Kampung Morten, Malacca

Kampung Morten (9 August, 2017)

Kampung Morten (GPS: 2.20284, 102.2513) is a traditional village in Malacca Town. It is located on a peninsula surrounded by a loop of the Malacca River. The main road was known as Jalan Kampung Morten, but has since been renamed Persiaran Dato' Othman. It skirts around the village following the course of the Malacca River while four parallel village roads, Lorong Tun Mamat 1, 2, 3 and 4 branch off the main road. These are linked to Jalan Tun Mamat and Jalan Tan Chay Yan.

Kampung Morten still has Malay kampung houses today, and is still inhabited, even though it has to face the onslaught of mass tourism in the recent years. The village is recognised as a heritage village in Malacca, along with Banda Kaba, Bukit Cina, Chitty Village, the Portuguese Settlement and Chinatown.

Kampung Morten was founded around 1920 to resettle people whose homes had to make way for a market to be built in Kampung Jawa. It was named after Joseph Frederick Morten, the land commissioner who helped in the resettlement of the people. The area was established by two imminent locals, Dato' Othman Haji Muhammad Nor and Deman Haji Abdul Ghani, each chipped in M$10,000 to purchase the land, which was until then dense mangrove.

The opening ceremony of Kampung Morten was carried out by Morten in 1923. A few names were suggested for the village, among them Kampung Bunga and Kampung Tanjong Bunga, but eventually the settlers decided on the name Kampung Morten, in honour of the contribution of J.F. Morten.

Today Kampung Morten is regarded as a living museum. Right at the tip of the village is Villa Sentosa, the house built by Othmad Haji Muhammad Nor in 1920. It has been converted into a museum.

I only had a chance to glimpse Kampung Morten when I passed through Malacca in 2006. I finally had a chance to explore Kampung Morten on foot on my 2017 visit.