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A kampong (kampung in Malay and Indonesian) is the term for a village in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore and a "dock" in Cambodia. The term applies to traditional villages, especially of the indigenous people, and has also been used to refer to urban slum areas and enclosed developments and neighborhoods within towns and cities in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and Christmas Island. The design and architecture of traditional kampong villages have been targeted for reform by urbanists and modernists and have also been adapted by contemporary architects for various projects.
 | This article may require copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone, or spelling. (August 2023) |
The English word "compound", when referring to a development in a town, is thought to be derived from the Malay word kampung.[1]
The word "kampung" or "kampong" is derived from Bahasa Melayu (Malay Language). The word “kampung” is often translated today as “village”.
In Brunei, the term kampong (also kampung) primarily refers to the third- and lowest-level subdivisions after districts (Malay: daerah) and mukim (equivalent to subdistrict). Some kampong divisions are similar to villages by anthropological definition or in their traditional sense, while others may only serve for census and other administrative purposes. Others have been incorporated as part of the capital Bandar Seri Begawan as well as a few towns.
A kampong is generally led by a ketua kampung or village head. Infrastructure-wise, it typically has a primary school and a balai raya or dewan kemasyarakatan, the equivalent of a community centre. Because many kampongs have predominantly Muslim residents, each may also have a mosque for the Jumu'ah or Friday prayers and a school providing the Islamic religious primary education compulsory for Muslim pupils in the country.[2]
Both kampong and kampung are considered to be correct spellings, and both alternatives are common in written media and official place names. For example, Keriam, a village in Tutong District, is known as 'Kampung Keriam' by the Survey Department but 'Kampong Keriam' by the Postal Services Department—both being government departments.[3][4]
In Cambodia, "kampong – កំពង់" for everyday use is defined as a place on a river or lake shore where people can dock their private small boats. It also defines a dock facility for commercial or passenger ferries and boats, such as Neak Loeung's ferry-dock (កំពង់ចម្លងអ្នកលឿង) and Akreiy Ksatr's ferry-dock (កំពង់ចម្លងអរិយក្សត្រ).
The term kampong has been widely used in Cambodia, assumingly for thousands of years, to name places such as provinces, districts, communes and villages—for instance, Kampong Som (ក្រុងកំពង់សោម; currently Sihanoukville), Kampong Cham (ខេត្តកំពង់ចាម), Kampong Thom (ខេត្តកំពង់ធំ), Kampong Chhnang (ខេត្តកំពង់ឆ្នាំង), and Kampong Speu (ខេត្តកំពង់ស្ពឺ) provinces; Kampong Trach (ស្រុកកំពង់ត្រាច), Kampong Trolach (ស្រុកកំពង់ត្រឡាច), and Kampong Siem (ស្រុកកំពង់សៀម) districts; Kampong Khleang (ឃុំកំពង់ឃ្លាំង) and Kampong Kdei (ឃុំកំពង់ក្តី) communes; and Kampong Prasat (ភូមិកំពង់ប្រាសាទ), Kampong Krabei (ភូមិកំពង់ក្របី), and Kampong Our (ភូមិកំពង់អ៊ួរ) villages. (Page 37, Chun Nat, Dictionnaire Cambodgien, Institut Bouddhique, Phnom Penh, 1967).
Based on the references above, the meaning of kampong in Khmer can also arguably be defined as an area or place located near a river or lake that people named their place after they arrived or formed their community afterward.
In Indonesia, kampung generally refers to "hamlet", which is the opposite of the so-called "city" known in Indonesian as kota. However, most Indonesian cities and towns initially consisted of a collection of kampung settlements. There are four typologies of kampung, they are: inner city kampung, which has very high density and is inhabited by 100.000 people per square kilometer; mid-city kampung, which is inhabited by 20.000–40.000 people per square kilometer; rural kampung, which has very low density; and squatter kampung, which is scattered in metropolitan areas.[5]
Kampung also usually refers to a settlement or compound of a certain ethnic community, which later became the name of places—such as the Kampung Melayu district in East Jakarta; Kampung Bugis (Buginese village); Kampung Cina (also known as Pecinan), which refers to a Tionghoa village or could be equivalent to Chinatown as well; Kampung Ambon (Ambonese village); Kampung Jawa (Javanese village); and Kampung Arab (Arabs village).
In the island of Sumatra and its surrounding islands, the indigenous peoples have distinctive architecture and building-type features, including longhouses and rice storage buildings in their kampungs. Malays, Karo, Batak, Toba, Minangkabau, and others have communal housing and tiered structures.
The term kampung in Indonesia could refer to a business-based village as well—for example, Kampung Coklat (lit. "the Chocolate village") in Blitar, East Java, which mainly produced and sold chocolate products (bars, candies, powders, coffee, cocoa butter, etc.) from the local cacao farmers; Kampung Seni (lit. "the Arts (and Performances) village") in various places across Indonesia that mainly focused to produce and sell the local arts from the local artists; and Kampung Batik (lit. "the Batik village") which mainly produced and sell the batik as well as available for the batik-making courses and training. In 2009, several Kampung Batik in collaboration with the other official entities (mainly Batik Museum) in Pekalongan, Central Java, recognized by UNESCO regarding the "Education and training in Indonesian Batik intangible cultural heritage for elementary, junior, senior, vocational school and polytechnic students" as Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in Register of Good Safeguarding Practices List.[6] The kampungs in Indonesia have also attracted global tourists as well, such as Kampung Panglipuran in Bali which was awarded as one of the world's cleanest villages in 2016.[7]
In Malaysia, a kampung is defined as a locality with 10,000 or fewer people. Since historical times, every Malay village came under the leadership of a penghulu (village chief), who has the power to hear civil matters in his village (see Courts of Malaysia for more details).
A Malay village typically contains a mosque or surau, paddy fields or orchards, and wooden Malay houses on stilts. It is common to see a cemetery near the mosque. There are barely any proper roads, with regular dirt roads being more common for village people to travel between kampongs.
The British initiated the Kampong Baru ("New Village") program as a way to settle Malays into urban life. Malaysia's long-serving prime minister Mahathir Mohamad lauded urban lifestyles in his book The Malay Dilemma[8] and associated kampong village life with backward traditionalism. He also had the kampung setinggan (squatter settlements) cleared and new buildings constructed to house them.[9]
The native Malay kampung is found in Singapore, but few kampung villages remain, mostly on islands surrounding Singapore, such as Pulau Ubin. In the past, there were many kampung villages in Singapore. However, they were replaced by development and urbanization plans. Development plans for Kampong Glam have been controversial. Singapore is also home to Kampong Buangkok, featured in the film The Last Kampong.
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