History of Orang Laut in Singapore & Johor ● From Feared Sea Warriors to Seafood Chefs

Many of us have eaten at Orang Laut operated seafood restaurants in Johor such as Restoran Todak, Restoran Mutiara Biru, Restoran Teo Orang Asli Seafood, etc. An appreciation of Orang Laut history may give us a bit of added flavour to make our seafood meal at these restaurants a little more delicious 😋

Sea nomads are found in East Java/ Sulawesi, east Borneo/ south Philippines, south Thailand, and the Riaus/ south Johor/ Singapore.

They live a major part of their nomadic lives in boats and harvest the sea for food and livelihood. The sea nomads living in the area marked orange in the map are known as Orang Laut (Sea people in Malay). (Map courtesy of Wikipedia.)

Orang Laut tribes are named according to where they are based - usually at a river mouth. In Singapore, Orang Seletar at Seletar River, Orang Biduanda Kallang at Kallang River, Orang Sembulun at Pulau Sembulun island (Jurong River). The Orang Laut tribe that once lived at Singapore River was known as Orang Gelam. (Image of Orang Seletar dated 2016 courtesy of Wikipedia.)

Since the time of Sang Nila Utama in the thirteenth century, Orang Laut functioned as the naval force of the Malay kingdoms. They guided trading ships to avoid treacherous undersea hazards like rocks and undercurrents around Singapore and Straits of Malacca. Orang Laut served the king by guiding trading ships to the port of Singapura, and later Malacca. They also protected these ships against sea pirates.

However, when not fishing or serving the king, Orang Laut were known to moonlight as sea pirates themselves.

When the kingdom of Singapura was sacked by Majapahit invaders from Java in 1398, Orang Laut warriors helped King Parameswara escape and found the Malacca Sultanate. Singapore then became the Orang Laut naval base of the Malacca Sultanate (1400 - 1511).

Orang Laut warriors fought bravely against the Portuguese armada before Malacca fell to the Europeans in 1511. The defeated Malacca royals retreated south and founded the Johor Sultanate in 1528.

The Orang Laut started to lose their influence when Bugis people from Sulawesi moved to Johor / Riaus to escape civil wars and growing Dutch dominance there in the 1600s. The Bugis successfully entrenched themselves in the Johor sultanate by involving themselves as mercenaries in deadly palace power struggles (especially after the murder of Sultan Mahmud II in 1699).

The dominance of Bugis in the Johor ruling elite displaced the Orang Laut's role as the Johor sultanate's naval force. The Orang Laut were relegated from feared sea warriors to nomadic obscurity. The once influential Orang Laut became marginalised.

When Raffles first stepped foot on Singapore island in 1819 at Singapore River, the island was a backwater populated mainly by Orang Laut (Orang Gelam). (Image of present day Orang Laut dated 2013 courtesy of Wikipedia.)

Wa Hakim, an Orang Gelam personally witnessed the landing of Raffles on that fateful day in 1819.

“At the time when Tuan Raffles came, there were under one hundred small houses and huts at the mouth of the (Singapore) river; but the (Temenggong) Raja’s house was the only large one, and it stood back from the river... .

About half the Orang Laut lived ashore and half in boats.... . The men that lived in boats were the first to see Tuan Raffles coming.” (Source: Malay Heritage Centre.) (Image of Orang Laut boat courtesy of Wikipedia & National Archives of Singapore.)

Wa Hakim recounted further:

“I remembered the boat landing in the morning. There were two white men and a Sepoy (Indian soldier) on it. When they landed, they went straight to the Temenggong’s house. Tuan Raffles was there, he was a short man… . Tuan Farquhar was there; he was taller than Tuan Raffles and he wore a helmet. The Sepoy carried a musket. They were entertained by the Temenggong and he gave them rambutans and all kinds of fruit… Tuan Raffles went into the centre of the house. About 4 o’clock in the afternoon, they came out and went on board again”. (Source: BiblioAsia)

Just 9 days after landing in Singapore, Raffles signed the agreement with Sultan Hussein and Temenggong Abdul Rahman of the Johor Sultanate to operate a trading post at the Singapore River. With that, the trajectory of Singapore and Orang Laut of Singapore and Johor would change forever.

Singapore would rise to become a global metropolis, while the Orang Laut were marginalised further.

Things moved very fast, with Raffles putting his vision for the great entrepot of Singapore into motion. To make way for the development of Empress Place (colonial Singapore's administrative centre), Orang Gelam were moved from Singapore River to Kampung Gelam (to the east of the island).

Centuries old seafront Orang Laut villages in Kallang, Jurong, Seletar etc were acquired for re-development. Many Orang Laut intermarried Malays and assimilated into the mainstream land based communities (speaking Malay, converted to Islam, etc).

Today, Orang Laut (Orang Seletar) live along the shores of Johor Straits and officially classified as Orang Asli in Malaysia (Malay for indigenous people).

In Johor, Orang Laut catch fish and sell them at the Orang Asli fish market located at Permas Jaya known as Pasar Ikan Bakar Batu.

Families come to Pasar Ikan Bakar Batu to buy fresh fish and seafood. Restaurant owners also come here to get their supplies. One of them is the popular San Lou Cafe in Stulang Laut, Johor Bahru.