The origins of Singapore date back as far as the 14th century when the island was known as Temasek or also known as Tumasik. There was this prince from the island of Sumatra known as Sang Nila Utama. One day, on his visit to Tumasik, he spotted an unusual looking creature whilst hunting for wild animals.
It was a rather peculiar but interesting sight. Sang Nila Utama who was standing at the base of the hill on which this rather queer looking animal was perched on the top, unafraid and unperturbed by Sang Nila Utama’s presence. It was rather odd as animals are normally known to be very alert and react rather quickly if they sense any other presence whether animal or human being.
Cautious yet still enthusiastic about what he saw, Sang Nila Utama shouted at his men asking if any of them knew what type of animal this was. One of them replied that it was a lion. This animal was believed to have red hair on its head and red skin on its chest. Sang Nila Utama overjoyed, saw this as a sign from the Gods, happily called the island ‘Singapura’.
‘Singa’ in Malay means lion and ‘pura’ means city in Malay. Pronounced together it means lion city. Many historians beg to differ. Some say what Sang Nila Utama saw was not a lion but a mouse deer. Mouse deers then were very easily found in the Malayan Peninsular. One such Malayan or today known as Malaysian state that boasts very proudly of this animal called the mouse deer is the state of Malacca, located more to the south of the Malaysian Peninsular. In fact, the mouse deer is the mascot of the state of Malacca.
Other historians have another view in which seems to be more in line with the fact that Singapore during the time of Sang Nila Utama was full of jungles home to the tiger. Tigers were rampant in Singapore until the late 1940s when their numbers reduced sharply. What caused this huge drop in which only 100 years earlier on tigers were in thousands?
Well, many historians believe that tigers posed a serious and many a time deadly threat to the people of Singapore living during 1840s to the 1940s. As Singapore developed, so did ammunition. No longer did the villagers living a stone throw away from the jungles which were home to these tigers have to fend them off with sharp weapons, wooden sticks and whatever they could get their hands on to protect themselves as rifles were being sold; sold of course with a license from the British colonial government at that time.
In fact, the war against tigers that nearly wiped out the entire tiger population of Singapore had positive and negative consequences. Positive as villages were then safe from attacks but negative as this rare and powerful creature native not only to Singapore but also to other countries in Asia; those with tropical climates especially, and yes other countries outside Asia that have the 4 seasons, was almost impossible to be seen and admired. What an unusual name Singapore would have if it were called Tigerpore!
So as they say, legends are only legends. Strangely enough, some legends sometimes are connected with actual historical events. One must be cautious though as legends, especially those pertaining to Singapore’s history were created during the time when story telling was one of the very few forms of leisure. So it was the case at that time as Singapore was rather a backward and isolated island with hardly less than a hundred people, let alone a port. Therefore, stories of fiction were created to occupy the time of the bored island dwellers. They must have been rather creative to invent such captivating tales that both young and old can truly relish!
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