Malaysia: The Melting Pot of Architecture

CULTURE & RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE OF MULTI RACIAL COMMUNITY IN MALAYSIA

Lecture by Sukhjit Kaur Sidhu

Lecture Outline 1. Finding Faces in the Crowd

2. Religions 101 3. Religion + Architecture 4. Bringing in Variety

The Colours of Malaysia: Finding Faces in

the Crowd

The Chinese Communities

The Chinese immigrants were from southern provinces of China, mainly Fujian and Guandong. Have been settling in Malaysia for many centuries, but a peak has been seen during the 19th century through trading and tin-mining. When they first arrived, the Chinese often worked the most grueling jobs like tin mining and railway construction. Later, some of them owned businesses. Most Chinese are Tao Buddhist.

The Communities from Indiacommunity in The Indian

Malaysia can be made out of Tamils, Malayalees, Teleguspeaking people, Punjabis, Gujeratis, Sindhis and Sri Lankan (Ceylonese).

The Communities from India came to Malaya for barter trade. Indians first
However, when India came under British rule, South Indian labourers were sent to Malaya to work on sugar cane and coffee plantations and later in the rubber and oil palm estates. Some South Indians also came to work on the construction of buildings, roads and bridges. Ceylonese came to Malaya as white-collar workers, holding jobs like clerks and hospital assistants. Punjabis joined the army and police in Malaya, and some handled the bullock-cart services in the country.

Religions 101

Buddhism
a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE. He is recognized by adherents as an awakened teacher who shared his insights to help sentient beings end suffering, achieve nirvana, and escape what is seen as a cycle of suffering and rebirth.

Buddhism
To thrive in China, Buddhism had to transform itself into a system that could exist within the Chinese way of life. Thus highly regarded Indian sutras that advocated filial piety became core texts in China. Buddhism was made compatible with ancestor worship and participation in China's hierarchical system

Hinduism
Hinduism is often called the oldest living religion created during Indias Iron Age. Prominent themes in Hindu beliefs include (but are not restricted to), Dharma (ethics/duties), Samsara (The continuing cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth), Karma (action and subsequent reaction), Moksha (liberation from samsara), and the various Yogas (paths or practices). Hindu practices generally involve seeking awareness of God and sometimes also seeking blessings from Devas.

Hinduism
Hindus can engage in pj (worship or veneration), either at home or at a temple. At home, Hindus often create a shrine with icons dedicated to their chosen form of God. Temples are usually dedicated to a primary deity along with associated subordinate deities though some commemorate multiple deities. Visiting temples is not obligatory, and many visit temples only during religious festivals. Hindus perform their worship through icons (murtis). The icon serves as a tangible link between the worshiper and God. The image is often considered a manifestation of God, since God is immanent.

Confucianism
a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius. It is a complex system of moral, social, political, philosophical, and quasi-religious thought that has had tremendous influence on the culture and history of East Asia. In Confucianism, human beings are teachable, improvable and perfectible through personal and communal endeavor including self-creation. A main idea of Confucianism is the cultivation of virtue and the development of moral perfection.

Taoism
refers to a variety of related philosophical and religious traditions. Taoist propriety and ethics emphasize the Three Jewels of the Tao: compassion, moderation and humility. while Taoist thought generally focuses on nature, the relationship between humanity and the cosmos, health and longevity, and wu wei (action through inaction), which is thought to produce harmony with the universe. Organized Taoism distinguishes its ritual activity from that of the folk religion, which some professional Taoists (Daoshi) view as debased.

Chinese Folk Religion

a collective label given to various folkloric beliefs that draw heavily from Chinese mythology. It comprises the religion practiced in much of China for thousands of years, which included ancestor worship and drew heavily upon concepts and beings within Chinese mythology. Chinese folk religion is composed of a combination of religious practices, including Confucianist ceremonies, ancestor worship, Buddhism and Taoism. There are hundreds of gods and goddess as well as saints," immortals and demigods.

Sikhism
founded in 15th century Punjab on the teachings of Guru Nanak Dev and ten successive Sikh Gurus the last Guru being the sacred text Guru Granth Sahib) The essence of Sikh teachings is summed up by Guru Nanak in these words: Realization of Truth is higher than all else. Higher still is truthful living. In Sikhism, God (Waheguru) is shapeless, timeless, omnipresent in all creation and visible everywhere to the spritually awakened.

Sikhism
Not founded on a final destination of heaven and hell, but on a spiritual union with God which results in salvation. The chief obstacles to the attainment of salvation are social conflicts and an attachment to worldly pursuits, which commit men and women to an endless cycle of birtha concept known as reincarnation. a Sikh should balance work, worship, and charity, and should defend the rights of all creatures, and in particular, fellow human beings. They are encouraged to have a chardi kala, or optimistic, view of life. Sikh teachings also stress the concept of sharing vand chakko - through the distribution of free food at Sikh gurdwaras (langar), giving charitable donations, and working for the good of the community and others (sv).

Religion + Architectur e

Chinese Temples
Introduction
The Chinese immigrant builders and craftsmen who came to Malaysia built temples according to the architectural traditions to the Southern provinces of China. Initially, the shrines to house their gods or spirit guides were humbled thatched structures. Later on, more elaborate temples, dedicated to deities of Taoist, Buddhist and folk beliefs as well as ancestor worship were built. The oldest temple in Malaysia, the Cheng Hoon Teng in Melaka, is reputed to have been built in 1645.

Chinese Temples
Chinese architectural principles in both domestic and religious buildings are basically the same that every aspect of life is closely related to nature. This is expressed symbolically in terms of design and colour roofs of temples may resemble the shapes of waves, referred to as cats crawling, and of swallow and fish tails. The five elements that represent the world, and their corresponding five colours wood (green), earth (yellow), metal (white), water (black), and fire (red) are also ascribed a special place in a temple building to ensure the auspiciousness and totality of the entire structure.

Design Themes and Symbolism

Chinese Temples
The structure of a temple can be divided from floor to roof into lower, middle and upper sections.

Traditional Methods of Construction

Upper Section - The truss system of wooden brackets, which supports the cross beam and the weight of the roof. Middle Section - The pillars, which carry the weight of the roof via a truss system. Lower Section - Lower platform, or base plinth of stonework.

Chinese Temples

Chinese Temples
A distinctive feature of a Chinese temple is its exposed structural elements which allow air to circulate in halls that are filled with smoke from joss sticks. The massive beams are also a testimony to the carpentry skills of the master builders.

Traditional Methods of Construction

Chinese Temples
The basic layout of a Chinese temple reveals formal regularity and rigid symmetry. The four local styles Hokkien, Cantonese, Teochew and Hakka represent clan or dialect differences. Although the progression of the layout may appear to move along an axis from front to back, the temple in fact extends sideways from the main prayer hall housing the principal deity.

Layout Conventions

Chinese Temples
The front pavillion is an open sided structure which provides protection from the elements when the prayers are being offered to the gods. The first hall serves as a reception area, leading to a courtyard or an entrance hall, before the main alter hall is approached. The effect of the elongated structure is to lead the worshipper ever deeper into the sanctuary until the most venerated shrine of the structure is reached.

Layout Conventions

Chinese Temples
Cantonese Temples The main halls have rigid square columns. Often a pair of majestic octagonal columns carved with an intricate assemblage of lions, dragons and serpents are used in the main hall, the loftiest in the temple. distinguished by higher proportions than the other southern temples. Roof ridges are straight and horizontal and the brickwork is usually painted and plastered.

Features of a temple

Chinese Temples
Cantonese Temples Has ornate wooden or concrete tie beam, installed between pillars, that acts as intermediate bracing. The approach to the building is generally more rigid and the front prayer pavillion is often eliminated. Ornamentation in the temple usually consists of clay figurines and carvings on brick walls.

Features of a temple

Chinese Temples
Hokkien & Teochew Temples closest in form and ornamentation to the Teochew temple, The main difference being that the latter have flatter proportions and less pronounced roof pitches. The Hokkien temple is more ornate, with widely curving roof ridges. Both use flamboyant porcelain cut and paste shard work known as chien nien. The hokkiens also favour exposed red brickwork while the Teochew prefer plastered walls painted white or limewashed yellow.

Features of a temple

Chinese Temples
Hakka Temples have resemblance to Hokkien temples but with less ornamentation. The front pavillion is often part of the first hall. Prefer exposed brickwork.

Features of a temple

Chinese Temples

Hindu Temple
Introduction
The 17,000 or more Hindu temples and shrines scattered around the country not only range from simple roadside shrines dedicated to folk and tutelary deities to large temples dedicated to agamic gods and goddessses but also reflect the diverse religious practises within the Hindu religion and other subethnic divisions based on caste, area of origin in India and community grouping. As most Malaysian Hindus are of Southern Indian descent, the majority of Hindu temples in Malaysia are built according to the South Indian tradition.

Hindu Temple
Temple roots
Temple building in Malaysia began with the settlement of a few Hindu Indian traders in Melaka in the 15th century, but it was not until the British colonialism that the process of temple building accelerated. Due to the migration of South Indians to rubber plantations in Malaysia, by far the largest of Hindu temples and shrines, are still to be found in plantations and urban enclaves. These temples mostly comprised tinroofed sheds, which were subsequently enlarged or renovated. The images venerated in these temples were usually ordered speically from India.

Hindu Temple
Temple roots
The agamic temples, on the other hand, which are related to higher level Hinduism and use Sanskrit as their ritual language, tended to be located in the urban centres where trades and middle class Indians settled.

Hindu Temple
The Melaka Chitties and their temples
Since the time of the Melakan Sultanate in the 15th century, there has been a small but thriving Indian community in Melaka called Chitties by the local population because of their involvement in trade. Most of them live in the Indian enclave of Kampung Kling in Melaka, where all the important Chitti tempels are located. Although agamic in principle, the Chitties temples are plainer than the mainstream South Indian temples.

Hindu Temple
The Chettiar are an Indian community known for their devotion to the Hindu deity Muruganand for their zeal in temple building. Unlike the immigrant Indian workers, the Chettiar community is largely made up of wealthy traders and moneylenders. Only the best teak wood from Chettiar sawmills in Burma was used for the superstructure. One of the best known Chettiar temples in Malaysia is the Nattukottai Temple in Penang.

Chettiar temple

Hindu Temple
The main concentrations of another small subethnic group, the Patthars or goldsmiths, are in Kuala Lumpur and Penang. Their most prominent temple dedicated to the personal deity of the Patthar caste, Sri Kamatchi Amman, is located in Jalan Dato Keramat in Penang. This ornate temple occupies two shophouses lots which protrude into the streets. Originally built in 1914 as a simple shed, in 1923 two shophouse lots near the place where most Patthars had their business establishments were acquired by the caste elders for the new temple.

The Patthar Temple

Hindu Temple
The Sri Lankan Tamil temples
The first settlements, or quarters, for the Ceylonese (Sri Lankan) Tamil railway staff, civil servants and others who came to Malaysia were developed close to the railways stations in the Brickfield area in Kuala Lumpur, and nearby along Scott Road. Here, the first Hindu temple, the famous and highly ornate Sri Kandasamy Temple, was established in 1902 in Scott Road.

Hindu Temple

Hindu Temple
The structure of a temple
The Hindu temple is constructed to resemble the form of a human body lying on its back with the head of the temple positioned towards the west and the feet towards the east.

Hindu Temple
The structure of a temple
The Sri Markendeshvarar in Penang is a fine example of a South Indian-style temple. It is a male temple dedicated to the Lord Shiva.

Hindu Temple

Sikh Temple - Gurdwara

Gurdwara literally means Gurus abode/house.

Introduction

Sikhism, has no room for symbolism or ritualism; Sikhs have neither idols nor altars in their Gurdwara. The essential feature of a gurdwara is the presiding presence in it of the holy Sikh Scripture, called the Guru Granth Sahib. The first Guru, called upon his followers to establish gurdwaras and congregate in them to repeat Gods Name, and to recite His praise.

Sikh Temple - Gurdwara

Sikh Temple - Gurdwara

A Gurdwara is identified by the following five basic features:-

Basic Features

1. Darbar Sahib A hall that houses the Guru (the Guru Granth Sahib). This hall in most modern temples is large and will house many hundreds of visitors.

Sikh Temple - Gurdwara

2. Nishan Sahib a triangular orange flag with a Khalsa emblem in the middle called the Khanda. It serves as an Khalsa icon for the Gurus abode.

Basic Features

Sikh Temple - Gurdwara

3. Pangat Free community kitchen. It is part of a building complex where communal meals are served.

Basic Features

Sikh Temple - Gurdwara

Sikh Temple - Gurdwara

4. Palki Sahib The Gurus throne is always centered at the front of the Darbar Hall, it is the central feature of the Gurdwara. The Guru is covered in cloth and placed on a punjabi bed.

Basic Features

Sikh Temple - Gurdwara

Basic Features
5. Golak refers to a systematic & formal financial system in the custody of Guru Granth Sahib.

Sikh Temple - Gurdwara

The architecture
Unlike other places of worship, gurdwara buildings do not have to conform to any set architectural design. However, many gurdwaras imitate the Gurdwara style in India that are mainly inspired by Mughal Architecture. Most gurdwaras have square halls, stand on a higher plinth, have entrances on all four sides and have square or octagonal domed sanctums in the middle.

Sikh Temple - Gurdwara

Gurdwaras in Malaysia
With the migration of Sikhs into Malaysia, the early Gurdwaras were built by the police. These structures were earlier built using thatch roofs and were wooden. However, many were upgraded to zink or tile roofs and upgraded to concrete structures.

Bringing In Variety

Chinese Construction + Feng Shui

Introduction
To people of Chinese origin in Malaysia and elsewhere, feng shui is a combination of mystical beliefs, astrology, folklore and common sense that has a bearing on their daily lives. Evolving some 4,000 years ago in China from the observation that people are affected, for good or ill, by their surroundings, feng shui advocates living in harmony with the earths environment and its energy lines so that there is a balance between the forces of nature.

Kek Lok Temple, Penang

Chinese Construction + Feng Shui

What is feng shui?
Feng shui, which literally means wind and water, refers to the location and shape of mountains and valleys and the direction of watercourses. The practice of feng shui is concerned with harnessing auspicious energy lines, known as qi or dragons breath, and avoiding or combating inauspicious energy lines, popularly known as killing breath or poison arrows. The inauspicious energy lines are caused by the presence of sharp, pointed objects or structures that channel bad feng shui, such as straight roads, steeply angled roofs or the edges of tall buildings.

Chinese Construction + Feng Shui

What is feng shui?
Feng shui practitioners believe that people will live in harmony with their environment if the shape and orientation of their house site, as well as the actual shape of the house, follow feng shui principles.

Chinese Construction + Feng Shui

Feng Shui application in the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion

Chinese Construction + Feng Shui

Feng Shui application in the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion
When Cheong Fatt Tze, a prominent overseas Chinese businessman and mandarin, built his 38-room Chinese courtyard mansion in Leith Street, Georgetown, towards the end of the 19th century, he would have consulted the most enlightened feng shui master of the day.

Chinese Construction + Feng Shui

Feng Shui application in the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion

The main door of the mansion was aligned to face south-southeast, with the hills at the back and the sea in front.

Chinese Construction + Feng Shui

Feng Shui application in the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion

The back of the house was raised higher than the front to create a sense of ascendancy. Rainwater falling on the roofs around the central courtyard was collected via two downpipes encased in the west and east walls and allowed to accumulate in the sunken, granite slablined courtyard.

Chinese Construction + Feng Shui

Feng Shui application in the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion
The building is painted blue, a colour widely used on buildings in Peninsular Malaysia in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Chinese Construction + Feng Shui

Feng Shui application in the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion

The four red columns on the first floor balcony denote the original owners high rank.

Chinese Clan Houses

Introduction
Chinese immigrants arriving on unfamiliar territory, they were drawn to fellow countrymen who shared a common background or who came from the same ancestral village. Out of their need support grew the clan associations known locally as kongsi, derived from two Chinese words meaning to share or a shared company.

Chinese Clan Houses

A support system
The kongsi house served as a dormitory, employment agency, meeting place, bank and social welfare source. The kongsi was also a promoter of education whose members placed great value on academic learning. Attached to the kongsi house was usually a temple and a prayer hall for housing ancestral tablets. The undisputed leaders of goh tai seng (the five major surnames) the Khoos, Tans, Yeohs, Cheahs and Lims held control over the southern Chinese community. Each set out to build kongsi houses that would adequately reflect their lineage.

Chinese Clan Houses

Kongsi architecture
The most notable example of traditional clan house architecture in the Straits Settlements can be found in the Leong San Tong Khoo Kongsi in Cannon Square, Penang. In 1852, 102 descendants of Khoo Chian Eng of Hai Teng district, Fujian Province, China, bought a large plot of land in Georgetown, Penang, and established a kongsi. Reputed to have cost over 100,000 Straits dollars, it was a masterpiece of Minnan architecture of the late Ching Dynasty.

Chinese Clan Houses

The Khoo Kongsi complex revolves around the granite-paved Cannon Square , co-called because of a large hole made by a cannon fired by the British during the Penang Riots of 1867.

Kongsi architecture

Chinese Clan Houses

It includes a temple, an administartive building, a traditional Chinese theatre for staging opera, and rows of 19th century houses. Guarded gateways, passageways and narrow approaches are typical features of the complex.

Kongsi architecture

Chinese Clan Houses

Kongsi architecture

Chinese Clan Houses

Kongsi architecture

The Chinese Shophouses

Introduction

The commercial centre of every Malaysian town before WW2 was characterized by one or more main streets lined with shophouses, usually 2 storeys high, with the lower floor used for trading and the upper floor for residential purposes. The emergence of this urban building type can be traced to the influx of Chinese immigrants from the densely populated southern coastal provinces of China in the 19th century until WW2. They brought with them both knowledge and methods of house construction which they then adapted to the Malaysian urban shophouses. By the early 20th century, this urban form was to spread to every major town in the country.

The Chinese Shophouses

The Chinese Shophouses

The Chinese Shophouses

Characteristics Long & Narrow plan Punctuated by internal courtyards or airwells that bring in light and ventilation to the centre of the building 5 foot walkway narrow street frontage (typically 6 metres) depth (average 25m) symmetrical facade material brick & mortar

The Chinese Shophouses

The Chinese Shophouses

The Chinese Shophouses

The Chinese Shophouses

The Chinese Shophouses

The Chinese Shophouses

The Chinese Shophouses

The Malayan Bungalow

Introduction
Although the word bungalow originates from the modest Bengal house a timber structure with a thatched roof and a veranda built on the ground the bungalow in Malaysia refers to a much more substantial detached house. The typical Malayan bungalow emerged as a karge, airy, detached, two-storey house constructed of timber or brick.

The Malayan Bungalow

The Malayan Bungalow

The Malayan Bungalow

The Malayan Bungalow

The Malayan Bungalow

The Malayan Bungalow

Villas + Mansions
Introduction
The late 19th and early 20thcentury private residences of the wealthy Chinese are among the most spectacular buildings in Malaysian cities. They are eye-catching for their sheer ostentation and for the ways in which they combined European classical forms and styles with traditional Chinese house plans and motifs.

Villas + Mansions

Villas + Mansions

Villas + Mansions

Villas + Mansions

Villas + Mansions

Villas + Mansions

End