Research on the Ancient Site of Singapore Dragon Tooth Gate

by Captain Lim Keow Wah

Dragon Tooth Gate in ancient texts

Lingga Island in Indonesia: The Records of the Srivijaya in the Southern Song Dynasty was written by the Southern Song Dynasty's Quanzhou Municipal port master Zhao Ru Shi on the first year of the Bao Qing (year 1225): "Located exactly South of the Quanzhou, in the winter month with the fair wind it took more than a month to reach the strait of Lingga Island". During the Song Dynasty, the word Ling淩in the name Lingyamen淩牙門refers to the strait or gate in Lingga Island, is at southern part of the Riau Islands in Indonesia Lingga Gate( or Dragon Tooth Gate Mountain, Dragon Tooth Mountain, Longya Great Mountain, Dragon Tooth Kingdom and Lingya Kingdom). Mount Linggya is 1165 meters high Fig. 2. The book records that before the ship went to Srivijaya, it unloaded one-third of the cargo to Lingga Island instead of the Dragon Tooth Gate in Singapore, which was previously misunderstood. In the Tongzhi year 1870 book Voyages and Travel》《海錄》written by Xie Qinggao of the place “ Dragon Tooth Kingdom (Liuli霤裡),in the north of the Palembang port, from the strait to here, with fair wind is about three days. From here thus the northbound passage is one day to Johor. ThisLiuli霤裡mountain is woody, and the big trees take about ten people hold hands to surround them. Chinese junks came here for masts replacement. "The Lingya(Lingga) Island and the Dragon Tooth Gate of Temasek (ancient name of Singapore) are geographically two places that are not far apart but similar in name, and the trouble is that the Zheng He Navigation Chart marks Lingga Island, actually is in the south of Bintan Island, as the Dragon Tooth Gate onFig.1. just east of Pedra Blanca白礁(White Reef). It is not known whether Mao Yuanyi mis-compiled or engraved Zheng He's nautical charts in the《Wu BeiZhi》(Records of Armaments and Military Provisions) or the customary name of the local Chaoshan dialect or other reasons. The《Dade Nanhai Zhi》《大德南海志》《Records of Dade Southern Sea》, originally known as the《 Nanhai Zhi》《南海志》 was written in the eighth year (1304) of Emperor Yuan Chengzong Dade's reign, the Srivijaya empire with their control of the Minor West Oceans that include: " Dragon Tooth Mountain, Dragon Tooth Gate, Bianshu便塾, Lanbang榄邦.... .” They refer to two different places of similar name managed by the Srivijaya empire. The important difference is that the Lingya Island with the two rocks pillars on the high mountain is not navigable by ship through them.

**Fig.1** Zheng He's Navigation Chart of **Wu Biezhi** compiled by **Mao Yuanyi** on page 15 of volume 240 marks the **Dragon Tooth Gate** (**Lingya Island**/**Longya Mountain)** in Indonesia

**Fig.2**, **Mount Longya** (Mount Lingga) on **Lingga** Island, Indonesia

**Fig. 3 Dragon Tooth Gate Rocks** and **Dragon Tooth Gate (Strait)** in Singapore

Singapore Dragon Tooth Gate Rocks:

The Yuan Dynasty Wang Dayuan wrote the《A Brief Account of Island Barbarians》《岛夷志略》 in 1349: "The Dragon's Tooth Gate – The passage of Temasek kingdom is separated by two hills look like a dragon's tooth, there is a waterway between them. Field barren with little yield on rice production. The climate is hot". Fei Xin's费信 in Yongle-Xuande who accompanied Zheng He to the West wrote《Description of the Starry Raft》《星槎胜览》and Xie Qinggao 谢清高in Tongzhi's 《Voyages and Travels》mentioned in three instances that the Dragon Tooth Gate refers to the early time of the of Keppel Harbour, at the West of the waterway entrance Fig. 3 rises above the water two rock pillars about 10 meters high like dragon's tooth.

The first is the dragon's tooth-like Dragon Tooth Gate spire rock in the east, known to the British as Lott's Wife Rock, located near Labrador park outside Tanjong Berlayer point. The Malay ancient name Batu Berlayer( Berlayer Rock) means set sail rock. The 1709 anonymous painter of Dragon Tooth Gate sea chart depicts only the Lott's Wife Rock and the house on the north shore of the harbour Fig. 4. On Fig. 5 Landscape painting from 1823 the British call the Lot's Wife Rock in the middle (eastern side).

The second piece is shorter on the left side (west side) of the painting, which author call it Berlayar Rk according to the 1926 chart of Fig. 9 Dragon Tooth Gate Berlayer shorter rock on Fig. 5. Previously, everyone in the book believed that the second rock was not far from the sea off Tanjong-Rimau Point on the west side of Sentosa Island, but author thought it might not be correct. The author's new discovery is that the distance between the two rock columns in the Dragon Tooth Gate water is 100 meters apart, and the deepest waterway is 22 Fathoms or 40 meters (1851 nautical chart). Just beyond the two rock pillars is the strait of the of Keppel Harbour (between Tanjong Berlayer Point and Tanjong Rimau Point) with a water depth of 18 meters and a width of 337 meters. It is recorded that in 1848, the British government blew up the two rock pillars of the Dragon Tooth Gate on Fig. 6 in order to widen the waterway, one in the water near the shore and the other out in the sea.

**Fig. 4** Hand drawn sea chart of 1709, there is a house on the north shore of Keppel Harbour

**Fig.5In 1823 West view of Singapore's Dragon Tooth Gate with waterway between two rocks**

**Fig. 6 Keppel Harbour** view West, sketch of **Dragon Tooth Gate** 2 sea rocks just off South of **Labrador** Pt.

 The Dragon Tooth Gate (Strait):  In the Singapore Strait,  the Zheng He navigation chart compiled by Mao Yuanyi in the 《Wu Bi Zhi》 states that " from Karimun with fifth  Gen(12 hrs),  ship uses magnetic needle course Yi Chen 乙辰(112.5deg)  & Dan Cheng丹辰(120 deg) to pass Long Island(Raffles Light House) out of Dragon Tooth Gate, at Dragon Tooth Gate uses needle Jiamao甲卯(082.5deg.) with fifth Gen(12 hrs) to pass White Reef(Pedra Branca)“ The short description did  not indicate the location of the "Dragon Tooth Gate" in Singapore".  Author’s previous article 《Temasek, Dragon Tooth Gate, Guanyu, Lingga Island in Zheng He's Nautical Chart》 according to the eight different magnetic needle sailing directions in Ming,  especially the navigation sailing directions manual   《Shunfeng Xiangsong》《顺风相送》《Xin Fum Siam Sum》 was written around 1593 in Ming Dynasty, probably traced back to Ming Yongle (1403),  recorded from Malacca back to Guangdong magnetic needle sailing direction: from the Five Islands(Pulau Bersar) to set sail for the voyage with 2nd Gen(4.8hours) take Long island(Raffles Light House) to avoid the waters in the South, for fear of the Pulau Pelampung (Red island) and Pulau Nipa(Tree Island )with shallow sand banks. Out of the Dragon's Tooth Gate………. .  By author’s calculation the Guanyu (Official Island) at the time of Zheng He was Pulau Sakijang Bendera (St. John Island) and its southern waters where the Dragon Tooth Gate (Strait) was located Fig.7。The Gate represents a strait or passage in the ancient maritime word, and the word (Strait)  within the bracket specially added by the author to distinguish it from the two rocks of the Dragon Tooth Gate at the entrance of Keppel Harbour.

**Fig. 7 Zheng He**'s **Guanyu(Official Island) Pulau Sakijang Bendera (St. John Island) .**To the south is the **Dragon Tooth Gate (Strait),** which is also the middle section of the Singapore Main Strait

The exact location of Singapore Dragon Tooth Rocks

The subject is about the old site of the Dragon Tooth Gate rocks in Singapore rather than the following two places namely Dragon Tooth Gate (Straits) and the Lingga Island, what we are looking for is related to Wang Dayuan who arrived at Temasek nearly seven hundred years ago in the Yuan Dynasty the location of the Dragon Tooth Gate in the shape of dragon's tooth with two rock Pillars which he saw. Both British and locals say that the Dragon Tooth Gate is in between Labrador park off Tanjong Berlayer point and off Tanjong Rimau point (Sentosa island). But where is the exact location? After exploration and field investigation, the author has obtained the nautical chart data of the conclusive locations of the following two rock pillars (1) and (2) respectively.

No.(1) Rock: The spire shape rock pillar of the Dragon Tooth Gate (Lott’s Wife Rock/Set Sail Rock) location:

Fig. 8 Thomson’s Survey Chart dated 1849 and later 1926. Fig. 9 Chart, Lott’s Wife Rock is indicated off Southeast direction of Tanjong Berlayer point cliff wall end at distance of 10 meters near the water edge, or another reference from Tanjong Berlayer point red light Beacon is 069 degrees 30 meters. At low tide, you can walk to this rock from the shore. According to the author's assessment, this is the only one of the two rocks of the Dragon Tooth Gate could be seen on the dry beach at low tide, and this rock is not in the navigable waterway and had no reason to be blown up which they claimed due to hindering the navigation of ships. The evidence is that the 1926(after rocks removal in 1848) chart records that the rock is still with remaining height of 1.8 meters, so in fact there was still a part of the rock that had not been completely eradicated.

**Fig. 8, 1849 chart Lott’s Wife Rock is 10 meters Southeast end of cliff wall at Berlayer point.**

**Fig.** 9, 1926 After blast removal **Berlayer** dwarf rock remaining depth 6 fathom (11 m) much less than surrounding waters

Fig. 10 In 1845-1850 Miss Thomson painted the Dragon Tooth Gate spire rock (Lott's Wife Stone) outside the Tanjong Berlayer point, the left side of the narrow red cliff wall with three or four vertical cracks lines and some dwarf shrubs, at the bottom end of the cliff, on the rocky beach, 10 meters southeast, a rock about ten meters high, known as the Lott’s Wife Rock is standing, which was one of the two rocks of the Dragon Tooth Gate, which tilted slightly to the left like a dragon's teeth. From the height of the man standing on a small sailboat near the beach in the painting as a guide, coupled with the typical British black and white house on the Bukit Chermin hill in the middle, which proves that the estimated distance and size of the old position of this skinny high dragon tooth pointed stone are accurate. Take the old painting Fig.10 on the left and the photo taken today Fig.11 cliff wall, the location of the Bukit Chermin hill is perfectly matched as if it were exactly the same, and what is missing in the photo today is the spire rock that has disappeared, sketched and replaced by the author on the breakwater embankment outside the turning corner of the sidewalk railing, that is in the location of present-day with reference from Tanjong Berlayer point red beacon light is 069 degrees and 30 meters. The old shallow sandy beach between the Tanjong Berlayer point Red Beacon Light stone, cliff end and the original Dragon Tooth Gate spire rock has now been reclaimed as a narrow foot path with seaside railings in the park.

**Fig 10 1840 -1845 Miss Thomson painted Dragon Tooth Rock Fig 11 Tanjong Berlayer** cliff, **Chermin** hill & right railing(**Lott’s Wife rock**) 10 meters away from **Tg.Berlayer** cliff added with sketch of **Dragon Tooth Gate** spire rock

No.(2) Rock: Position of the shorter rock of Berlayer at the Dragon Tooth Gate:

British and Singaporean scholars have long believed that another rock at the Dragon's Tooth Gate was outside Tanjong Rimau point at the western tip of Sentosa Island at the entrance to Keppel Harbour. But the author searched through the 1844 nautical charts surveyed by JT Thomson (before the rock was blown up) Fig.12 1891 and Fig 9 1926 and the latest sea chart of the Keppel Harbour, the entrance to the Keppel Harbour is 337 meters wide and the middle depth is 17 to 23 meters. With the exception of the current Tanjung Limau green beacon on a reef stone at 23 meters distance outside the water of Tanjung Rimau point, absolutely no sign of any previous rock pillar could obstruct traffic or remains of rock being blasted away on any shallow seabed, and the author believe that later British and Singaporean scholars lacked a solid basis for the idea that the 2nd rock was close to Sentosa.
The author found that on the three sea charts in 1884, 1891 and 1926 , a surveyed sea spot from Tanjong Berlayer red beacon light in 254 degrees direction and 70m away, the seabed is 6 fathoms deep in Figure 9, which is the only place in this water where the British marked the Blayar Rk (Berlayar) rock in the sea or what author think it is the location of the dwarf rock of the Dragon Tooth Gate , is also the most convincing actual record. 6 fathoms (11 meters) is the depth of the second rock much less than surrounding waters after it has been blown off, as though originally there was a rock rose above the water. Suppose this is the second rock of the Dragon Tooth Gate, the actual distance between the two rocks is 100 meters, and there is 22 fathoms (44m) water depth between it and the Dragon Tooth Gate spire rock (Lott’s Wife Rock), the deep waterway similar to what Wang Dayuan described of the Dragon Tooth Gate: " Looks like dragon's tooth, there is waterway between them”. On present day chart Fig. 13 , the Blayar Rk (Berlayar) dwarf rock(No.2 Rock) , Tanjong Berlayer Red Beacon Light and the Lott’s Wife Rock spire rock(No.1 Rock) of the three red dots almost form an imaginary straight line of 70 meters + 30 meters = 100 meters in actual length.
A navigation guide stolen by the Dutch from a Portuguese ship in 1580 claims that the ship passed through the Varella stone (Lott’s Wife Rock) of the Dragon Tooth Gate before entering the entrance to the Keppel Harbour, a stone's throw length between the two rocks (100m). The 337 meters distance between Tanjong Berlayer point and Tanjong Rimau point is far from a stone's throw distance as described by the Portuguese, so Tanjong Rimau point is actually not home or adjacent to the second rock as most people previously believe.
The painting in Fig. 5 looks westward from Keppel harbor: the Berlayer dwarf rock on the left, the pointed spire rock of Dragon Tooth Gate in the middle (Lott’s Wife Rock) and the right Tanjong Berlayer point cliff. Middle of the two Dragon's Tooth Gate rocks is the Singapore Dragon Tooth Gate waterway, the direction( imaginary line) of the Dragon's Tooth Gate waterway is exactly 270 degrees West, and the two distant small islands appeared above the sea horizon within the Dragon Tooth Gate waterway are Pulau Ayer Mermau island and Pulau Sakra island both are 8.5km away, which exactly fit their direction and distance from Keppel Harbour on the chart.
Fig 11A Singapore National Archive 1946(year before the two Dragon Tooth rocks were removed)

another painting, very close on the left and behind the Lott’s Wife Rock, can see another separate short and flat top rock which is the Berlayer dwarf rock. But off the Tanjong Rimau point, could see far away a smoky ship but none of the stand alone rock.

**Fig 11A Singapore National Archive** painting of Keppel waterway, right is Mount Faber, far away waterway on the right are two separate high and low **Dragon Tooth** rocks.

Conclusion:

From the above five points, the second Berlayer dwarf rock of the Dragon Tooth Gate is

not believed by the author to be near the Tanjung Rimau point off Sentosa, but at a location on the old chart with reference from Tanjong Berlayer red beacon light is 254 degrees 70 meters away at a depth of 6 fathoms in the sea, where the spot Blayar Rk (Berlayar Rock) is marked, closer to the coast of Labrador Park with reference from the white Obelisk (indicating the southernmost point in Asia that has been 200 years old) ashore is 210 degrees and 110 meters away, but not as claimed near Sentosa Tanjung Rimau point which is 396 meters farther away.

**Fig 12,** 1844 Thomson survey show only Lott’s Wife Rock but without the second **Dragon Tooth Gate** rock

**Fig 13** Aerial Photograph with 3 red dots are connected to form a 100-meter-long straight line

Dragon Tooth Gate Rocks maritime commemorative replica:

In 2005, to commemorate the 600th anniversary of Zheng He's voyage to the West, Singapore National Parks Board erected man-made Dragon Tooth Gate rocks that are 6 meters apart Fig. 14 as ancient navigational marks at Labrador park. The original two rocks were 100 meters apart. These artificial replicas are actually not where the original two rocks were located, and the location of the two artificial rocks is just 42 meters north of the original Dragon Tooth Gate spire rock (Lott’s Wife Rock /Set Sail Rock).

Types of minerals that made up the Dragon Tooth Gate rocks in Singapore

Thanks Dr. Kyi Khin, geologist of PUB Utilities, Singapore for the Provisionogeography of Late Triassic red-beds in Singapore's Late Triassic Red-Beds Paleogeographic Survey Data: Fig. 15 The geology of the entire Southwest coast of Singapore in Jurong, Pasir Panjang to Sentosa is from 2.37 to 2.01 million years old Late Triassic red layer rock was formed by rivers into sedimentary rocks with red iron oxide and sandstone layers. These red-layers rocks can be clearly seen on the cliffs of the entire Labrador Park, including Tanjong Berlayer point, opposite Sentosa island and Tanjong Rimau point. Fig. 10 From Miss Thomson's old painting on the Tanjong Berlayer point cliff end (left of picture) and the Dragon Tooth Gate spire rock pillar (right of picture ) surface cracks, grain, brown color and morphological structure and geological reports are consistent, It can also be verified from the rock photos Fig.16 & Fig. 17 at the end of the cliff wall of the present Tanjong Berlayer point. It can be concluded that it may not be true that the early British said that the of the two rocks was granite, so according to geological reports, the entire nearby section of the Dragon Tooth Gate rocks are red layer rock plus sandstone layer to be sedimentary rocks are more appropriate.