# Chetti Melaka: Melaka's Peranakan Indian Community

> The Chetti Melaka are a Saivite Hindu Peranakan Indian community in Kampung Chetti, Melaka — descendants of Tamil traders from the Melaka Sultanate era who married Malay and Chinese women, speak a Malay-based creole, and now face the risk of disappearing.

- Category: arts-culture
- Language: en
- Status: published
- Updated: 2026-08-01
- Canonical: https://negaraku.md/en/arts-culture/chetti-melaka

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In an old village on Jalan Gajah Berang, Melaka, there is a cluster of families who pray to the god Shiva, dress like Malays, cook curries fragrant with coconut milk, and speak a Malay laced with Tamil words. They are not Indian, not Malay, not Chinese — they are the Chetti Melaka, and their numbers are growing ever smaller.

## Who are the Chetti Melaka?

The Chetti Melaka — also spelled **Chitty** — are a **Peranakan Indian** community. Their ancestors were **Tamil** traders from southern India who came to trade and settled in Melaka around the era of the **Melaka Malay Sultanate** (15th to 16th centuries). Because most of those traders came without their families, they married local women of **Malay and Chinese** descent, giving rise to a hybrid community that endured through the Portuguese, Dutch and British colonial periods.

The word "Chetti" or "Chitty" comes from Tamil and means *trader* — a reminder of their origins as a merchant class. Like the Chinese Peranakan community (Baba-Nyonya), the Chetti Melaka absorbed many local elements while still preserving the core of their ancestral identity.

## What sets them apart?

The most striking thing is the combination of the **Hindu religion with a Malay way of life**. The Chetti Melaka remained **Saivite** Hindus, that is, worshippers of the **god Shiva**, while their everyday dress, food and language are largely Malay.

| Element | Chetti Melaka trait |
| --- | --- |
| Religion | Saivite Hindu (worshippers of the god Shiva) |
| Language | A creole blending Bazaar Malay, Tamil and Chinese |
| Dress & cuisine | Malay-based, with a touch of Indian spice |
| Settlement | Kampung Chetti, Jalan Gajah Berang, Melaka |

Their language is fascinating: a **creole** that researchers describe as a blend of Bazaar Malay, Tamil and Chinese — for example *nenek* (Malay) for grandmother, but *thatha* (Tamil) for grandfather. Ironically, **Tamil** itself is now barely spoken in daily life; it survives mainly in religious ceremonies.

## What are their main festivals?

The Chetti Melaka celebrate Hindu festivals such as **Deepavali**, **Bhogi** and **Pongal**. Their biggest annual festival is **Sembahyang Dato Chachar**, also known as **Megammay Thiruvizha** — the veneration of the goddess **Mariamman**. This roughly week-long festival is centred on the **Sri Muthu Mariamman Temple** in Gajah Berang and draws thousands of devotees; according to *The Star*'s coverage in 2012, it took place around the month of **April**. (The actual date shifts each year with the Tamil calendar.)

## Why is their heritage endangered?

This is the most worrying part. According to Singapore's National Heritage Board (Roots), the Chetti Melaka community in Melaka shrank from around **400 families in the 1980s to fewer than 50 families** today. A *Free Malaysia Today* report, meanwhile, estimates that only around **20 to 30 families** still live in Kampung Chetti — a lower figure, but both sources describe a community growing ever smaller. In addition, an estimated **5,000** people of Chetti descent are thought to live in Singapore.

Researchers link this decline to **intermarriage** outside the community, **out-migration** in search of work, and younger generations increasingly **losing touch with their Chetti roots**. Because the community is small and little known, some have called it "the lost tribe" — a culture facing the risk of vanishing.

There are efforts to preserve it. According to *Free Malaysia Today*, Kampung Chetti was granted protection as a **heritage zone in June 2000**, on a par with the Portuguese Settlement and Kampung Morten in Melaka. (The cited source does not state the exact legal basis for that protection, which predates the National Heritage Act 2005.) A small museum at the village entrance is reported to display artefacts as well as old photographs of the community.

## What's next

- Read about the [Baba-Nyonya Peranakans](/en/arts-culture/peranakan), Melaka's better-known hybrid community whose story runs parallel to that of the Chetti.
- Understand the background of the [Tamil community in Malaysia](/en/arts-culture/tamil-in-malaysia), the Indian roots from which the Chetti Melaka sprang.
- Visit **Kampung Chetti** on Jalan Gajah Berang, Melaka to see for yourself a heritage community that is still alive.

## Sources

- Chetti Melaka of the Straits: Rediscovering Peranakan Indian Communities — https://www.roots.gov.sg/stories-landing/stories/chetti-melaka (Roots — National Heritage Board, Singapore)
- The fascinating history of the Chitty's of Melaka — https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/leisure/2018/12/12/the-fascinating-history-of-the-chittys-of-melaka (Free Malaysia Today)
- Time for cleansing 200-year-old temple to hold week-long prayer activities — https://www.thestar.com.my/news/community/2012/04/27/time-for-cleansing-200yearold-temple-to-hold-weeklong-prayer-activities (The Star)

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