Tongkang or "Tong'kang" refers to several type of boats used to carry goods along rivers and shoreline in Maritime Southeast Asia. One of the earliest record of tongkang has a background of 14th century, being mentioned in Malay Annals which was composed no earlier than 17th century. One passage mentioned it as being used by Majapahit empire during the 1350 attack on Singapura.

Etymology

Because the majority of tongkangs were built, used, and manned by Chinese people, it is frequently assumed that the name was Chinese word. In fact, "tongkang" is certainly a Malay word, and probably derived from bělongkang (properly përahu bèlongkang, a pěrahu jalur with strakes added to increase the freeboard), a word which was formerly used in Sumatra for a river cargo boat.

Description

The tongkang was an unmotorised open cargo boat, propelled by a variety of methods, including rowing, punt poles and sail. The early tongkangs were about 20 ton burthen or less; they were propelled by about ten rowers and guided by a steersman. Long punt poles were used to propel them in shallower water. The size of the tongkang increased around 1860. The tongkang was one of the two traditional Malay ships using junk rig with local hulls instead of the Chinese Junk hull. Its hull design was more reminiscent of the dhow type used in South Asia and Western Asia than to the common Chinese or Far-eastern type. Besides the Junk Rig, the ketch rig was also used on the tongkang. The last tongkangs in Singapore were towed by a motorised launch.

Types of tongkang

Because the term "tongkang" is applied to several type of boats, the description of each boat is not necessarily the same.

Malaya

Brunei

North Borneo

Tongkangs in Singapore

There are references to the activity of these boats in Singapore, where a Chinese document, refers to the Southern bank around Read Bridge area, as cha chun tau (柴船头), meaning "jetty for boats carrying firewood". Small tongkangs carrying firewood from the Indonesian archipelago berthed at this jetty. The firewood trade was primarily a Teochew enterprise. A tongkang in full sail appeared on the reverse of the 1990 and 1992 Singapore dollar 2 $ currency notes. Tongkang LRT station was named after this boat. Another boat used on the Singapore River along with the tongkang was the twakow. These traditional vessels began to disappear around the 1930s, following the introduction of motor-powered boats and contemporary-type lighters.