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35 Melaka |
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Malaysia
Wednesday 22 March 2006
Today we followed part of the walking tour in Lonely Planet which takes you around the historical centre of Melaka. They tell you the distance you will walk and give you an estimate of how much time it will take you to complete the tour. We have found in other places that the time estimates were woefully under stated, or perhaps we just linger too long at the stops along the way. As expected in seven and a half hours we have covered about two thirds of the tour which Lonely Planet says will take three hours to complete. The tour starts at the Stadhuys, an old Dutch colonial building at the heart of the historic city of Melaka. Built in the mid 1600’s it is believed to be the oldest Dutch building in the east. The rooms are high ceilinged and large with dark wooden floors and thick beams supporting the ceiling. The windows were closed with large louvered shutters and, apart from the signs that tell you otherwise, we could have been somewhere in Holland. Originally the town hall and Governors residence, the Stadhuys is now home to the History and Ethnography museum. What could have been a very dull place to visit instead caught our attention. The main entrance leads into a large wide corridor which displays the various governing powers of Melaka and the time period that they were in charge. A small archaeological dig shows evidence that the Dutch had included sewers in their building design, something that was previously only thought to have been introduced by the British. The first room you go through houses more archaeological finds, mainly pottery and ceramics. Dotted around were information panels but, at floor level and in small typeface, they were a little difficult to read, the only point I think they could improve upon. Some of the ceramics came from the nearby Bukit St Paul, others were found in villages about 15km away. The archaeologists believe that in times of warfare people buried their possessions to keep them safe while they had to flee their villages. The caches of goods they have found were either forgotten at a later date or they were the belongings of people who were unable to come back for them. An interesting collection of arms came next, ranging from pistols to rifles, bayonets, swords, bow and arrow and the inevitable kris. The samples covered both European and Asian styles and it is interesting to see the variety of styles for basically the same thing. A mock up of the Governor’s room came next with dark wooden furniture, ornate candelabra’s and a small collection of silver and pewter ware. It implies that the Dutch passion for pewter started as a result of the tin trade in Melaka, something we need to check.
The rest of the rooms we saw covered more traditional aspects of daily life including mock ups of traditional homes. For the most part this explained the various customs for weddings used by the different ethnic groups in Melaka. They were all pretty elaborate affairs but the most complex seemed to be that of the Malay people. Families who have daughters start their preparations early by investing in livestock when the girl is still young so that it will be ready for the wedding feast. The groom’s family start the hunt for a suitable wife and when they find a potential match they go about checking the girl’s reputation. If all is well a contract of marriage is entered into by the two families with the two people most closely affected, the bride and groom, still not having met each other. Half of the agreed dowry is paid at this point. If the groom subsequently pulls out his family forfeit the dowry but if the bride pulls out, her family has to pay back double the amount of the dowry. Later in the process the bride has the option to refuse the marriage but this is on the wedding day itself and no doubt the pressure then to go ahead is too high for her to refuse. The dowry is used to buy the furniture and basic essentials for the newly weds home. A date for the wedding is agreed upon, one that is mutually suitable and ensures all the relatives can be there. For the week running up to the wedding it’s all hands on deck to get things ready. The men of the village erect new bamboo huts where the wedding food can be prepared, served and eaten. The bride’s family house is ceremoniously cleaned and new curtains, furnishings and decorations are put up all ready for the big day. The day itself to me has similarities to the Indian wedding we went to a few years ago. It seems to be a complex process of rituals, ceremonies, games and teasing which result in the bride and groom finally meeting and starting to get to know each other. During the day the bride can change costumes between seven and fourteen times. Here in Melaka she will wear costumes from the different ethnic groups that make up the unusual cultural mix that is Melaka to symbolise the peaceful coexistence that they live in. Everyone seems to muck in and have fun, even when its time to clear up from the wedding which from the sounds of it usually ends up being a bit of a water fight. From the museum we crossed the small town square and went into Christ Church. Originally a Dutch Reformed church it was built with pink bricks brought from Zeeland in Holland. Few signs of this Dutch heritage remain, we only found one memorial panel in Dutch, as the church was then converted into an Anglican church by the British. It celebrated its 250th anniversary in 2003 and still seems to be going strong. It is a very simple church inside but it tells a sad tale or two. The memorial plaques inside are either remembering people in their 70’s or people, usually women, who had died in their 20’s. I would love to know the story of the chap whose nickname was Inky, he was one of the 70 year olds that are remembered there. Our route then took us across the river which is no longer a bustling fishing route. The only boats in sight were ones offering cruises for tourists, one of the many signs that historic Melaka is changing under the increasing pressure of tourism, changes that are not necessarily for the best. Walking along Heeren Street we saw a newly renovated building at number 8 that has only opened up to the public last year. Inside, Colin, a guide from Malaysian Heritage spent probably about an hour with us explaining about the house and telling us tales of old Melaka. The house has been restored with funding from the Cheng Hoon Teng Temple and Malaysia Heritage now manages and looks after the temple on their behalf. Pictures taken before renovation tell a sad tale of a building left to disintegrate and sadly, there are many others on this street that are also in a bad way. It took them four years to turn the property around, removing concrete that had been plastered on the walls, replastering it with a traditional lime based plaster and renovating the woodwork and tiles. The end result is worth a look but if Colin is there when you visit get him to sit down and chat to you. He was a mine of information. He told us that the building is of a typical Dutch design, built facing directly onto the street with no pavement between the house front and the road. Because the Dutch levied a property tax on the width of buildings they were all here, as in Holland, built with a narrow frontage but stretching back a long way off the street. Heeren Street used to be on the waterfront with the main docks just short walk away. Land reclamation, initially by the British but now by the Malay government, has now pushed the street a few hundred metres away from the water. Melaka is a hybrid mix of culture but over the years people from different ethnic groups have started to feel marginalised and have sought refuge in different areas of the city where they could live among their own people. In part this was also driven by British policies of land title, where they would only lease land and property to people. When the lease expired they forcibly moved people out to different areas. Not far from our hotel is Kampung Morten, a village of traditional Malay people. We can see it from the windows of our hotel and it still retains a very traditional look. The people who live here are mainly fishermen, a livelihood that is under threat from tourism. When the daily catch is in, the fishermen prepare the fish by their houses, discarding the heads and other unwanted parts into the river. The government though now wants to turn this waterfront into a tourist attraction so the fishermen are likely to get moved on to a different part of Melaka. It seems wrong that tourism could result in this change because any self respecting tourist would want to come and see the fishermen at work as they are. Colin said that this is just one of many examples of tourism affecting the daily lives of the local people. On Jonkers Street, a main street in Chinatown, a weekend market leads to the street being closed off to traffic. This is blamed for increasing pollution and raising rents which has forced many traditional craft based business out. They have recently discovered the original curved wall of Fort St John, which the British blew up many years ago. It is close to the sight where Malaysia’s independence was declared to the Malay people and Malaysian Heritage wants the site to be protected and commemorated. The site is really something quite unique being the start and end of colonial rule for Melaka. Unfortunately the site is in a prime location for property development and no decision has yet been made about what will happen. Melaka, jointly with Penang, are applying for UNESCO World Heritage Status. A UNECSO report a few years ago commented on the risk the historic area is under and the need to preserve and protect the old buildings, many of which are looking worse for wear (although a lot better than HoiAn in Vietnam which has UNESCO status). Hopefully the process of applying and gaining this status will give some leverage to the heritage team but I somehow feel that more of the history of Melaka will be lost before the historic value is realised and protected. The need for responsible tourism has probably never been greater here. We stopped for lunch at 1511, a Peranakan (local style) house which has a fabulously ornate interior. It is next door to, and associated with the Baba Nonya Heritage Museum. The museum is actually three connected houses that all belonged to the same family. It exudes wealth at every turn, wealth that was earned through rubber plantations. The houses are a mix of Dutch, Victorian British and Chinese designs and content. Heavy wooden furniture with patterns inlaid in mother of pearl reminded us of a house we had visited in HoiAn. The interior here was very ornate. The staircase was intricately carved, a process that took nine months to complete with the carvings throughout the house taking four years in total. A family of twelve lived here with their eight servants who seemed to occupy the house next door. Rooms had displays of the decoration that would be used if there was a death in the family or for a family birthday. There was a large kitchen and, unusually a separate bathroom complete with bath and stand up shower which I think were a later modification. At the front of the house upstairs cabinets held the wedding costumes used by the family. They are heavy garments made of silk with gold thread. Expensive they have been passed down through the generations. AS they cannot be washed the family take great care to protect the quality of the garments. The people wearing them have to wear an undershirt made of bamboo to stop the silk sticking to their skin.
Another room was set up as a dining room. The table was laid with English china which was only used when European visitors came to the house. It was one of four different sets of china the family had. A sideboard proudly displayed bottles of 140 year old brandy that had not been opened. It was tempting to swipe one on the way out but I suspect they would have noticed! While it was an interesting place to visit you are taken around by a guide who spoke very quickly in heavily accented English and didn’t really give you the time to look at what she was talking about and ask questions as you went. The tour then ambled around Chinatown, taking in Jonker Street but splitting it up with a side trip to a street lined with religion. Here Chinese temples, a Muslim mosque and a Hindu temple are all lined up on the same street. Continuing on this line across the river would bring you out at the Christ Church by the Stadhuys. The Cheng Hoon Teng Temple has recently been cleaned up and restored so you can now clearly see the decoration of the ceiling. Wooden figures have been carved into the rafters and painted in gold. They include figures you would not normally see in a Chinese temple, including Dutch and Portuguese merchants as well as other public figures. Colin told us that he thinks they were people who worked favourably with the Chinese community at the time the temple was built and so were honoured by being included in the design. Further along the street is the Kampung Kling Mosque, another example of the diverse and multicultural community that is Melaka. Its design has Hindu, Moor and Balinese influences and throughout it is decorate by tiles that you would more commonly see in Holland or Britain. By this stage we had both well and truly had our fill of sightseeing for the day. A cool drink at the Geographer’s Bar (very nice but very western) set us up for the stroll back to our hotel, further away from the centre than we had remembered but still only about a ten minute walk. With a pool beckoning we went for a rehydrating dip before heading out later for dinner to one of the places in Little India. Here we had a fabulous southern Indian meal, served up on a banana leaf, which again reminded us on Deepak and Nandita’s wedding that we had been to in India. A little chicken curry, spicy chicken tikka, dahl, pickles, aloo, peppers and rice with chapatti’s and poppadums washed down with tea and lime juice really hit the spot. |
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Copyright © 2001-2007 Stefan and Vanessa Aalten-Voogd |
