Chitty Melaka: the Peranakan Indians

Ten minutes from the centre of Melaka is a quiet village with two temples. An old woman in a sarong kebaya stands on the road with her palms together, praying toward a Hindu temple. The houses on either side mix Malay, Chinese and Indian styles. This is Kampung Chitty.

The story

The Chitty Melaka (also written Chetti Melaka) are descendants of Tamil traders from the Coromandel Coast of south India. In the 1400s and 1500s, Melaka was a busy port. Tamil traders came to do business, and many married local Malay and Chinese women. They settled and kept their Hindu faith (most are Saivite, followers of the god Shiva), while taking on the local language, food and dress.

Over time they became a community with its own speech, Chetti Creole, a mix of Malay, Tamil and Chinese. They are also called Peranakan Indians (locally born Indians).

Through four rulers. The community lived through the Melaka sultanate and then Portuguese, Dutch and British rule. The Portuguese favoured them, because of help given when Melaka fell in 1511. After the Dutch took Melaka in 1641 and set up a trade monopoly, many Chitty families had to find other work. In the late 1700s the Dutch gave the community farmland outside the city walls, and this became the village. Old land papers for the Sri Poyatha Venayagar Moorthi Temple date from 1781 and 1786, and show ownership going back to 1757. When the British arrived in 1795, many Chitty found jobs in the civil service and moved to Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and other new towns.

The 1700s and 1800s were years of decline in wealth for the community, and today they are small in number. Many young people have lost touch with their root culture, and the community works to keep its heritage alive.

Where you can still see it today

Kampung Chitty (also called Kampung Chetti) in Gajah Berang, Melaka.
Sri Poyatha Venayagar Moorthi Temple, with land papers from the 1700s.
The Shiva temple (1887) and the Mariamman temple (1822) in the village.
The houses, a mix of Malay, Chinese and Indian styles.
Sarong kebaya worn by the women of the village.
Festivals at the temples, open to respectful visitors.

What DNA can tell, and what it cannot

History says Tamil men married Malay and Chinese women, so a father line might point to South Asia and a mother line to the local Malay world, or to southern China. A region estimate may blend South Asian and Southeast Asian ancestry. This is only a guide. Over many generations, lines can mix in many ways.

DNA cannot say that you are Chitty, or what religion a family follows. The community is defined by its history and by itself. DNA does not decide race, religion or bumiputera status.