Yap Ah Loy

Who founded Kuala Lumpur? Yap Ah Loy (picture above from wikipedia.org) or Raja Abdullah?

Jalan Yap Ah Loy, quite close to the Central Market.

This is a picture of the whole street. Not a long one to be named after someone who is said to have 'founded' Kuala Lumpur.

The Sin Sze Si Ya temple along Jalan Tun HS Lee built by Yap Ah Loy.

I have passed this place so many times before but never realized what it was or it's significance other than it being a Chinese temple.


According to wikipedia.org, this intro board is at the entrance of the temple. If it's still there, I didn't notice it.

The sign said that the parking lot is meant for devotees, but I thought that there were more cars parked there than the number of devotees present when I was there.

The main shrine as seen from the entrance. I did not venture in though.

The entrance to the temple from the back lane.

Coming back to the question at the begining of this post, there have been convincing arguments for both claims (at least from my point of view), but one point to note is that Yap Ah Loy was the third Kapitan Cina of KL, not the first.

Kapitan Cinas of KL

• 1858-1861: Kapitan Hiu Siew
• 1862-1868: Kapitan Liu Ngim Kong
• 1868-1885: Kapitan Yap Ah Loy
• 1885-1889: Kapitan Yap Ah Shak
• 1889-1902: Kapitan Yap Kwan Seng

The post of Kapitan was abolished after the death of Kapitan Yap Kwan Seng.

(wikipedia.org)