MUZIUM SEJARAH / HISTORY MUSEUM
KELONG (DEEP-WATER FISHING STAKE)
A place surrounded by sea and rich with marine life, will make its inhabitants rely on sea a lot for their livelihood and Malaysia is not exception. Long before the Melaka Sultanate, its inhabitants were involved in the fish catching. It needed a technique to catch a plenty of fishes A technique to catch the most number of fish was needed. All types of traps were used, depending on the circumstances. The largest of these was the ‘kelong’.
The ‘kelong’ has been used in this region for hundred years. Build the kelong is an art in itself. The builders must know the flow of the currents, its depths, the movement of fish and the tides. The idea is to set up a lengthy wide trap that could follow the sea flows and allow the fish to move freely within the trap until it enters the net. The fish will then be lifted up by using nets or scooped up when the tide is low.
‘Kelong’s are mostly found along the coastline, but sometimes as far as 10 kilometres into the sea. The ‘kelong’s are made from ‘nipah’ palm trunks, which are suitable to use in the sea. With the advent of deep-sea fishing, ‘kelong’s are rarely used.
However, it still can be seen off the coast of Klebang, Tanjung Bidara and Umbai.
AGRICULTURE IN MELAKA
Melaka was not known for agricultural activities. However, such activities have been carried out before the founding of the Melaka Malay kingdom. Although the land was not suitable for agricultural activities like paddy, tapioca, sugar cane and gambier are some of the crops planted here. It was Melaka, which introduced the planting of paddy to the peninsula. This diorama shows the agricultural activities founded here.
According to the Malay Annals, there was a large area in Bertam where paddy was grown. Portuguese sources support this statement. The paddy fields of Malacca were carried out in lower areas where there were villages. It was also seasonal in nature. Two systems of paddy cultivations are used in this country: - hill paddy and wet paddy cultivation. Melaka practised the latter. A track of paddy field would be cleared of undergrowths of grass and ploughed. Water would then be released into the field to soften the soil and grass would be pulled out before young paddy plants are planted in systematic rows. These plants were fertilized with manure and looked after until they were ready for harvest in about six to eight weeks. Some paddy varieties would take longer to mature. The paddy plants were then reaped, thrashed, dried and pounded to collect the paddy.
In the 1960s, paddy fields were surrounded Melaka town. Although rice has been cultivated here for a long time, it is not enough to meet the needs of the state. Rice cultivation has never been carried out at a commercial level in Melaka, but only for family consumption. The cultivation is done traditionally using wooden tools such as the plough, rake, thrashing tub, grinder, winnowing mill and other tools as well as animals such as buffaloes and bulls.
