Front view of the Tanjung Tokong Tua Pek Kong Temple
Posted on 02/19/2009 2:52:35 PM PST by nickcarraway
UNKNOWN to many, there is an ancient cemetery nestled on a small green hill in Tanjung Tokong, the fast developing area on Penang’s northern cape, that beguiles historians. With its rows of mouldy headstones, the lush plot of land heaves with a strange sanctified air, even as it remains hidden from the sights of people who live or travel along the area everyday.
It is said that the unique cemetery has kept the remains of some of the earliest inhabitants of the island, predating even the British colonialists. What makes it even more remarkable is that the descendants of these early settlers are still around, living as a closely-bonded community on the very foothill, in a kampung that is now being noticed as one of the most historic Malay settlements to be at risk in the northern region.
Set along some 8.9ha, the idyllic settlement of Kampung Tanjung Tokong is said to have existed even before the colonial British administration, making it an immensely unique cultural feature. Originally a fishing community during the time when Penang island was under the Kedah sultanate, the continued existence of the settlement till today reverberates with the little known truth of Penang’s history before the British arrived.
The origins of society and culture in Penang certainly did not start with the British. There is evidence to show that there were active communities on the island, in its northern coastal area as well as further south in Batu Uban, that thrived.
Ironically, although the village has remained resilient through all the centuries, its future has become uncertain with the possibility of development occurring over the land. The Tanjung Tokong Residents Association has started lobbying for the village, housing some 300 families, to be preserved in the face of such uncertainty.
There are concerns that massive modern development would obliterate more than three centuries of living tradition, and what is perhaps one of the oldest living communities in the country.
"What we have here is a very unique Malay community," says long-time resident Mohd Salleh Yahaya. The retired teacher has documented much of the historical records and evidence pointing to the settlement’s remarkable character and legacy.
The architecture of some of the houses in the settlement, for example, is unique, pointing to an ancient design from the Malay world that is barely used anymore today.
Interestingly enough, the coastal village area was once called Teluk Tikus or the "the bay of rats" as the small island off its coast is still called, to this day, Pulau Tikus.
Salleh sees the wealth of historical information that the community has kept hidden as a source of precious cultural research. He would like to see the village preserved, made open for tourists, to be shown as a model historic Malay settlement in the north. The idea makes economic sense even as it would work in favour of heritage conservation. For the community lies along Penang’s tourism belt, where anyone travelling to Batu Ferringhi and Tanjung Bungah would need to pass. "The tourists would enjoy seeing this last bit of heritage that Penang has to offer," Salleh says.
The state government has been very supportive of the idea to mark the place as a heritage site. But there has been unclear response on the matter from
the federal Urban Development Authority, which has developed the surrounding lands in the area.
Ironically enough, the land once faced the sea, until the mid 1990s when the coast in front of it got landlocked by reclamation. Today, instead of gentle waves lapping along a sandy beach, the villagers look out to see condominiums and houses blocking the horizon.
In spite of that, within the enclave itself, many of the residents have maintained a charmingly traditional lifestyle while the world around them has turbulently moved on.
Historian and anthropologist Datuk Dr Wazir Jahan Karim has been particularly fascinated by the continued existence of the community even as the region has largely modernised.
"It would have been difficult for any person, with a reasonable amount of knowledge on Malay culture and society, with nostalgia to see a more creative aesthetic kind of coastal development in the northeast district of the island, to disagree with representatives of the residents association," she says.
In fact, Tanjung Tokong and Tanjung Bungah used to contain nucleated Malay fishing villages, dotted all along the coastline up to Teluk Bahang, she notes.
It is now a test to the authorities’ commitment to our heritage and values, if they are willing to maintain this safe enclave where traditional Malay culture can still be observed, in its most authentic possible sense, amid the tide of modernisation sweeping through the country.
Front view of the Tanjung Tokong Tua Pek Kong Temple
The tourists would enjoy seeing this last bit of heritage that Penang has to offer,” Salleh says
Oh yeah, we’d all like to spend a week at the “Bay of Rats”
Maybe pick up a souveneir ratbite or two and send some postcards telling our friends that while their on the Riviera or in the Carribean, we’re reduced to vacationing at the Bay Of Rats.
Penang was very neat place to go in 1966. The food was very good. It is an interesting place.
Well, with the current economy beggars can’t be choosers, right?
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Thanks nickcarraway. |
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