Kangar · Lablypedia

The town is also a gathering centre for the paddy rice production of the surrounding district. Its municipal government is unified with that of the neighbouring communities of Arau and Kaki Bukit. The centre of Kangar is Sena Province. The town is the smallest state capital in Malaysia and its inhabitants are mostly farmers and civil servants. Its industries include cement, saw milling, rubber, paper, and processing of sugar and prawns.

History

Kangar existed from about 350 years ago, that is since 1653 when Kota Sena was built as the administrative centre for the 14th Sultan of Kedah, Sultan Muhyiddin Mansor Shah. Kangar was then a land port or pengkalan where boats and tongkangs anchor at the confluence of Perlis River, which runs through Kangar town to Kuala Perlis.

The name Kangar was derived from a type of tree. It was here at the port that trading was done, under a big tree that gave shade and respite to the traders. This tree that became a "witness" to many business deals was called Pohon Kangar. Every trader and merchant who came and went to this place began calling it the Pohon Kangar Port, in honour of the tree.

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Government

Kangar Municipal Council is the local government of Kangar Town and the rest of the State of Perlis. It was established on 1 January 1980 through the merger of Kangar Town Council, Padang Besar Town Board and Kaki Bukit and Simpang Empat local councils, all which were established in the mid-1950s. In the beginning, the jurisdiction area of the Kangar municipality was 40 square kilometres. This was increased to 118 square kilometres in 1989 and 795 square kilometres in 1997. As of 2025, 17 people have helmed the council as Presidents, all which were men and four of them were also concurrently Menteri Besar of Perlis at their time in office.

Council presidents

Demographics

The majority of Kangar's population speaks Perlis Malay which is a sub-dialect of Kedah Malay but also has its own unique features compared to those of neighbouring Kedah.

The Han Chinese, the second largest community in Kangar are primarily Hokkien speaking, with the language serving as the lingua franca of the city's Chinese population. In addition, significant knowledge of Mandarin and English is also present amongst them.

Other languages spoken in Kangar includes Tamil, Telugu, Malayali as well as Punjabi and Hindi among the Kangar Indian population and Southern Thai by the Kedah-Siamese community.

Places of interest

Downtown Kangar is a mixture of old and new shophouses, and has an elegant colonial State Secretariat Building and clocktower from the 1930s. Other major landmarks are:

PKENPS Tower @ K-PARC Kangar, the tallest building in Perlis
Dato' Wan Ahmad's House
Kubu Hill Recreational Park
Malay World Weaponry Museum
Medan Mountain
Perlis Craft Cultural Complex
State Museum and Heritage Hall
Alwi Mosque, the former state mosque built in 1910
Tuanku Syed Putra Stadium
Gua Kelam, a cave in Kaki Bukit
Snake Farm of Sungai Batu Pahat
Bukit Ayer Recreational Park
Wang Kelian - Next to Thai border
Padang Besar Shopping Arcade - Duty Free Zone
Royal Palace of Arau
Fish Grill Food Court, Kuala Perlis
Mini Putrajaya - State Assembly Building
Gua Cenderawasih Park - Look out point
Perlis State Library (Malay: Perpustakaan Negeri Perlis), main public library of the State of Perlis and the headquarters of the Perlis Public Library Corporation (Malay: Perbadanan Perpustakaan Awam Perlis, abbreviated as PPANP).

Notable natives

Queenzy Cheng - Late Female Chinese Artist