The Palace of Sultan Mansur Shah at Malacca

Author(s): Michael D. Sherwin

Source: Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 40, No. 2 (May, 1981), pp.
101-107
Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the Society of Architectural Historians
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The Palace of Sultan Mansur Shah at Malacca
MICHAEL D. S H ERWIN Universiti Sains
Malaysia, Penang
This article
proposes
a
reconstruction, shown
in scale
drawings,
of
a
palace
built
for
a
Malay Sultan, probably
in the
1460s.
The
main aims
of
the discussion are to
clarify
the
reconstruction, the
problems surrounding it,
and the reasons
for arriving
at this
form;
to
place
it in the context
of region
and
epoch;
and to
elaborate on its salient
aspects.
The article
begins
with
a
brief
account
of
Malacca in the i5th
century,
considers some
of
the cultural
influences
on
it,
and com-
ments on the
Malay Annals,
a traditional
history of
the Malacca
Sultanate and the sources
for
the account
of
the
palace
on
which
the reconstruction is based. The
description of
the
building,
re-
markably
lucid
considering
its
age
and
circumstances,
is trans-
lated. Various
possibilities concerning
the overall
form of
the
palace
are
discussed, particularly
two alternatives
from
the
South
East Asian
area,
and one is
posited
as
being
the basic
forerunner
and
formgiver.
The
different parts of
the
building, particularly
those mentioned
specifically
in the translated
passage,
are con-
sidered relative to the
proposed
reconstruction.
MALACCA is a small
port
which lies on the west side of the
Malay
Peninsula
(Fig. i),
in what is now
Malaysia,
but in the
15th century
it was a sultanate and a
power
in its own
right.
The
Straits of Malacca between the
peninsula
and the
neighboring
island of Sumatra are named after
it, signs
of its former
impor-
tance. The
fixing
of
present
national boundaries bears little rela-
tion to the situation at that
time,
when a
variety
of
principalities
vied for
ascendancy
over one
another,
Malacca
being
one of the
strongest
in the
Malay
world and the most
independent
of those
on the mainland. The
Malay
world was
by
no means confined to
what came to be known as
Malaya;
indeed the homeland is in
Sumatra,
and the
diplomatic
and other
exploits
of the
Malays
throughout
a wide area are the reason for the national
language
of Indonesia
today being Malay. Many
contacts occurred
among
different
groups
in the
region,
with
ample opportunity
for
many
influences to
pass
to and fro.
Buddhism and
particularly
Hinduism had a
major impact
on
the entire
region, overlaying
and
combining
with an earlier an-
imism. In addition to its new
religious vocabulary-which
was
easily
able to
incorporate
the
spirits
and charms
already
native to
the area-Indian influence introduced the concept of rajahs who
were of divine
ancestry, and probably the collection of
appur-
tenances and customs attendant on the sacred kingship. Among
BUR A Ayutthaya
C
IM
Angkor
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Do
TAN I
DAH
K E NTAN
PE RK
ANG
laca
O Egapore
00
U
0
UBO RNEO
'
HNG G A
JAMB
Pale bang
JAVA
1000
Fig.
i.
Malay
Peninsula and
surrounding region, showing
Malacca and
some
places
of
importance during
the Sultanate.
these,
and one that concerns us in this discussion of a
palace,
was
the
right
to seven tiers whether for
umbrella,
ceremonial
pavil-
ion,
or residence. Lesser ranks had lesser numbers of such tiers to
proclaim
their status.' The seven
levels, apart
from the univer-
sality
of seven as a sacred
number,
derive
probably
from the
Heaven of Indra on the
top
of the seventh level of Mount Ma-
hameru,
the center of creation in Hindu
cosmogony:
the
rajahs
were
supposed
to be descended from
Indra,
who as a divine
being
not
worshipped
as an immortal
god,
was
acceptable
to the
Theravada Buddhists as well as to Hindus.
Apart
from such
mythic
Hindu
origin, many
of the
royal
families
probably
were
i. R.
Winstedt,
The
Malays:
A Cultural
History, London, 1947,
I96I,
86.
IO I
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102
JSAH, XL:2, MAY 1981
Fig.
z.
Pagaruyung, Sumatra, palace,
at
present being
reconstructed.
Room covered
by
the
top
roof at
right angles
is known as the
mahaligai.
descendants of
intermarriages
with the more
culturally
advanced
immigrants
from India.
Malacca is
traditionally
said to have been founded
in 1394 by
a
Hindu, Parameswara,
whose
ancestry
was Sumatran. The
newly
established
port
soon attracted
many foreign merchants,
many
of them
Muslims,
whether of
Arabian, Indian,
or Suma-
tran
origin.
Muslim influence increased as the
kingdom grew
richer and
stronger; apparently during
the first half of the
I 5th
century,
Islam became the official and
prevailing religion
and the
Rajah
became Sultan. The
heyday
of the Malacca Sultanate was
brief,
since in
15
11 the
Portuguese captured
the
town,
the
begin-
ning
of the
long process
of
draining power
from the traditional
rulers.
Before the
coming
of
Europeans,
little written material from
the
region exists,
and its
history
is but
sketchily
known. O ne
well-known account of the Malacca Sultanate is
available,
the
Malay Annals, probably
recorded at the end of the i6th
century.
Although many
of the incidents are
mythic,
the outline of the
account
regarding
the succession of rulers and the
growth
of
power
of the Sultanate seems to be accurate. O ne of the rulers
when Malacca was at its
height,
well
established,
and
already
converted to
Islam,
was Sultan Mansur
Shah,
who
reigned
from
1456
to
1477.
An account in the
Malay
Annals considers the
palace
constructed
by
Mansur Shah to
proclaim
his
glory, fame,
and
power-the building
of such a
palace
in those
days
was
equivalent
to a state
having
its own nuclear
weapons
in these
times. The account runs:
... And the size of that
palace
was seventeen
spaces,
for each
space
the
breadth was three
fathom,
the columns were as
large
around as could be
embraced;
of seven levels were the
pinnacles.
In between that were
provided windows,
in between those windows were
placed
roofs at
right
angles
and like
suckling elephants,
all of them with
wings
like those of a
kite and carved and
projecting
from under the
eaves,
in between that
projection
was carried out the
' rectangular grasshopper' ,
all of it with
peaks
and
fringes
all over. Moreover all those windows of the
palace
were
altogether painted
and
gilded
with
liquid gold,
its
[their?] pinnacles
were red glass. When it caught the rays of the sun its form blazed like a
jewel;
and the
walling
of that
palace
was
pannelled
all
over, moreover
inset with Chinese mirrors of
large
sizes. When it
caught
the
glare
of the
sun its form blazed in flashes, so that its
image
was not clear to
peoples'
sight.
Moreover the crossbeams of that
palace
were a cubit
broad, a
hand and two
fingers thick; as for the
upstand
it was two cubits in
breadth, a cubit in thickness, the frames of those doors were carved, and
forty
was the number of those doors, all of them
painted
and
gilded with
liquid gold. Exceedingly
beautiful was the execution of that
palace; there
was no other
palace
in the whole world like it. And that
palace
it was
which was called
by men, Mahaligai.
Its roof
covering
was brass and tin
crested.2
However literal one
may try
to make a
translation,
as in this
case,
coloration will result from the translator' s
understanding, espe-
cially
when the structure of the
language
is different from our
own,
and terms are
employed
that are no
longer
in
general
use.
Still, this version seems more
intelligible
than that in the
gen-
erally
used
English
version of the
Malay Annals,3
which was
translated from a different
Malay original.4
This is not the
place
to
go
into the
ages
of and variations
among
the several recensions
of the
manuscript.
The version used here can be seen to make
sense from an architectural
point
of
view,
even if some details are
ambiguous;
indeed it is
remarkably
clear and concise for the
description
of a
building.
It is all the more
important
as a source
for architectural
history
when we realize that all such
buildings
in this
region
were of
timber,
and that not a
single
relic of
any
comparable
structure survives. The
palace
described here burnt
down not
long
after
being completed.
This
description
was writ-
ten to draw attention to the
magnificence
and
special
features of
the
palace;
it was for an audience who would know in what form
a
Malay
Sultan' s
dwelling
should
be,
and who could therefore fill
z. W. G . Shellabear, Sejarah Melayu,
K uala
Lampur, 1975,
133.
Spellings
are altered to
bring
them in line with the new rules. This
translation
by
the author is from the most
generally accepted Malay
text.
Ada
pun besarnya
istana itu
tujuh
belas
ruang, pada seruang tiga depa
luasnya,
besar
tiangnya sepemeluk; tujuh pangkat kemuncaknya.
Pada
antara itu
diberinya bertingkap, pada
antara
tingkap
itu
diberinya
ber-
bumbungan melintang
dan
bergajah menyusu, sekaliannya bersayap
layang-layang
berukir dan
bersengkuap, pada
antara
sengkuap
itu di-
perbuatnya belalang besagi, sekaliannya bergunungan-gunungan
dan
berjurai-jurai
belaka. Ada
pun segala tingkap
istana itu
sekaliannya
dicat dan dibubuhi air
emas, kemuncaknya
kaca merah.
Apabila
kena
sinar
matahari bernyala-nyala rupanya seperti manikam;
dan
dinding
istana itu
sekaliannya berkambi,
maka
ditampali dengan
cermin Cina
yang
besar-besar.
Apabila
kena
panas matahari bernyala-nyala rupanya
kilau-kilauan,
tiada
nyata
bahana
dipandang orang.
Ada
pun
rasuk
istana itu sehasta
lebarnya, sejengkal tiga jari tebalnya;
akan birai istana
itu dua hasta
lebarnya,
sehasta
tebalnya, diukirnya jenang pintu itu,
dan
empat puluh banyak pintunya, sekaliannya
dicat dibubuh air emas.
Terlalu indah-indah
perbuatannya istana itu; sebuahpun istana raja-
raja di dalam dunia
ini
tiada seperti itu. Dan istana itulah yang dinamai
orang mahaligai. Atapnya tembaga
dan timah
disirip.
3.
C. C.
Brown, Sejarah Melayu
or
Malay Annals,
K uala
Lumpur,
1970, 77-78.
4.
R.
Winstedt, transcriber,
"Raffles MS of
Sejarah Melayu," Journal
of
the
Malayan Branch of
the
Royal
Asiatic
Society, xvI, part III, 1938,
II4.
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SHERWIN: THE PALACE O F SULTAN MANSUR SHAH AT MALACCA
103
Fig. 3. Minangkabau,
traditional
house,
now
preserved
for
display.
Roof
arrangement
reflects the internal
layout,
with the
long reception
room continuous
along
the front.
Fig. 4. Burma,
tiered
temple
tower built in wood.
in the
missing parts
of the
description
for themselves. We on the
contrary
have no direct evidence about the basic form of such
palaces.
What
existing buildings
or
depictions
of
buildings
in old
sources could be related to the
description given?
The
Malays
do
not seem to have used
funerary ornaments,
no
drawings survive,
and the wood
carvings
have
disappeared
with the
buildings they
once adorned. In
any case,
Islam
discouraged
all but abstract
ornament. As far as extant architecture is
concerned,
two
prom-
ising examples
can be consulted without
having
to
go
as far afield
as the stone
temples
of India or the multi-tiered
buildings
of
Nepal.5
Fig. 5.
Malacca
district, mosque
with three tiered
pyramidal
roof. This
building, perhaps
less than
40 years old,
shows Hindu
influence,
as well
as
Islamic,
British
Colonial, Malay,
and even Chinese elements. Abstract
"dragon
and
pearl"
motif can be seen in corner finial.
O ne of these is the curved roof
buildings
of the
Minangkabau.
The
Minangkabau people (the
name means
"winning bull")
have
their
present
homeland in the hills of
Sumatra,
inland from the
coast
opposite Malacca,
and an area was also settled
by
them on
the
peninsula,
inland and to the northeast of Malacca. Their
style
of
building
is distinctive
(Fig. z).
Most
likely developed mainly
within
Sumatra,6
the
particular
form of the
upcurving
roofs lends
itself well to a
layering
which
incorporates
the
concept
of tiers of
building.
No evidence
suggests
that these
people
had
any greater
influence on the culture than the
many
other
peoples
who settled
in the Malacca area or with whom the Malacca
Malays
had
dealings, except
that the
simplified type
of
Minangkabau
house
(Fig. 3)
built in the
peninsula
seems to be
strongly
reflected in the
type
of house common in the Malacca area to this
day.
The other
example
is a Burmese
temple tower,
such as the one
shown in
Figure 4,
constructed in
timber,
and in a sense the
simplest possible
structure that could fit the
description given.
The roof consists of seven
tiers, excluding
the Buddhist termina-
tion at the
top.
Each tier could be said to have
pinnacles
in the
form of the corner
finials,
and windows are located between each
tier.
However,
such a tower
presupposes
a
building
below it
which is
square
in
plan,
or
very nearly
so. We are told in the
description
that the
palace
was
i7
bays
in
size,
which is
always
taken to mean that it was
17 bays long.
It would be
possible,
of
course,
to
arrange 17 bays
in three
rows,
two
of 5 bays
to either
side of one row with
7 bays, resulting
in a more
rectangular plan.
This is unlike
anything
else to be found in the
region today,
and
5.
As mentioned
above,
Hindu influence was
probably
at
work, par-
ticularly
as indicated
by
the
phrase
"of seven levels were the
pinnacles,"
but such influence was
spread widely throughout
Asia and manifested
itself in a
variety
of local forms. Indeed if we recall that the
many
storied
pagodas
of
Japan originated
from the Buddhist
stupa
which was
orig-
inally
a burial
mound,
we can see to what an extent an abstract form can
be
totally
modified
by
its architectural embodiment
according
to local
style.
6.
M.
D.
Sherwin,
"From Batak to
Minangkabau," Majallah Akitek,
I:79,
March
1979, 38-42.
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I04 JSAH, XL:2,
MAY 1981
ISTANA MAHALIG AI
PANDANG AN DEPAN
,
15
O feet 10 2n 30 40 50
untuk Sultan Mansur Shah
Fig.
6.
Malacca,
Palace of Sultan
Mansur
Shah,
scale
drawings
of
reconstruction
proposed by
author:
a. front
elevation,
b. side
elevation,
c.
enlarged
detail of
projecting ' dormer'
roof.
the scale becomes small for the most
magnificent
of
palaces.
The
question
of the
"40
doors" cannot be
gone
into
fully here,
as it
would involve a discussion of the
usage
of the relevant
Malay
words and of the traditional construction of houses. In
any case,
this number of doors can be fitted in whether the
squarish
or
long
plan
is
adopted,
so little can be deduced from the matter of
doors.
A
building
tradition exists in the district and
throughout
the
peninsula, again following Sumatra,
of
layered pyramidal
roofs
on a
square base;
to this
day
in Malacca itself one finds
mosques
with three
layers
of roof and small
gaps
between them
(Fig. 5).
This
arrangement, however,
can
hardly
be said to
provide
levels
of
pinnacles,
and a severe
problem
of scale would be created in
any
reconstruction based on such a
type,
since either the hall
would be too small for a
regal palace-a square
enclosure is
suitable for a
mosque,
indeed is often
preferred,
but
hardly
for a
palace-or
else the roof
height
would be
beyond
the
probable
limits of timber
construction, quite apart
from the matter of
17
bays.
In
attempting
a
reconstruction,
ioo feet would be about
the maximum
height possible,
even
though
in the
Malayan
forest
straight
trunks of
up
to
150
feet can be found. In the
largest
timber
building
in
Malaysia today,
the
palace
of Sri
Menanti,
the
main
pillars
rise
60 feet,
and the
palace
at
Pagaruyung
is about
the same
height.
No evidence
suggests
taller
buildings
in the
region.7
The reconstruction
proposed
here
is 25
meters
(82 feet)
to the
ridge
and the
topmost pinnacle
is
just
short of
ioo
feet
from the
ground,
so it is within conservative limits.
Considering
all
aspects
of the matter and
trying
to arrive at a
plausible building proposal,
it seems
necessary
to
reject
the
square
based
pagoda
tower and follow the
example
of
Minang-
kabau structures with
predominantly
horizontal
emphasis
and
upflung pinnacles.
Thus we arrive at the reconstruction shown in
Figure 6,
which
brings together
several themes and
appears
to
correspond
to the intentions of the
description.
Not
only
do
sound historical reasons for this
design provide
solid
support,
but internal evidence from the terms used and the
way
in which it
fits the
description, point
to its
probability.
As is
nearly
universal
among
the
Malays,
the
building
is raised
off the
ground
on its timber
posts.
This is
proved by
a
passage
just
after the one translated
above,
where the followers of the
Sultan walk under the
palace
while he ascends to
inspect
it. As
can be
seen,
the
arrangement
of
17 bays along
the front has been
adopted,
with columns at
4.5
meters
(15 feet) spacing
and each
column
0.5 (zo inches)
in diameter.
Allowing
for
only
a
slight
exaggeration
in the
account,
this would suit the
probable height
of a
Malay
of those
days.
The
palace
of
Pagaruyung
has
15 bays
(Fig. z),
so this is
quite
in character. That
palace
has the end
bays
set back on the central
longitudinal axis,
whereas the reconstruc-
tion
proposed
here has a
straight
run all
along
the front both in
order to have a
simple arrangement
of seven tiers and to follow
the
surviving examples
of
Minangkabau
houses in
Malaysia
it-
self
(Fig. 3).
Each tier has its
pair
of
pinnacles
at the
swept-up
ends. The word translated as "window" in the
text,
and indeed
in
general
use
today, tingkap,
has a one letter difference from the
word now used to mean
"storey," tingkat,
so that an
etymologi-
cal connection is
probable; tingkap originally may
have meant
"window in a
storey,"
or
clerestory.
This is what it
signifies
in
this
reconstruction, meaning
the bands of windows
separating
the tiers of roof.
There were roofs at
right angles
at each
level,
and this must
mean some sort of dormer
system
as shown here. The
"suckling
elephant" type
of roof
may
refer to this small
piece running
into
the main
flank,
but more
likely
it refers to a
gable running
into
another
gable
end wall under a
higher
roof on the same
axis;
thus
it
presumably applies
to the successive tiers where
they overlap
each other. It is not clear how
many
small dormer roofs at
right
angles
there should
be,
whether
merely
one line down the center
or more. The former
arrangement
would render each one a bit
7.
The Daibutsuden at
Todaiji, Nara,
is
157
feet
high
and the
Fokuang
Temple Pagoda
in
China,
from
Io56,
is
z16
feet
high,
so these
heights
could be obtained in timber.
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SHERWIN: THE PALACE O F SULTAN MANSUR SHAH AT MALACCA
IO 5
inconspicuous,
but is in
keeping
with the derivation of the
sym-
bolism of the
building
from Mount
Mahameru,
which faces four
directions-compare Angkor
Wat and others. The
provision
of
several such roofs at each level would be more
impressive
and in
keeping
with the Hindu
proclivity
toward
multiplicity
and
pro-
fusion,
but the number must be limited
by
the curve of the build-
ing
lines which makes the construction of such dormers at the
end
bays
all but
impossible.
The
meanings
of the
"wings
of the
kite,"
and of the
phrase
translated
here, literally,
as
"rectangular grasshopper,"
are un-
certain. In the
typical Malay
house
today
the
gables
under the
ends of the roof are filled in with a
triangular
construction which
slants inward at the
top
and is known as
"sail";
the
Malay
kite is
diamond-shaped,
hence one
"wing"
of this is a
triangle.
Thus the
reference
may
be to this
gable-end
board or "sail"
(this type
of
kite is
layang-layang,
whereas "sail" is
layar:
the
slanting gable-
end is known as tibar
layar; Fig. 7).
This makes sense of the word
translated here as
"projecting
from under the
eaves,"
a term
usually
used for a small
ancillary
roof on a lower level than the
main eaves and
partially overhung by
them: if the slant of the
triangular
sail is
fairly extreme,
it is covered
by
the
pitched
roof
of the dormer at the
top
and
exposed
where it leans out at the
bottom. Such a feature is not found on traditional
Minangkabau
buildings
in
Sumatra,
but is almost universal on all
styles
of
house in
Malaya.
O n the main
gable
ends of a
large Minangkabau
palace
such as the one at
Pagaruyung
it would be
virtually
im-
possible
due to the
large expanse
of the area
involved,
but on the
smaller
projecting
dormers it becomes
possible. Presently
one of
the hallmarks of the
Malay house,
at that date it
may
have been a
new
feature,
which would
explain why special
attention is
paid
to it in the
description.
The
"rectangular grasshopper"
would
appear
to be some
particular shape
of bracket or infill associated
with the
projecting
"sail" and
perhaps helping
to hold it in
place.
A
shaped pendant
bracket is
shown, copied
from houses in Su-
matra;
it has
something
of the
image
of a
grasshopper poised
to
leap.
O ther features mentioned
pose
little
problem
and fall into
place naturally.
The "Chinese mirrors" are round or
octagonal
ones as
commonly
used
by
that race as talismans above door-
ways,
set into
panelling
in the screen wall below the eaves at the
ends of the
buildings;
this can be seen to this
day (Fig. 8).
It is
probable
that this is the "wall" referred
to,
since all the lower
part
of the
building proper
would be
occupied by
the
"40
doors";
these are not in fact doors that can be walked
through,
but are
large
window
openings
closed
by
wooden shutters. The
part
described as
"upstand"
is the
piece
of
walling
or
parapet
that runs from column to column all
along
the
building, just
above the
floor,
and the window
openings
are
directly
on
this,
so
that the
top
of it becomes the window sill. The
top, furthermore,
may
be curved
along
the
length
to follow the
general
lines of the
building
while
keeping
the floor level. The end
bays
of a
palace
or
chief' s house were
usually
raised
up
in
steps,
thus
forming
an
elevated
platform
where the
rajah
or chief could sit to
give
audi-
ence,
with an intermediate level for his nobles and the
general
floor level for commoners. Another
sign
of
royalty
to be found
directly
under this raised floor at the
projecting
ends of the build-
ing
is the
"hanging
column,"s
a column which
stops
short below
8. W. G .
Shellabear, Sejarah Melayu, 74.
Certain architectural fea-
tures are reserved
exclusively
for the
rulers,
such as the
hanging
column
which does not rest on the
ground,
and columns all the
way
from the
ground up
to the underside of the roof
covering (normally
of course
columns
stop
at the underside of the
truss).
"Dan
larangan
berbuat
rumah
permanjungan bertiang gantung
tiada terletak ke
tanah,
dan
bertiang
terus dari atap,
dan
peranginan."
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106
JSAH, XL:2, MAY 1981
Fig. 7.
Malacca
district, house,
view of
gable
end.
Slanting
' sail' can be
clearly
seen in double
arrangement.
Small
upper
room is indicated
by
horizontal window
opening.
the crossbeam and does not reach the
ground.
In
particular
at the
ends where the roof is lower and the
building narrower,
the
individual columns have less load to
support
and so the extra
weight
from this
unsupported
column can be borne
by
the cross-
beam-particularly
when these beams are
18
inches
by
8 inches
as in this account. The
origin
of this curious feature of the
hang-
ing
column is not known. The beams are socketed into the col-
umns and the tenoned ends
may very likely project beyond
them.
The floor is built
up
in the normal
way
above them with
joists
and
planks.
Apart
from the
shaped
and carved door
jambs
and
"wings"
specifically mentioned, probably
most of the surfaces were
carved in relief and then
painted.
The doors and windows are
described as
being painted
and also
gilded
with
"liquid gold,"
although
this is more
likely
to have been
gold leaf,
and this is
reminiscent of Thai
temples
where the doors and window shut-
ters are
bright
red
picked
out in
gold.
The
predominant
colors
over most of the
building
are
likely
to have been red and black
together
with white or
orange-yellow.
These are the colors of the
cloths attached to the
newly
erected
principal pillars
of houses
under construction to this
day,
and of course are colors
easily
obtained from natural sources.
The
covering
of the roof
poses
a
problem.
The text has
gen-
erally
been translated to mean that
shingles
of
copper (or brass)
and tin were
used,
which is
possible although
no
examples
sur-
vive. The Thais
today
use
bright glazed
tiles with
something
of
the same effect.
However,
the
passage
can
equally
be translated
to mean that there were
only strips
or
cappings
of
metal,
and in
Fig.
8.
Malolo, Sumatra, village house, projecting ancillary
roof and
gable
end. Mirrors set into
panelling gleam
in shadow. Surface
carving
is
painted mainly
in earth colors.
this case the main roof
covering might
have been of a
type
of
black
thatch;
this combination can be seen on the
palace
at
Pagaruyung (Fig. z).
This
system easily
accommodates the curves
of the roof and can be
integrated
with the
pinnacles
which would
most
likely
have been of
metal,
crowned as noted with red
glass.
This is also more
probable
when we consider the account of the
fire which broke out
suddenly
on the roof.9 We are left with the
impression that, apart
from its size and
grandeur,
the
particular
significance
of this
palace
that led to its
being
described-no
other
comparable passage
is contained in the
Malay
Annals or
other
Malay
historical
writings-may
have been its tiered roof
and the
way
that it and the windows and
ancillary
roofs fitted
together.
The overall
appearance
of this
proposed
reconstruction has
been
kept
as
simple
as
possible congruent
with the information
9.
A discussion of the
meaning
and
significance
of the term
Mahaligai
as
applied
to the
palace
had best be left to scholars of Asian
languages,
especially Sanskrit;
it
may
be more than coincidental that
today
the term
means the
topmost
and
private
accommodation for a
royal
wife or
daughter
in such a storied
palace.
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SHERWIN: THE PALACE O F SULTAN MANSUR SHAH AT MALACCA
107
given
in the text. If the
design
seems
lodged
somewhere between
Sumatran and Thai
forms,
that too is
appropriate geographically
and
culturally.
The
Thais,
like the
Malays,
were
originally
tribes
of the Asian mainland who
migrated
into their
present
home-
or so it is
supposed, though
the
relationship
between the first
settlements of
Malays
in the
peninsula
and in Sumatra is far from
clear-and both were much affected
by
Indian
religion
and cul-
ture. The Thais of course are closer to the Chinese
racially
and
geographically
and
definitely
have some affinities with them in
their culture and architecture. O ther than
through
artifacts of
trade, particularly porcelain
but also other
goods
such as the
mirrors
mentioned,
the Chinese
probably
had little contact and
influence with the
Malays. According
to the
Malay
Annals
(and
also Chinese
sources),
the Malacca sultanate had at one
period
diplomatic
relations with
China,
and in another
episode
a little
later than the account of the
palace,
the same
sultan,
Mansur
Shah,
married the
daughter
of the
Emperor
of China and the
attendants who
accompanied
her took
up
their abode in Ma-
lacca in an area that was named for
them,
Chinese Hill. This
initiates a Chinese
presence
in
Malacca,
and it is
plain
that the
influence from that
quarter
was infinitesimal if
compared
with
that from India and Sumatra. So the
slightly
Chinese character of
this reconstruction should more
properly
be
compared
with Thai
architecture: the Thais were the
only
land
neighbors
of the
pen-
insular
Malays.
Indian work had
long
been subsumed in local
building forms,
as a
symbolic
framework rather than in architectural details. The
crescent effect of the
upcurving
roofs
may
be more than acciden-
tal since the
Minangkabau
culture is a well-known
example
of a
matriarchal or at least matrilineal
system,
and the moon and its
crescent were often a
powerful symbol
of the Mother
G oddess;
the bull and its crescent of horns is also
part
of this
symbolism
and is
specifically
referred to in the name of the tribe. O nce the
style
was introduced into the
Malay peninsula
where conditions
were somewhat different it was bound to
change,
and this
pro-
posal
is
already straighter
in its
general
lines than the Sumatran
examples. Today
the
upswung pinnacles
and curved roof are a
mere
vestige;
not
only
do
patriarchal systems
dominate on the
mainland,
but the most
commonly
available
type
of
roofing
ma-
terial before the introduction of
corrugated galvanized
steel was
a thatch made from
palm leaves,
which comes in
straight lengths
and can
hardly
be
applied
to a
pronounced
curve.
A full historical
investigation
of this
building
and the back-
ground
to it would
require
an extended
presentation.
This dis-
cussion is intended as an introduction to a little-known
part
of
Asian architectural
history.
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