page_title: Bukit Mertajam
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Bukit Mertajam / History
caption_attribution_description: English: D.O. Hill Recreational Park in Bukit Mertajam, Penang
context_page_description: Bukit Mertajam is the administrative centre of the city of Seberang Perai in Penang, Malaysia. It also serves as the seat of the Central Seberang Perai District. As of 2010, Bukit Mertajam contained a total of 13,097 residents.
  Whilst founded in the 19th century as an agricultural area, Bukit Mertajam also evolved into a transportation hub, following the completion of a railway line towards Perai at the end of the century. To this day, its railway station remains a major Malayan Railway station within Seberang Perai.
  Bukit Mertajam is also well known for its Catholic congregation, which is centred at the St. Anne's Church. The church is one of the focal locations within Southeast Asia for the annual Novena celebrations.
context_section_description: Bukit Mertajam had been part of the Hindu-Buddhist Bujang Valley civilisation, which ruled over what is now Kedah up to the 6th century AD. A megalith at Cherok Tok Kun, discovered in 1845, contains Pali inscriptions which alluded to the presence of a Hindu-Buddhist polity in the region between the 5th and 6th centuries.
  Bukit Mertajam only came into existence in the 19th century, after the acquisition of the area by the British East India Company in 1800. Prior to the British acquisition, the area had been inhabited by Malay and Siamese farmers. As the British encouraged the cultivation of spices throughout the newly-acquired territory of Province Wellesley (now Seberang Perai), Chinese settlers, mostly of Hakka origin, moved into Bukit Mertajam. The Chinese migrants opened up spice plantations at the foot of Mertajam Hill and were also involved in granite production. Sugar plantations were established to the south of the area in the mid-19th century.
  These economic activities led to the construction of roads throughout Province Wellesley. With many of these roads converging in Bukit Mertajam, the area soon became a transit point for the movement of agricultural produce towards the Port of Penang. Bukit Mertajam's role as a transportation hub was cemented with the completion of a railway line between Bukit Mertajam and the coastal port area of Perai in 1899, allowing for a rapid transportation of commodities such as rubber and tin towards the harbour. Concurrently, public amenities, such as schools, a magistrate's court and a hospital, were built, and by the turn of the century, Bukit Mertajam was selected by the Straits Settlements authorities as the administrative centre of the Central Province Wellesley District.
  The Bukit Mertajam Town Council was established in 1953. At the time, it was one of the five local governments within Province Wellesley. The local governments were eventually amalgamated and transformed into the present-day Seberang Perai Municipal Council by 1976. In 2006, the headquarters of the municipal council was relocated from Butterworth to the Bandar Perda township near Bukit Mertajam, making the latter the seat of the local government of Seberang Perai as well.
  Beginning in the 1970s, residential estates were also developed in the areas surrounding Bukit Mertajam, fuelled by the industrialisation of certain areas near the area, such as Bukit Minyak and Bukit Tengah.
caption: A residential estate in Bukit Mertajam
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