History of Penang

Penang was originally part of the Malay Sultanate of Kedah. On 11 August 1786, Captain Francis Light (Founder of Penang) of the British East India Company landed in Penang.  He stuck a deal with the Sultan of Kedah, acquired Pulau Pinang (Penang Island) from the Sultan on behalf of his company which in return promised the Sultan military protection from Siamese and Burmese armies who were threatening Kedah. Francis Light first landed at the site of the present Esplanade and he renamed it Prince of Wales Island (name used until after 1867), in honour of heir to the British throne  Penang was the first British possession in the Malay States and Southeast Asia.

Unbeknownst to the Sultan of Kedah, Francis Light had actually acted without the approval of the East India Company when he promised military protection. In 1800 Light had also managed to negotiate for Province Wellesley (a strip of land next to the island) to be added to Penang and is now the present Seberang Perai. 

An annual honorarium of 10,000 ringgit, continues to this day be paid by the Penang State Government to the state of Kedah.

A town was established and named Georgetown, after the Prince of Wales.  The settlement was first built around the harbour with Fort Cornwallis forming the island's defense. The original four streets of George Town were Beach Street, Light Street, Pitt Street (now Masjid Kapitan Keling Street) and Chulia Street.  Penang became a trading post for tea, spices and textiles. 

In 1826, Penang, along with Malacca and Singapore, became part of the Straits Settlementsunder the British administration in India, under direct British rule in 1867 as a Crown Colony. In 1946 it became part of the Malayan Union, before becoming in 1948 a state of the Federation of Malaya, which gained independence in 1957 and became Malaysia in 1963 when Sabah and Sarawah came into the group.

On 7 July 2008, George Town, was formally inscribed as a UNESCO Wolrd Heritage Site alongside with Malacca. It is officially recognized as having a unique architectural and cultural townscape representing cultural heritage of Penang’s various ethnicities: Chinese, Indians, Arabs, Malays, Siamese, Burmese, Acehnese and Europeans. The city has an impressive collection of historic buildings without parallel anywhere in East and Southeast Asia.   

Pulau Pinang or Penang, also known as “The Pearl of the Orient” because of its natural beauty, is very much an exotic mélange of the old and the new. For sheer variety of locales, culture and food, Penang is hard to beat!  Indeed, Penang welcomes visitors with an unmatched experience brimful of heritage exploration, shopping, beach idylls, hill trekking, food discoveries and cultural delights