Selat Sembilan: Orang Laut, Bugis, and the Place Names of Jurong's Lost Islands

What’s Behind Sembilan? Samulun/Semulun?

The earliest known rendering of the strait's name appears on a hydrographic map compiled around 1820 under Lieutenant-Colonel William Farquhar (Fig. 2): "P. Sinbolan." By 1851, J.R. Logan's geological map (Fig. 3) labels the waterway "Silat Sambulan." The name continued to shift: "Samboolan," "Samulun," "Semulun"—each variant a different colonial attempt to transcribe a name that was not originally written down.

Fig. 2. Hydrographic map of Singapore and adjacent islands, c. 1820, compiled under Lieutenant-Colonel William Farquhar. Pre-standardised spellings include "P. Pasee" (Pulau Pesek), "P. Sikrar" (Pulau Ayer Chawan), "P. Bootun" (Pulau Ayer Merbau), "P. Bernardo" (Pulau Merlimau), "Mackenzie Isl.d" (Pulau Seraya), and "P. Sinbolan" (Pulau Samulun). CO700 Straits Settlements No. 4, Accession No. D2019_000020_TNA. Courtesy of The National Archives (UK) and the National Archives of Singapore.

Fig. 3. Geological map of southern Singapore, 1851, compiled by J. R. Logan for the Royal Geographical Society. Early place name variants include "Pess" (Pulau Pesek), "Sikra" (Pulau Sakra), "Boyan" (Pulau Seraya), and "Ayer Chawan" (Pulau Ayer Chawan); the waterway is labelled "Silat Sambulan." Accession No. D2018_000220_RGS. Courtesy of the National Archives of Singapore.

By the 1920s, maps had begun distinguishing Selat Semulun—the narrower waterway between Samulun Island and the mainland—from the broader Selat Sembilan.^[2] Two names, related but distinct, for adjacent waters. The separation suggests that "Semulun" and "Sembilan" were understood, at some point, as different, not simply as variant spellings of the same word.

By 1923, a British War Office survey map of Tuas and the Jurong offshore islands (Fig. 4) had standardised the place names across the region, replacing earlier colonial variants such as "Bernardo" (for Pulau Merlimau) and "Sikrar" (for Pulau Ayer Chawan) with the Malay names now recognised. It was in this period that "Sembilan"—nine—became the settled rendering. The 1939 War Office map (Fig. 5) labelled the strait "Selat Sembilan". But the phonological question remains: is "Sembilan" what the name always meant, or is it what colonial administrators heard?

References to Linschoten's 1595 Reysgeschrift had already mentioned Pulau Sembilan in the region.^[3] Whether his pilots were transcribing an indigenous name or simply using a Malay numeral, the name was already in circulation more than two centuries before the 1923 standardisation.

Fig. 4. Survey map of Tuas, Peng Kang, and the Jurong offshore islands, British War Office, 1923. Reflects the formal adoption of standardised place names, replacing earlier variants such as "Bernardo" and "Sikrar." WO 78/5364 (pt10), Accession No. D2016_000405. Courtesy of The National Archives (UK) and the National Archives of Singapore.

Fig. 5. Topographic map of southern Singapore and adjacent islands, British War Office, 1939. Depicts the pre-reclamation Jurong landscape, including Pulau Ayer Chawan, Pulau Sakra, Pulau Pesek, Pulau Merlimau, and Pulau Seraya. War Office, Geographical Section, General Staff, No. 3772 (Sheet 3L/11d, Second Edition), Accession No. TM001047. Courtesy of the Singapore Land Authority and the National Archives of Singapore.

The Orang Laut

The Orang Laut—including subgroups such as the Seletar, Selat, and possibly the Semulun—likely inhabited the islands now known as Jurong Island well before 1819.^[4] The Orang Seletar lived along rivers and coastal mangroves, while the Orang Selat were known for their maritime mobility along the southern straits.^[5]

H.T. Haughton, in 1889, suggested that "Sěmúlun" may instead refer to an Orang Laut subgroup.^[6] The phonetic shifts between "Samboolan" and "Samulun" may also reflect dialectal patterns. In the Kon dialect spoken by Orang Laut communities, bilabial clusters like mb are often reduced (e.g. ambik becomes amek), a linguistic trait shared with vernacular Malay. The later standardised Malay term Sembilan may thus be a retrospective reinterpretation of an older Orang Laut phonology.^[7] European mariners, including those recorded in Jan Huyghen van Linschoten's 1595 Reysgeschrift, would have relied on these communities to traverse the shoals of Selat Jurong.^[8] That they encountered the name at all suggests the Orang Laut were its likely source.

The name Semulun was not unique to this cluster of islands. A coastal settlement in Sabah, known today as Sembulan Lama, was formerly inhabited by Brunei, Bajau, and Idaan communities. It was once known as Simpulan—a term associated with knots or alliances. Oral traditions associate this name with the Sama-Bajau, and possibly with fish such as bulan-bulan, which are linked to lunar cycles. Some accounts suggest that Sembulan and its variants were used by Orang Laut or Harimau Laut, who once ranged across southern Singapore.^[9] The recurrence of this name-cluster across Borneo and the southern Straits points to an Austronesian toponymic pattern transmitted through seafaring networks. If the name travelled with seafaring communities across the Straits, it is more likely to encode a people than a number.

The island place names of Selat Sembilan carry further traces of Orang Laut presence. Pulau Meskol, for instance, may derive from sekol (a coconut-shell water vessel), with mi- as a dialectal Orang Laut affix.^[10] Pulau Seraya, named after the seraya tree (Shorea curtisii), was favoured for boatbuilding by the Orang Seletar, who used its timber to build pau kajang.^[11] Oral accounts suggest that Orang Selat families had settled on Seraya from surrounding islands—including Pulau Damar and Telok Saga—before the 20th century.^[12]

What the Names Encode

"Meskipun ia cetek, tetapi air di perigi itu tidak pernah kering dan di musim kemarau, para penduduk di pulau-pulau yang berdekatan akan datang ke situ untuk mengambil air," tambah Encik Ismail lagi.

"Even though it was shallow, the well never ran dry, and during the dry season, residents from nearby islands would come there to collect water," added Mr Ismail. ^[13]

The prefix Sungai (river) marks water sources—e.g. Sungai Merlimau, Sungai Ayer Chawan—while Tanjong (cape/headland) names signal lookout points or coastal features—e.g. Tanjong Ayer Merbau, Tanjong Mak Boak. The recurring prefix Ayer (water) highlights islands with freshwater access, a crucial criterion for long-term habitation in offshore settings. Names like Ayer Rajah and Ayer Gemuroh on the mainland similarly evoke associations with water, waves, and coastal terrain.

Kampong names can also honour individuals, particularly elders or religious figures. Names like Wak Benchik, Wak Sekak, and Wak Jiling use the Wak honorific, paralleling other sites like Kampong Wak Sumang in Punggol and Kampong Wak Tanjong in Geylang. Additionally, some names offer clues about past land use. Kampong Kubang Babi (literally "pig wallow") on Pulau Seraya is not mentioned in oral accounts but may hint at pig-rearing activities, possibly linked to Chinese communities. Kampong Jawa signals Javanese presence, while Kampong Bahru likely denotes resettlement or expansion.

While some kampongs had disappeared by the early 20th century, their names continued to appear on maps until the 1960s. Others—such as Kampong Gate Lima, Kampong Geylang, and Kampong Jawa on Pulau Seraya—are absent from maps but persist in the oral memories of former islanders.^[14]

The Bugis and Later Settlers

"Encik Ismail berkata bahawa suatu masa dulu, ramai orang Bugis yang tinggal di situ [Pulau Ayer Chawan] dan menanam nenas. Suatu hari sedang mereka menyangkul, mereka terjumpa banyak cawan kaca di ladang nenas mereka. Dari mana atau bagaimana cawan-cawan itu boleh berada di pulau itu, tidak pula diketahui."

Mr Ismail said that some time ago, many Bugis people lived there [Pulau Ayer Chawan] and planted pineapples. One day, while they were digging, they discovered many glass cups in their pineapple field. The origin of those cups on the island remains unknown. ^[15]

According to Ismail bin Mohd Ali, Pulau Ayer Chawan had a known Bugis presence. Additionally, the name Pulau Pesek may derive from the Bugis word for holed coins. Bugis communities were historically present across the southwestern islands. Originating from Sulawesi, the Bugis established extensive maritime networks by the 18th and 19th centuries, often settling in the Johor-Riau region. Their mobility and maritime expertise made offshore islands suitable for settlement.

Hamzah Haji Hussein, Pulau Seraya’s final penghulu, noted that Pulau Merlimau, Ayer Chawan, and Seraya attracted Bugis settlers due to good fishing grounds. ^[16] Pulau Seraya, for example, was divided into Seraya Besar and Seraya Kecil. The latter was initially home to two or three Bugis families, with Bugis-style stilt houses common along the coast. However, by 1961, Seraya Kecil was unoccupied. ^[17]

Over these older Orang Laut and Bugis presences, later settlers added further layers. On Pulau Seraya, Hamzah Haji Hussein recalled that residents from Bintan and Java, many of whom were described as orang beragama (religiously inclined), had settled there. ^[18] His son, Ali bin Hamzah, added that their family originated from Bintan. ^[19] Meanwhile, a Teochew settler, Xu Xifan, recounted migrating to Pulau Merlimau after World War II to cultivate fruit trees on land owned by a relative. ^[20]

Maritime Malays, Bintanese and Javanese migrants, and Chinese smallholders lived alongside one another. The oral histories from NAS and field interviews document this mid-20th-century picture well.

Conclusion: What Sembilan Might Really Mean

In the case of Selat Jurong—or Selat Sembilan, as it was once known—place names outlast the places themselves. They record where water was found, which trees were felled, and who settled where. The evidence assembled here does not prove that "Sembilan" is a mistranscription of an Orang Laut name. What it does show is that the standard explanation—nine islands, hence the name—does not hold up: there were fourteen islands, the name was unstable across two centuries of cartography, and the earliest variants do not obviously mean "nine" in any language. Haughton's 1889 suggestion that "Sěmúlun" may refer to an Orang Laut subgroup remains unverified but is not implausible.

The transformation of Jurong into a petrochemical hub began long before the 1970s reclamation. Even in the colonial period, representations of the islands were filtered through extractive and administrative lenses—maps and censuses that rarely captured local terms or the lived meanings of these terms. Reading colonial records against oral histories and vernacular accounts recovers what administrative maps left out.

This article has traced how island place names carry linguistic, ecological, and social histories simultaneously. Reading Jurong Island through its place names makes visible whose knowledge was encoded in the landscape, and whose was subsequently erased. Doing so recovers the histories of the Orang Laut, Bugis, Malay, and Chinese communities who inhabited these islands. The next time you pass Jurong on the highway, spare a thought for the vanished coast beneath it. Somewhere under the tarmac and pipelines lie the memories of Selat Sembilan. Their names may be gone from the signs and maps, but they can still be remembered.

The following table summarises the place names and etymologies of the various islands that now make up Jurong Island, based on information gathered from published writings, archival documents, and oral history accounts:

This research was supported by the National Heritage Board’s Heritage Research Grant.