Revealing Malay Royal Town Identity: Seri Menanti, Negeri Sembilan

Abstract

Malay royal town in Malaysia have been establish dating from the 16th century with a unique and significant identity that creates the image of these towns. Malay Royal town identity constitutes the physical environment, human activities, cultural and meaning that creates social phenomenon and place genius loci. Nevertheless, identity in Malaysia's royal towns were facing alteration which resulted to places are becoming less meaningful, placelessness and lose their identity. A case study was carried out in Sri Menanti, Negeri Sembilan, which is one of the royal towns in Malaysia. Thus, this paper discusses the components that characterised the Malay royal town identity of Seri Menanti, Negeri Sembilan. The study methodology involves a historical map overlay, site observations and also the use of semi-structured interviews. The paper concludes that the vitality of these components contributed to identity of the Malay Royal towns in Seri Menanti, Negeri Sembilan.