This sight is located in Perak, Malaysia. Your base to visit it is Ipoh, the capital of Perak. Read the Ipoh Travel Guide for useful information about Ipoh. For more background about Perak, read the Perak Travel Guide. To prepare for a trip to Malaysia, read also the Malaysia Travel Guide. Looking for accommodation? Find good, clean rooms at Budget Accommodation Guide
Kota Ngah Ibrahim or Ngah Ibrahim's Fort is a Malay fortress in Matang, Perak. It belonged to Ngah Ibrahim, the Mantri of Larut, and son of Long Jaafar, the person who founded tin in Bukit Gantang in Klian Pauh which led to the establishment of the town of Taiping. Originally, Kota Ngah Ibrahim was simply a residence. However, Ngah Ibrahim had to build a fortress around it after violent gang warfare between the Hai San and the Ghee Hin secret societies over mining lands.
View of Kota Ngah Ibrahim.
Ngah Ibrahim was one of the Malay chieftains found guilty for the murder of the first British Resident of Perak, James Wheeler Woodford Birch. This house was where the 1877 trial of the main perpetrator, Dato' Maharajalela and his follower Si Puntum, was conducted, and they were sentenced to death. Other Malay Chieftains including Sultan Abdullah, Datuk Syahbandar Uda Maamor, Ngah Ibrahim himself and his father-in-law Mohamad Amin were sent into exile in Seychelles. Sultan Abdullah was given a pardon by the British 16 years later, and he returned to Perak to spend the remainder of his life in Kuala Kangsar.
The appeals by Ngah Ibrahim, his father-in-law and Uda Maamoor to return to Perak were rejected by the British. They were sent to Sarawak and then to Singapore. Ngah Ibrahim never got to return to Perak for all his natural life. He died in Singapore on 4 February, 1887.
Kota Ngah Ibrahim once served as the country's first teachers' training college, called Matang College, before the premises moved to Tanjung Malim and became known as the Sultan Idris Training College. During the Japanese Occupation, it was used as the headquarters of the Japanese army. Today it serves as the Matang Historical Complex.
Update 2007
On 5 September 2006, the remains of Ngah Ibrahim was discovered at the Pusara Al-Junied in Singapore. The remains of his father-in-law Laksamana Mohamad Amin Alang was also discovered in Singapore, at Pusara Aman in Chua Chu Kang. Archaeologists from the National Heritage Department of Malaysia, working with Warees Investment, a subsidiary of the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore, cooperated in exhuming the remains. Ngah Ibrahim's remains was brought back to be buried at Kota Ngah Ibrahim while Mohamad Amin's was interred at the Al-Ghufran Royal Perak Mausoleum in Bukit Chandan, next to the grave of Sultan Abdullah. The remains of Uda Maamor has not yet been found, at time of writing.
Side view of the former residence of Ngah Ibrahim, the Mantri of Larut.
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