Bukit Bakri

Bukit Bakri, often shortened to Bakri, is a town in Muar District in the Malaysian state of Johor. It lies along Federal Route 24, about ten kilometres east of Muar town, at the eastern end of Jalan Bakri, the main road that links the town to Bandar Maharani, the centre of Muar. Its population grew from about 10,000 in 1991 to 20,123 at the 2000 census, and the article reports a present figure of 30,280. The name is believed to come from Sultan Abu Bakar of Johor, given as a birthday gift to him by Dato' Muhammad Salleh bin Prang, and Jalan Bakri was noted as one of the straightest roads in Johor in the late nineteenth century. The town holds Muslim, Chinese, Hindu and Christian cemeteries, including a historic Japanese war cemetery from the Second World War that is its best known landmark, and a prominent Chinese temple, the Siang Kong Shan Temple. The largest Chinese clan is the Toh clan.