Why is Singapore Called "Singapore" - Indies Gallery Catalogue 2021

INDIES GALLERY
Why is Singapore called
“Singapore”
A Story Told in Maps
By Eric Rosenkranz
Singapore & Jakarta - May 2021
www.IndiesGallery.com

INDIES GALLERY
Why is Singapore called “Singapore” - A story Told in Maps
The map collection of Sake Rudmer Santema
By Eric Rosenkranz
Singapore & Jakarta ~ May 2021

Singapore is often called the “Lion City’, a name supposedly deriving from the
Sanskrit words Singha, Lion, and Pura, City. Further evidence purportedly comes from
the Malay Chronicles, a historical compilation written in the 15th century, which tells
the story of a 13th century Palembang Prince named Sang Nila Utama who came to
the island, saw an animal he was told was a lion, and named the city after it.
However, the earliest known copy of the Chronicles dates from 1612, more than 300
years after these events were said to occur. The animal the Prince was said to have
seen had a red body, black head and a white breast (unlike most lions) and we know
today that no lion ever graced the island, nor was there a city at the time the Prince
arrived.
So, if we might doubt the Lion City origin of the name Singapore, how do we search
for another explanation?

It turns out that maps of the last few
hundred years tell a different story. From
them, we can see that the island had a
different name before it was named
“Singapore” and that it was the waterways
around the island that first carried this
distinctive name.
Our journey begins in the early 1500s when
European explorers first started sailing to
Asia from the west. This 1522 map by
Laurent Fries has written at the foot of
South East Asia the word “Bar mingapara”.
An earlier version by another cartographer
writes the name “Bar Xingapara”. Other
maps of the same era write at this area
“Gimgaparaa” and “Samgapura”.

Folio 34 of O Livro de Francisco Rodrigues
1513 showing “Samgapura”
(The Book of Francisco Rodrigues)
The placement of the word on all of these maps indicates
that the name is referring to a body of water, especially as
what we now call Singapore island is not shown at all.

Giacomo Gastaldi’s map India Tercera Nova Tabula from 1548
changes things slightly. Now we can see, in the water east of
the Malaccan peninsula, a cape called “Cape Cincapula “

TEXT by Erik NEEDED
C. Cingatola 2x named on
this map

Maps for the next 50 years referred
to this “Singapore Cape” as can be
seen in this beautiful 1598 map by
Willem Lodewycksz where you can
read “C. de Singapour” running
down the side. While this large land
mass appears to be an island, it is in
fact the southern part of the Malay
Peininsua, separated from the
mainland by an imaginary “river”.
This non existant river existed on
many maps of the time.

The little known Dutch engraver
Barent Langenes in 1609 published
this map of Sumatra and the Malay
peninsula (with East at the top)
showing “Sincapura”, once again
as a cape at the bottom of the
eastern side of the Malaccan
peninsula. As in previous maps,
Singapore island is not shown.
DIFFERENT MAP

Sometime in the late 1600s, another
evolution of the word “Singapore” becomes
apparent on maps. From the generalized
“Bar Xingapura” to “Cape Cincapula”, maps
now start identifying Singapore as a strait
connecting the Straits of Malacca on the
west to the Karimata Strait on the east (which
leads to the South China Sea).
Let’s look at some maps that illustrate this.

The first, and possibly most important, is this hand-drawn
map from a collection at the University of Leiden dating
sometime from 1675-1700. To the right side of the map, we
see a black mountain which on the previous series of maps
was named Cape Singapore. Slightly southwest of the cape
we see, written in red, the Dutch words “Straat Sincapura” or
“Singapore Strait”. If your eye travels to the left you will see
many very small islands. Above these is a green line, above
which are the words “T Lang Eyl.t” which translate to “Long
Island”. This area has been identified by cartographers as
Singapore island, perhaps the first clear depiction of the
island on a map. Clearly, while the straits are called the
“Singapore Straits”, the island is called “Long Island.”

The Singapore Straits now begin appearing on more maps.
This beautiful map by Pieter van der Aa from 1706 names the
“Naarw van Cincapura” but does not show Singapore island.
(While Van der AA is best known for his maps and atlases, he
began his career by pirating and printing foreign and
illustrated books.)

Jacques Nicolas Bellin was a French hydrographer and
geographer and his maps are some of the most detailed and
accurately rendered of the time. This map of the area dates
to 1755. We can now see Singapore island very clearly
identified with the modern named islands of Ubin and
Tekong appearing to the north. Between Singapore island
and Ubin (called on this map “Salat Buro”) we see written
“Vieux Detroits de Sincapour” (Old Strait of Singapore) and
just below Singapore island we see “Nouveau Detroit de
Sincapour” (New Strait of Singapore).
Singapore island itself is named “Pulo ou Isle
Panjang” (“Long Island”).

So, clearly, as late as 1755, Singapore island was still being called Long Island while the
waterways around it were called the Singapore Straits.
Sometime by 1794 had Singapore Island had finally adopted the name of its neighbouring
waterway? In this map, named “The Straits Of Sincapore With Those Of Durion, Sabon,
and Mandol” by Thomas Jeffers, Geographer to the King, we read the words “The Old
Straits” and then the word “Sincapore” on the island.
But is this word referring now to the name of the island, or is it merely the continuation of
the phrase “The Old Straits…”?
In fact, as late as 1803 British maps were still naming Singapore Island “Pulo
Panjang” (Long Island). The island appears to have been clearly named “Sincapour” for
possibly the first time in 1823 and spelled “Singapore” three years later.

By 1828, the date of this “Plan
Of The British Settlement Of
Singapore and Town plan of
Singapore”, the Island had
finally won its final name.
In the 300 hundred plus years from 1502 to 1826,
maps and charts of the region variously referred to
Barmingapara, Barxingapara, Samgapura, Cape
Cincapula, Long Island, Pulo Panjang and finally
Sincapour/Singapore. Maps were not the only
source of confusion. Zedler’s Universal Lexicon, first
published in 1731 and purporting to be the
Wikipedia of its time, has five distinct entries for
Singapore, identifying it as a strait, a cape, an island
and a city, with the city being located in numerous
places throughout the region.

Which leads one to finally ask, if not named after Lion City, what was
Singapore named after? Alas, we will never know. But here’s another
hypothesis. Instead of thinking of “Singha Pura” (Lion City), think of “Sin
Gapura”. Sin (or Xin or Cin) is the prefix for China (today we have the
words Sinophile and Sinologist, for example). Gapura is the Javanese word
for “Gateway”.
So “Singapura” can be seen to mean “The Gateway to China”. This makes
sense when one imagines a sea captain travelling down the Malaccan
Straits, being in the same body of water until he reaches Singapore and
enters into the beginnings of the South China Sea, where everything, the
tides and the currents, are different. Thence, our Captain would sail onto
China, having navigated the Straits and the Gateway to China, Singapura.