The Hidden History of Johor Lama. History Documentary about the warrior Sultans of Johor.

[@frenchumbrella]

Great movie! Wonderful sound effects and photography!

[@Goodnessgrays]

Mary Miu Yee Waye thank you. Glad you enjoyed it.

[@maxwellkenzo468]

Instablaster...

[@AkikazuAkamatsu27]

Beautifully done, impressive that you singlehandedly made this documentary. Although some could be improved, but me and my family enjoyed. I admire your enthusiasm and work. Well done, sir!

[@tomteh1]

Thanks Lawrence! Super impressed with you knowledge of the Malay history, vastly different from what we learned in school. Curious to know where you had the good fortune of learning the Malayan history. Thanks again, enjoying your film very much!

[@Goodnessgrays]

Apart from various history books, a lot of PhD thesis and academic articles are available on line from places like Singapore’s national museum archives. Jstor.com also has a vast store of articles from the Royal Asiatic Society amongst others. Then there are various Malaysian web sites that Google translate gives you access to. But there’s an awful lot to be found in local museums and from contact with local history groups. You get a different story when looking at local traditions. The main problem is how to curate this information and turn it into a narrative without making it far too long and complicated. School history is often fractured as National curriculums tend to concentrate on nation building and gloss over regional histories and rivalries in favour of a concept of the nation state and how it came into being. If you check out our Malaysian Road Trip you can pick up lots more snippets of various other regional histories. And I’m currently doing an somewhat odd little history of the early British Residents in our Isabella Bird series… we were going to shoot it as a documentary but the plague has stopped us. So it’s written up as a series of blogs at www.lawrencegray.net/Travel/blog-2 accompanied by a video commentary. Im not working off a script with commentary hence I’m in mad professor mode… obviously lockdown has driven me nuts!

[@tomteh1]

@@Goodnessgrays Thanks Lawrence! Your attention to details was most fascinating, for someone who left Malaysia decades ago, your film makes me want to road trip these places. I have subscribed to your blog and look forward to more of your exciting productions. Keep up the great works!

[@Tramuntanamaki]

Really great show. Thanks love the humor and history mixed.

[@broerymarantika853]

Thanks Lawrence, Just discovered your YT channel, very Educational yet made in a casual manner. It took a lot of efforts, research, drone photography, and an affable character to narrate these stories well. There were plenty of hidden gems in yr presentations. Not known by me a JB based Malaysian. You would make an excellent History Teacher. Did your wife filmed you and yr sense of raw aussie humour? A quik question. When Alaudin set up shop at Johor Lama and claim Sultanship, how many followers were w him? 300, 3000 or 3 ? BTW its Alawuddin ( Alauddin) not Aluwadin.

[@Goodnessgrays]

I fell into TV script writing instead of teaching... And Aussie!!! Ha! Love the Australia and have been all over the place. Check out my tour of Tasmania. I look at some of the history there as well, though not in any particular order, unlike here. However, we're Brits. Have lived in Hong Kong for 27 years and Malaysia for 6 so perhaps my accent has slipped a bit... My wife filmed most of it. Though I had Gary Ow come in to shoot me on the Johor river as my wife does not do boats, water, sea, swimming, diving, beaches, stuff that I consider a pleasure! If she did then no doubt there would be a lot of vlogs on dive sites and more lounging around on beaches with margaritas in hand instead of road trips through deserts. The population of Johor Lama was probably quite small and I would put Alaudin's set up more in the three hundred arena than three thousand. And possibly initially in the thirties rather than three hundreds! Though remember that the Orang Laut were very mobile... in fact Orang Laut still have villages along the Johor River... And they were his main source of muscle. So Johor Lama was an administrative centre for a large number of people spread around the river and its tributaries. So the immediate entourage that set up a jetty and stockade was probably small, but the numbers he could call upon were large. People then were impressed by one's ancestry far more than they are today. Today the self made man coming from nothing to wealth, fame, position, is considered a man of merit. Whereas in those days if you were the son of a Sultan you were some how considered to be magical and to have powers that mere mortals could not begin to understand. So waving that Sword Of Kingship was all that was required to pull in large numbers of supporters. Ambitious men of low birth, no matter how talented, tended to be considered with deep suspicion. Even men of high birth, but lacking that genealogical connection, had much less prestige. Once the Bendahara dynasty took over and the dynastic connection with Melaka and Palembang was lost, the Johor Sultanate lost the support of the Orang Laut and began fading away. Daeng Ibrahim essentially re-invented it when he and Tan Kee Soong set up plantations in Tebrau and it was quite some time before Abu Bakar could call himself a Sultan. And even now the pecking order of Sultans puts Brunei higher up the chain because of their lineage.

[@simonsimon2888]

Kota Tinggi is known as 'Johor Lama' while Singapore is 'Johor Baru' or as the Malays called the island, 'Pulau Hujung' where you find 'Masjid Temenggong Johor' along Telok Blangga, opposite Vivocity today. You find Singapore's flag side by side with the Royal flag of Johor. To, our present Sultan Ibrahim, let's greet our Royal Highness, "DAULAT TUANKU!"

[@JamalonOfficial]

Love the enthusiasm in you VO, this feels like it should be a daytime TV travel show with a cuppa

[@Goodnessgrays]

Jamalon Official yes, if only I had a BBC budget to go round the world talking about the footnotes of history!

[@dajai-6394]

Better then discovery...u making good

[@Goodnessgrays]

Ha ha .. if only I had their budget!

[@awanpenjejak8741]

Fantastic journey ! This is really historian did with beyond history

[@oldstock]

Good day Mr Gray. I came upon this youtube video by way of Facebook. It was the title that caught my attention and the fact that a Mat Salleh was taking the trouble to tell a story of the kings who once ruled in my home state. An initial look at the total length of the video somewhat deterred me at first, but I managed to watch the the whole thing in two sittings. What kept my interest was the various locations you reported from. I have been to some of them, including that megalith graveyard in Negeri Sembilan. Anyway, this is just an introductory comment from me. I hope you would not mind reading more comments from me in future. Very good documentary. I'll be watching it again to pick up on details that I've missed out in the first instance. Thank you.

[@Goodnessgrays]

Oldstock yes it originally started as a thirty minute one to compliment the Hidden History of Johor Bahru but it just grew. There’s a lot of story to tell and we miss out a lot of detail even with the 90 minutes. I tried to make it simple and pacey and hope it will inspire people to go exploring Malaysia.

[@oldstock]

@@Goodnessgrays Hi Mr Gray. I just watched your earlier video about the hidden history of Johor Bahru, although I had to search for it because it was on a separate channel. Again, very good effort. You know more about my home city than I do 😁. Anyway, back to why I was drawn towards this Johor Lama video. In 2011, I wrote a blog post about this old capital of Johor after having visited Teluk Sengat. In reading about the origins of the place, I learned about the Melaka connection. Of course my story is not as extensive as yours. If you have the time, I'd like to invite you to read what I wrote many years ago. Thanks. oldstock.blogspot.com/2011/11/seat-of-first-johor-sultanate.html?m=0

[@Goodnessgrays]

Oldstock hi Good read on your blog. Glad I didn’t confuse one Mahmud Shah with the other! One thing’s for sure if a sultan gets called Mahmud he seems destined for bad luck!

[@adrutdinbundy8973]

thank you sir for the fine documentary..i love it

[@Goodnessgrays]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@WorldAfterCovid19TV]

Wow!... Thank you very much for revealing the truth behind the truth...

[@janicejabol2040]

Now I have a better understanding of JB, thank you Lawrence for such an informative documentary.

[@Goodnessgrays]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/fIGxdZKMq7x8fas We have another specifically all about JB!

[@janicejabol2040]

@@Goodnessgrays I love the background music and your style of story telling =)

[@Goodnessgrays]

@@janicejabol2040 thank you! We would be making another one this year if the COVID restrictions hadn’t stopped us. So it’ll have to wait a couple of years now. We’ll keep the channel ticking with vlogs until we start a strand of British based docos looking at local histories there. Haven’t lived there for thirty years so we thought a strand of visual essays on how the place differs from the one we left behind.

[@janicejabol2040]

Thanks @@Goodnessgrays will surely wait for your future vlogs. These are helpful for people like myself.

[@alda8146]

Very interesting

[@Goodnessgrays]

It went down well in Johor. We met the Sultan and his wife.

[@arpahal-fayette3870]

The most important treasure of Malacca is, of course, "the peranakan culinary"; which is now the main basis and sources of inspirations for modern gastronomy in Asean countries and beyond, thanks to "Iskandar Shah - Admiral Cheng Ho bonds and relations" and thanks for the doc as well, bravo.

[@Goodnessgrays]

Thanks. We had Peranakan cooking lessons in Malacca. We did think of doing a documentary on Malaysian cooking, taking an historical perspective. That would have been very popular! Especially when looking at how colonial Brits in the 19th century somehow missed the point and resorted to importing tinned “English” food. No wonder they dropped dead so frequently! But covid restrictions screwed up all our plans. And then the visa conditions were changed… and so after thirty years in Asia we’re back in the UK. Maybe we’ll get back one day to at least finish the documentary we started about the Malay travels of Isabella Bird in the 19th century! You can read up about it www.Lawrencegray.net/Travel/blog-2

[@RizalhanafiYusof]

I really enjoyed your documentary.

[@wanazri4885]

mystic of johor lama, first time my palace in kota tinggi..

[@abdulmuradabdhamid4136]

Superb documentary from Melaka to Johor Lama..maybe some of the data left..but it relevant .

[@helengray1695]

We thought that asking people to watch 90 mins was quite long enough, so some things had to be left out. I hope we didn't miss anything crucial?

[@Goodnessgrays]

Glad you liked it

[@simonsimon2888]

Yes! From Johor Lama(Kota Tinggi) if you row a boat along the Johor River southward you will reach Pulau Tekong(BMT for those NS boys) overlooking Changi Point.

[@farhanaswan2571]

I like this video

[@legendkiller9759]

Correction Sir…the tomb of Sultan Abdul Jalil IV is in Kuala Pahang. During Raja Kecik’s rule the Sultan fled to Terengganu and later Pahang…the Sultan wanted to move the capital of the empire in Kuala Pahang but when Raja Kecik found out about it he sent his men to assassinate the Sultan.

[@Goodnessgrays]

I missed that one. So many of the texts confuse the names of the various sultans and give the wrong histories that I was constantly changing the script when we went to the various locations and talked to local historians.

[@simonsimon2888]

Kota Tinggi is known as 'Johor Lama' daerah sejarah where the two tigers 'Dengkis & Tepok' inhabited. DAULAT TUANKU!:

[@auntypopo6697]

Tq😄👍🏼✌️

[@kangenwaterionizer6232]

Lovely Presentation!

[@Goodnessgrays]

Thanks. We are planning another documentary about the British in Malaya in 1879. As soon as the movement restrictions are lifted we will be able to go filming again. Though in the meantime we’re keeping the channel ticking over with various flogs and covering a few local events in Johor.

[@kangenwaterionizer6232]

@@Goodnessgrays Which part of Johor Bahru you based in? Your coverage on JB Sound interesting.

[@Goodnessgrays]

@@kangenwaterionizer6232 We're right next door to the Royal Mausoleum in Kampong Bahru.

[@simonsimon2888]

From Malacca to Pahang then to Kota Tinggi of Johore Lama. He passed away and buried in Kota Tinggi as Daerah Sejarah(historial district) where the Johore river flows till today...where you find the two Malayan tigers 'Dengkis & Tepok'

[@Goodnessgrays]

Now, was there really a tiger with a deformed foot that roamed the area or was it just a slip of an artist's pen when they first designed the coat of arms of Johor? The modern coat of arms seems to have "corrected" the early version. But, I'd like to think that out there along the river there roamed a lame tiger that people got to know.

[@simonsimon2888]

Why not? All living things can be borned with various kind of 'genetic deformity' when an egg fuses with a sperm during fertilisation...have you seen 'double headed sperm?'

[@SilverfoxJB]

Great work and educational, as well. However, wouldn't it get more views if you released it in chapters? People on KZbin are notoriously short of patience and more videos would gather more subscribers.

[@Goodnessgrays]

I thought I would do that. Though I haven't got round to it yet. I was trying to get people to pay a dollar a download over at Vimeo but it looks like people prefer to make KZbin money rather than let the content makers recoup their costs.

[@SilverfoxJB]

@@Goodnessgrays I feel you. and you do deserve some reward. Have you considered patreon?

[@Goodnessgrays]

@@SilverfoxJB Patreon is a complex arena to play in that requires various rewards to be offered, usually for regular material. It works best for performers with a fan base that they can offer special treats to. People I know who've made much out of Patreon and Kickstarter have found it a great time sync and have resorted to paying others to run the accounts, which kind of takes the edge off any money you get. It's just seen as another publicity arm. Mainstream media is still where the bucks are!

[@uncfriday]

Good job and well done Sir...

[@Goodnessgrays]

Thank you. I hope our next big project will be even better. It's going to be following in the footsteps of Isabella Bird who toured the "Native States" in 1879. We thought it would be a good way of taking a look at how the British took over the area and who the first British Residents were. Though when we'll shoot this, who knows? We'll probably have to wait until the vaccinations have been rolled out later this year.

[@uncfriday]

@@Goodnessgrays Ok Sir, It's a good idea, I hope you enjoy and sucsess in your next priject.

[@simonshr4429]

Parameswara was converted to Islam when he married a Indian Muslim and converted to Islam.. His Bendahara....was a Tamil Muslim too All facts are in British Museum in London.. Malaysia has rewritten Malaysia history....

[@Goodnessgrays]

History every where is always being re-written and re-interpreted so I wouldn't say Malaysia is doing much more than that. Let us say that there has been a shift in emphasis when it comes to school curriculums and consequently Malaysians with Indian heritage are always telling me that they are being written out of the early history or even painted as villains. But we visited a lot of state museums and archaeological digs and didn't really see much sign of that. The national museum in KL is excellent and pretty comprehensive. The propaganda message there is that Malays of all races and cultures made Malaysia. That said, beyond the professional historian, other figures have let us say, ignored a few details.

[@TheChenchen]

@@Goodnessgrays Srivijaya empire the predecessor of Malacca Sultanate is defeated by Chola dynasty from India. They make peace afterwards and the name Chola is still used by descendant royalties like Raja Chulan from Perak.

[@Goodnessgrays]

​@@TheChenchen When to start a story is always an issue. The initial concept of this was to simply go up the Johor River to look at the old settlements and piece together the story of the river sultans. But it soon became obvious that we needed to start in Melaka because the whole history of the Johor Sultanate was mired in colonial politics. Then of course, we have to look at old Singapura and Parameswara... at which point we are looking at Srivajaya, a state that only came into historical light in the 1930s when historians began piecing together the archeological evidence. Even now the history is murky and mired in myth. I did want to go to Palembang and find out more about the origins of the lineage that the Sultans harken back to. But Palembang was such a large story and I thought the thirty minute piece I had planned was already turning into ninety minutes, and so Melaka was settled on as the starting point. What does become obvious as one begins to deal with the history of the Malay peninsula is how interconnected it is with Sumatra, and despite the presence of the Portuguese in Melaka, much of the action and conflict that the Johor Sultans were involved in were associated with their Sumatran interests. I felt that I could do an entire documentary on Raja Kecil alone, let alone all the battles with Aceh. Then there are the Minangkabau and the Jambi and other political groupings that vied for power in the region. So whatever I could put together was always going to be a simplified curation of a thousand years of history! I did begin a recce on the archeological digs with a plan to do a seperate documentary on the pre-history of the place, looking specifically at Srivajaya and the Majapahit. I went around Java and planned a road trip around Sumatra to check out locations and local stories, but the virus got in the way. We are going to do an easier documentary with a snapshot of the British residents in 1879. That has the benefit of plenty of written documentation. As soon as we can cross state borders we will go and shoot that one. In the meantime I am keeping things ticking over here with vlogs about our life in JB. I should piece together are road trip around Java to put up here, but I was going to use elements of it in the documentary we abandoned, so the material lies in pieces. However, our Road Trip around the peninsula was vlogged on a daily basis and does do a lot of history. I think it proves that there is nothing like actually going to the location of various events to discover that the story that often gets into the text books has ignored various aspects.

[@harry77998]

Parameswara marry with pasai princess now day aceh , she not an indian !

[@kooisengchng5283]

One more fact to reveal. Nowadays, Hang Tuah and brothers are no longer mentioned in Malaysia's history books.

[@Goodnessgrays]

So I’m told. It appears that a lot of things aren’t mentioned in the school textbooks that you can find in the museums. We did a tour of the museums around the country to see how they covered things. The Hang Tuah story is probably more fiction than history but it has its place in the national myth.

[@3dxmotion108]

@@Goodnessgrays sir please make also history about hang tuah which is chinese warrior, thanks :D

[@Goodnessgrays]

@@3dxmotion108 I’d say he was a Malay warrior who might have been of Chinese descent… though we can never know for certain. But I’ve met Malays of Chinese descent. Their great grandparents converted to Islam and took muslim names. Though what sort of name Hang Tuah is a mystery! I’d have to dig deeper into that. I think a documentary on him would look at the various stories and seek out evidence and expert opinion. I would however, avoid the Mediacorp approach and try make it actually entertaining! There are lots of approaches one could have to this. It’s a bit like investigating the real Robin Hood in the UK! There are contenders for the real historic figure though much of the story we know was invented in the 19th century by the likes of Thomas Love Peacock. It’s a great project though. But I’m afraid I haven’t the time or finance for it now. The lockdown completely stopped my plans and I’m leaving Malaysia. I might get back in a couple of years. But I might do more reading on the subject and write an essay for my website.

[@3dxmotion108]

ok sir i will waiting, anyway nice video documentary about history of Johor Lama and warrior Sultans of Johor sir did...thank you :D

[@kensim8378]

hi i dontthnk parameter is the rightword shouldntit be parameswara? hopei m right

[@Goodnessgrays]

Ha ha… don’t think I said that… I’ll have to listen again. Either way it should be Parameswara.

[@shamisya88]

palembang to malacca to johor lama to bintan to kampar

[@simonsimon2888]

The English name for this Malay name 'Iskandar' is 'Alexandra'...the Great!

[@Goodnessgrays]

It gets even more complicated. The legend really references Dhu al-Qarnayn, or Zulkarnain, who’s mentioned as a good pre-Muhammad muslim ruler in the Koran and in turn references Persian stories that mix Alexander in with these stories. I heard an Imam talking about how real Zulkarnain was and he said it was a story told to make a point. When you start looking into these things there always surprises.

[@hamzahamran2037]

Takde subtitile ke...

[@Goodnessgrays]

I have one with English subtitles... but never got round to getting a Malay version. Was hoping that KZbin would have an auto translate that I could get someone to polish up... but alas no.

[@marjoriepgabriel2430]

There might have been a lion in the past when there was a whole lot of jungle! The straits of johore is not a very big part to swim across from the peninsula!

[@Goodnessgrays]

Tigers definitely. Lions not so much. The Asiatic lion seems to have ranged not much further than Northern India. But as a cultural icon it’s pretty widespread and given the Indian influence on early settlements in the region a cool name for a city would be Singapura.

[@GuderII]

*Shiiit Majapahit Empire Destroy Everything , Damn Those Jawa*

[@Goodnessgrays]

Ha ha! I’d love to get down to work on the Majapahit.

[@theincandescentman685]

JoHor has silent R in BritAnglicaine. It's pronounced as JoHoe in KLaTe or Johar in Jewinkylbells. 😜😶

[@kooisengchng5283]

He got a few facts wrong. The defeat of the Siamese by the Melaka sultan was only achieved with the aid of Admiral Cheng Ho. After this event, the sultan was indebted to the Chinese emperor and went to China to pay his respects. In fact he did it yearly, as a form of tribute. In return the emperor gave the sultan a "princess" as his wife.. Hang Tuah is the brother of this so called chinese princess. In fact she was not a princess. She was one of many women brought along Cheng Ho's trips to provide relaxation and satisfaction for the few thousand sailors in the mega junks of Cheng Ho. The government of Malaysia spent a lot money and effort to find the tomb of Hang Tuah and prove that he was in fact a Malay. My information is that the tomb was found in the state of Trengganu and DNA examination of the contents of the tomb showed that he was not of Malay extraction. This proved indirectly what many know, that Hang Tuah and his brother Hang Jebat were brothers of the chinese wife of the sultan. Remember her hame, Hang Li Poh. The surname Hang is the give away.

[@awanpenjejak8741]

Sorry,the really history of siam's defeated by Melaka its start from Tun Perak in the middle of Melaka's Kingdom.You should doing research about Melaka's history before you make an argument.One more,Silat of Malay self defence is before Hang Tuah's brothers,it's started from the age of ancient kingdoms Of Malays far before Melaka's Kingdom like Langkasuka,chih tu,pan pan and many more Malay kingdoms in peninsula Msia

[@panglima3967]

U r not historian........that the fact...

[@Mojopahit92]

Hang Tuah was a bugis prince, his real name was Daeng Mempawah, this was stated in Sulalatus Salatin(Malay Annal) written in 15 century. The name Hang Tuah was given to him by Sultan of Melaka, its just a title bestow to him. And they already found his real grave in Palembang sumatra. I dont know where u get the idea that hang tuah is chinese and come to Melaka with putri Li Poh, u cant determine one nationality by their name or title or religion. There is no proof of that. In fact, if he is chinese, i doubt he would put his life or loyalty to any king or Malay sultan, accept to his Chinese king in Motherland. Modern day chinese is prime example of that, still have loyalty to their motherland despite born and breed in Malaysia for decades.

[@Goodnessgrays]

@@Mojopahit92 Ha ha... I said you could start a fist fight saying Hang Tuah was Chinese.

[@Fazzbabe]

www.sabrizain.org/malaya/library/albuquerque3.pdf In page 90 of the book there was a mention of an 80 year old Laksamana with uncommon ability.

[@kooisengchng5283]

The Malay self defence art form called silat is actually a corruption of the Chinese ShaoLin kung foo. The brothers Hang were not great practitioners of ShaoLin and the silat they taught shows it up very we'll. Or maybe he just modified it a bit.

[@biskutlemak6135]

sembarang je lol..

[@Goodnessgrays]

Ha ha, always knew you could start a fist fight talking about how Chinese Hang Tuah was or wasn't! But more than likely, just like many Malay aristocrats, he was a mix of all sorts. Trading empires connecting with lots of different regions tend to produce lots of interracial contacts. The aristocracies of Europe are also a mixed up bunch. Look at the present Queen of the UK... a German family, married a Greek...

[@emasdanperak]

I can't brain your logic 😂

[@pailang81]

Dtg sebagai hamba..dah jadi warganegara berlagak mcm tuan.semua sejarah kau nk claim..pendatang yg lupa asal usul.

[@wewenang5167]

no historical basis at all....