Kampong Bugis

In 1822, about 500 Bugis with their chief, Arong Bilawa, fled from Macassar to Singapore to settle down in the fledgeling British colony. Stamford Raffles, in his 1828 master plan for the settlement which followed a racial approach to allocating residential spaces to the various communities in Singapore, allotted the Bugis the land between Kampong Glam and the Rochor River. This area, on the right bank of the river and originally occupied by the Orang Laut, was logically named Kampong Bugis. The settlement later expanded to the north and left banks of the Rochor River as well as the banks of the Kallang River. With other Malay groups and the Arabs settling in this vicinity, the Bugis area became a Muslim heartland. Notable Arab entrepreneurs developed the shophouses of the area into a multicultural business zone by the late 19th and early 20th century. The intellectual enrichment of the area by pilgrim travellers and Muslim publishing businesses and intellectuals made Singapore circa 1900 one of the great centres of Islamic scholarship and information.

Between the First and Second World Wars, flourishing businesses were established, especially by Japanese proprietors, with the possible ulterior motive of being an intelligence-gathering source.

In modern day Singapore, "Kampong Bugis" no longer refers to a kampung (Malay hamlet or village in a Malay-speaking country) but is the name of a quiet lane on the left bank of the Rochor River which leads to Kallang Riverside Park. It is home to a scattering of factory buildings, a Hindu temple, a park and a hipster café frequented by teenagers. Up to the late 1990s, an unmistakeable landmark, the cylindrical metal stucture of the old Kallang Gas Works was situated right next to it.

During the Japanese Occupation from 1942 to 1945, a number of Bugis were resettled in Pontian, Johore and others moved out to Beach Road and Arab Street. Today the Bugis have been assimilated into the Malay community, with most living in HDB flats.   

=See also=


 * Bugis
 * Bugis in Singapore
 * Bugis Street: transgender aspects

=References=

=Acknowledgements=

This article was written by Roy Tan.