Lanchang

Town in Pahang, Malaysia

Lanchang or so called Semantan is a small town in Temerloh District, Pahang, Malaysia, located 32 km (19.883878152 mi) from the town of Temerloh and has a total population of 38,473, with a density of 41,000 km2, from the census results of the Jabatan Perangkaan Malaysia Negeri Pahang (DOSM Pahang) in 2020. The Kuala Gandah Elephant Conservation Centre is situated in Kampung Orang Asli Sungai Enggang, in Kampung Bolok Hulu, Lanchang, Temerloh, Pahang. This is the main attraction of this small town apart from agriculture and the many Felda projects of both rubber and palm oil plantations. Other agriculture activities are thriving well today, because it has a low population density, yet still has much land available for agriculture. Apart from that, Lanchang is also home to the geographic centre of Peninsular Malaysia, situated in Kampung Paya Siput (Batu 11) .

The history of another name for Lanchang is Semantan, which is believed to come from the word Seman Tahan which is a Brunei citizen who lived in one of the tributaries of Sungai Pahang which is now known as Sungai Semantan. His name is Osman, and he has knowledge of defense and is good at martial arts. Because of that, he was known as Seman Tahan, because of his endurance when fighting, and he was very famous among the people around the river who later referred to him simply and became known as Semantan. The arrival of many residents to the Semantan area has made the settlement area expand beyond the Kuala Semantan area, or as it is now known as Temerloh, which only includes the mouth of the river, which is the area around the confluence of the Semantan River and the Pahang River. Therefore, this settlement has grown rapidly into a small town and was given a new name, Lanchang. Lanchang is now one of the mukims or zones whose economy has grown since the introduction of rubber cultivation, it has become the main crop along with rice by 1909. Lanchang is very famous all over the world because it is one of the birthplaces of freedom fighters who fought against the colonialists led by Dato' Bahaman, or better known as Orang Kaya Semantan, who fought in the past to drive out the British Residents who were established and wanted to interfere in the administration of magnates and affairs in the State of Pahang on the basis of colonialism and imperialism which was prevalent in the 19th century, and there is also another person who is considered as a nationalist revolutionary fighter figure by the community in Mukim Semantan or Lanchang Zone in the early 20th century, namely Abu Samah Mohd Kassim who is also a great person who is the grandson of Dato' Bahaman who also followed in the footsteps of his ancestors to achieve independence to drive away colonialism from this beloved homeland.

Lanchang is served by the East Coast Expressway and the older Federal Route , of which both routes connect the town with Kuala Lumpur as well as the state capital city of Kuantan.

The Kuala Gandah Elephant Conservation Centre is an Asian elephant sanctuary. Elephas maximus is listed as endangered, according to the UNEP there are only about 1,000 wild Asian elephants left on the Malay peninsula. The rapid development phase in Malaysia has effects on the elephants. Unused land and forest became a much sought after commodity. As agricultural development rapidly encroached into these areas, the elephants' natural and ancestral foraging ground shrunk smaller and smaller. Consequently, some of these elephants began to forage in new farm areas and plantations. An effort by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks was the setting up of an elephant translocation unit in 1974 to track down, capture and then release these elephants into larger and safer forest reserves throughout the Peninsula.

The Malayan Tiger Conservation Center (MTCC), built on 80 hectares of land in Lanchang, is the only Malayan tiger conservation center in the country. MTCC started operating on February 1, 2022, which aims to increase the breeding of tigers and release the animals before they are released into their natural habitat. The existence of the Malayan Tiger Conservation Center which cost RM42.25 million is aimed to overcome the problem of the extinction of the animal species which is becoming critical.