Chitty Village

The Chitty, sometimes written Chetti Melaka, descend from Tamil traders who settled in Malacca during the sultanate period and married locally, and the result is a community that is Hindu in religion but Malay in language, dress and much of its food - the parallel case to the Peranakan Chinese, and much smaller and less known. There are only a few thousand, concentrated at Kampung Tujuh in Gajah Berang, where there is a small Chitty museum, the Sri Poyyatha Vinayagar Moorthi temple of 1781 in the town centre, and an annual festival, Pesta Datuk Chachar, around April or May with processions. The community has been under pressure from land development around the village, which has been contested publicly. Numbers are small and the language mix is not being passed on evenly.

What you actually see

• A Malay-speaking Hindu community - Tamil in origin, Malay in language and dress.
• The Chitty museum - a small display of the community's history and objects.
• Sri Poyyatha Vinayagar Moorthi - the 1781 temple in the Malacca centre.
• Pesta Datuk Chachar - the annual festival with processions in spring.

When to go

April or May for the festival; any time otherwise. Half a day.

Honest expectations

It is a small residential village with one modest museum - outside the festival there is little to see. Museum hours are irregular. This is a community under development pressure, so visit respectfully.

Nearby

Malacca old town is a short drive; the Portuguese Settlement is on the far side.