Theme Day - Oct 2010 : Graffiti

Melaka Government is making very good progress in beautifying Melaka Riverside. One of the task is to paint the buildings along the river with such graffiti, depicting the history of the Old Melaka Sultanate.

In the 15th century, Melaka used to be a major trading port due to its strategic location at the Straits of Melaka. This is where traders from the far east, i.e. China and west, i.e. India, Arab, Persia and Portuguese would come to trade here. The Chinese Emperor of Ming Dynasty even offered Princess Hang Li Po to Sultan Mansur Shah for marriage. That is the scene shown at the bottom part of this graffiti.

On the top right, is the Chinese Admiral of Ming Dynasty, Zheng He and his Great Armada. He travelled to Melaka and established a trading post during the 15th century. It is said that Zheng He started his exploration a century before Columbus, Magellan or Vasco da Gama. He led one of the greatest fleet of junks that the world has ever known and his voyage was featured in a National Geographic documentary. You can view an interesting multimedia presentation on this documentary made by NatGeo here. Or you can track his voyage from China all the way through South East Asia to India and finally to the West Coast of Africa on this map.

Enjoy the short history of my hometown, Melaka and Zheng He! Happy Theme Day everyone!

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants of Theme Day.