Penang in Cheng Ho's sights

A flashback to what I wrote in Let the Aisles Proclaim some five years ago. At the beginning of the second chapter where I was touching briefly on Penang's early history, I wrote:

Long before Captain Francis Light established Penang as a trading post and settlement for the East India Company, the island was already known to seafarers from the East and West who had sailed through the Straits of Malacca. 

The first geographical reference to the island of Penang was made by China’s most celebrated explorer, Admiral Cheng Ho, who had documented his various expeditions between 1405 and 1433 from China to Africa during the reign of the Yong-Lo and Hsuan-Te Emperors of the Ming Dynasty. Cheng Ho’s surviving documents were later compiled into the 17th Century historical nautical map, The Nautical Charts of Cheng Ho.

During the research for the book, I had come across a portion of this nautical chart and was deciding whether or not to include it in the book. At the last moment, I felt that historical though the chart might be, it was only very remotely connected to the history of Penang Free School. So I left the chart out entirely although I still did make reference to it.

What's interesting about this chart is that Penang island is shown as a prominent landmark. It is that L-shaped island that is marked with the characters 梹榔嶼 or pin lang yu, meaning "palm island." In my opinion, there is uncertainty whether or not Cheng Ho had physically stepped onto the island but a local legend has it that his left footprint - actually, a large impression in the rock that looks like a giant footprint but that's what legends are made of - appears on a rock at the Sam Poh Tong, a seaside temple in Batu Maung village on the south-eastern part of Penang island. During my schooldays, there was also talk of a corresponding right footprint of his somewhere in Sumatra but I find no mention of this on the Internet. 

There were several named islands on the chart but I shall leave it to others to interpret their names. Not for me to do so. 

Regarding the footprint at the Sam Poh Tong, here is an image and a comment from the TripAdvisor website, but do note that they were written in November 2017 and not that quite recent:

This old Chinese Temple was built after a giant-sized footprint was found on a rock at Batu Maung, Penang. In my younger days I remembered the footprint was on a rock by the sea at this fishing village but with so much development around this area, the fishing village had disappeared and taken over by condominiums and houses. Besides the mushrooming accommodation in its place, there is also the newly constructed flyover and traffic is a real mess after Friday prayers at the mosque nearby.

In the old days devotees offered their prayers at a makeshift altar using joss sticks and a simple urn on the rock but in its place a shrine with a deity of Cheng Ho has been erected and this is where the footprint is displayed now. There was also a seafood restaurant on stilts in the middle of the bay and the hot seller was their famous satay grilled with peanut sauce. I was told by the caretaker at the temple that this eatery had been relocated to Teluk Kumbar several years ago.

Now the refurbished Temple has a pretty landscaped garden but still has the charm of the scenic view of the blue sea, horizon and fishing boats. The new addition is the second bridge which enhances it and makes it more picturesque. The sad thing is that the quaint fishing village has been taken over by various fish wholesale dealers on a plot adjacent to the temple grounds. They appear to dominate the place with sorting of fish and the grounds are stacked up with unsightly huge cooler boxes to contain their catch.