Hindu practices either because they have been assimilated through inter-marriage with other ethnic or religious communities, or because they have converted to other religions such as Christianity and Islam.
 

 

4.0 ISSUES / CHALLENGES

Development processes in the surrounding areas of the villages have impacted their status and integrity as traditional heritage villages. Despite having been gazetted by the Melaka state as heritage villages and in the case of Kampung Chetti having a 500-year link to the Melaka Sultanate, the development activities have resulted in the villagers feeling threatened and vulnerable. Environmental pollution and poor planning contribute towards the destruction of their aesthetics. These incompatible development activities have inadvertently threatened the survival and sustainability of the three settlements and their socio-cultural heritage, which were among the very things that had attracted tourists and visitors to visit Melaka state in the first place. Being located in the fast growing Melaka city also makes the villages attractive to developers. Although located outside of the WHS core zone, nonetheless being near to the zone plus the rapid expansion of the city has led to the areas becoming increasingly economically valuable. This has resulted in many profit-oriented quarters taking advantage of the situation for their vested interest. Besides that the villages are exposed to risk posed by other types of development projects not directly associated with conservation.

It receives a modest flow of tourists, but there's not a whole amount to see and it's hard to spend any money there, since there are no shops or restaurants.

In spite of being one of the region’s oldest communities, little is known about the Chetti Melaka of Singapore. They are a very small community, whose numbers are steadily declining, and their uniquely Straits heritage largely rests in the collective memory of the older members of the community. Many members of the community, especially amongst the younger generation, have lost touch with their Chetti roots and a general lack of ready information about the heritage of the Chetti Melaka community has caused many of them to distance themselves from with their ancestry. Furthermore, as a result of generations of marriages outside of the community, many families are now unable to trace their Chetti Melaka lineage. When the British came into power, some members of the Chetty community migrated to Singapore and Australia. In Singapore, the Chetties were concentrated in areas around Rowell Road, Kinta Road, Selegie Road. When these areas were developed by the Singapore government, the Chetties moved to highrise accommodation in Bedok, Tampines and Paya Lebar. There are about 200 Chetty families who live in these areas now. To further exacerbate the situation, the community is also faced with the dilemma of diasporic emigration, with several young Chetti Melaka migrating to Australia, North America, Europe and the United Kingdom. As a result, these emigrant Chetti Melaka are susceptible to newer multicultural influences which further render the contemporary Chetti Melaka identity more complex. They maintain close contacts with their relatives in Kampung Gajah Berang and would usually return to celebrate religious festivals such as Manggamay. Most people in Malaysia are totally unaware of the existence of a small ethnic Indian community called the Chitty or the Hindu Peranakan of Melaka. Compared to their more prominent Chinese counterpart, the Baba & Nyonyas of Melaka, the Chittys are lesser known to the Malaysian public. The most probable reason is that this community has not been prominent in business and politics unlike their peranakan cousins, the Baba & Nyonyas.

 

5.0 SOLUTION / RECOMMENDATION

the existence of the living heritage sites enable them to advance their cultural pride and identity to their community members in particular and the society in general. Through shared knowledge they are able to create cultural awareness among the general public about their respective cultural heritage. Visitors to these villages cum living heritage sites are able to learn, for example, of the clothes worn by the respective ethnic groups in the past, the kind of food they consumed, and the music that they listened to. However, Melaka living heritage sites are faced with concerns related to authenticity. Also they have to deal with issues that are perceived as contributing to the vulnerability of their existence or survival such as the modernisation and development processes taking place in the Melaka state; participation and involvement of members of the respective community; and the rise of the tourism industry. .

If the entrepreneur Chitty were to open a small gift shop and a restaurant in one of their quaint houses serving traditional Chitty dishes, it would do well. It will also give tourists the opportunity to communicate with the residents of the village. While, In the face of these challenges, the Peranakan Indian (Chitty Melaka) Association Singapore has played a crucial role in the revival of public interest in the community, and the way forward may lie in more sustained efforts to document and transmit different aspects of Chetti Melaka heritage and to increase public awareness and appreciation of the community’s unique language, cuisine and social-cultural practices.

Should including Chetti communities and other minor communities such as Baba Nyonya topic in primary or secondary school subjects such Pendidikan Sivik dan Kewarganegaraan, Pendidikan Moral to introduce, promote and preserve their unique culture to Malaysian citizen. This is to expose of them that all races can live harmony and the existence of this minority group and their unique culture.

In December 2016, several youth representatives in Kampung Chetti, plan and implement a series of activities under the Kampung Chetti Community Project. The Chetti Village Youth Empowerment Program is believed to be able to attract the interest of Chetti Melaka youths and youths to be involved in efforts to preserve and promote the unique culture of the Chetti Melaka community through writing, art and cultural activities. So, I think it will better if the community do same project like that on every year to promote their culture.

Another option to preserve the culture of the Chetti is through their marriage culture according to Chetti tradition. Regarding the traditional marriage practice of chetti, I feel this is an opportunity to open the eyes of the public. This is not just wedding event, but involves the entire population of Chetti Village, the public and the media. Nowadays, there is rarely a young generation who get married in the full way of their own racial tradition even though the cost of performing a traditional wedding is indeed high up to ten thousand Malaysian ringgit. This is because most wedding accessories and dresses have to be ordered from India.

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