When we received our location for the heritage trail, my initial reaction was “What?! Ancient Fort Canning – that’s even before Raffles arrived in Singapore!” I thought that this was going to be a difficult topic to do research on as there would probably be very few resources dating back to that period. Moreover, I imagined that Singapore was probably a really boring place then, full of jungles and wild animals.
All this changed when I started doing research on Fort Canning Hill. I found out that before Raffles arrived, the hill was actually known as Bukit Larangan (the Forbidden Hill). This was because the hill was said to be a scared place where the royals lived. This was an interesting piece of information to me – other than Sang Nila Utama, I did not know that other members of royalty lived in Singapore. This made me more interested in knowing more about Fort Canning. After doing research, I found out some interesting facts, like how Singapore’s first botanical garden was situated there and that it was called Government Hill before it became Fort Canning.
Fort Canning Hill was actually a very significant and important part of Singapore’s history, as it was the heart of ancient Singapore!
It was sad to see that most of the sites listed along the trail route did not exist anymore. Hence, most of the time, we had to use our imaginations and think about what could have been there 200 and more years ago! We also had to consider how to present everything in a blog when most of the sites were not there anymore. The information boards along the way were very helpful in giving us an idea of what went on in the past. I am sure that they would also be helpful for others embarking on this trail. It is fortunate though, that during Singapore’s development, Fort Canning Hill was not levelled to make room for office buildings or shopping centres.
In particular, I was amazed to find out that five Kings had ruled in ancient Singapore. Also, legends such as Badang and the Singapore Stone were stories I had never heard of before. This sadly, showed how much I was lacking in knowledge about Singapore’s history and I resolved to make a trip to the National Museum to brush up on it.
Overall, information from the lectures and embarking on this trail has allowed me to understand more about the ancient history of Singapore. Furthermore, I have gotten to know and imagine the way of life of people during that time. These are all stuff that I had not learnt from my Secondary School History textbooks and probably would never have known about! Singapore and Fort Canning Hill in particular, was definitely not a boring place during that time.
- Pearl
All this changed when I started doing research on Fort Canning Hill. I found out that before Raffles arrived, the hill was actually known as Bukit Larangan (the Forbidden Hill). This was because the hill was said to be a scared place where the royals lived. This was an interesting piece of information to me – other than Sang Nila Utama, I did not know that other members of royalty lived in Singapore. This made me more interested in knowing more about Fort Canning. After doing research, I found out some interesting facts, like how Singapore’s first botanical garden was situated there and that it was called Government Hill before it became Fort Canning.
Fort Canning Hill was actually a very significant and important part of Singapore’s history, as it was the heart of ancient Singapore!
It was sad to see that most of the sites listed along the trail route did not exist anymore. Hence, most of the time, we had to use our imaginations and think about what could have been there 200 and more years ago! We also had to consider how to present everything in a blog when most of the sites were not there anymore. The information boards along the way were very helpful in giving us an idea of what went on in the past. I am sure that they would also be helpful for others embarking on this trail. It is fortunate though, that during Singapore’s development, Fort Canning Hill was not levelled to make room for office buildings or shopping centres.
In particular, I was amazed to find out that five Kings had ruled in ancient Singapore. Also, legends such as Badang and the Singapore Stone were stories I had never heard of before. This sadly, showed how much I was lacking in knowledge about Singapore’s history and I resolved to make a trip to the National Museum to brush up on it.
Overall, information from the lectures and embarking on this trail has allowed me to understand more about the ancient history of Singapore. Furthermore, I have gotten to know and imagine the way of life of people during that time. These are all stuff that I had not learnt from my Secondary School History textbooks and probably would never have known about! Singapore and Fort Canning Hill in particular, was definitely not a boring place during that time.
- Pearl
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