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Regina William

The Penang Heritage Trust (PHT) is coming up with a new heritage trail which will focus on the early settlements of Muslims in George Town.

The trail, which is expected to be launched soon, will take tourists through 14 important landmarks in the Muslim living heritage enclave in the inner city established by early Muslim settlers on Penang island since the 18th century.

PHT president Dr Choong Sim Poey said PHT was finalising the printing of brochures and map for the trail which is funded by the Penang Tourism Action Council.

“We felt that although there are many other trails in the inner city of George Town, the aspect of Muslim history is very significant and needs to be documented and also included as part of our heritage trail,” he said.

“There were many Muslim communities who settled in Penang back then from all over the region and there is an interesting history to it.

“PHT feels this would not only be of interest to tourists but also to locals, who may not be aware of this important aspect of George Town’s rich and diverse history,” he added.

Currently, tourists can opt for such tours on an ad-hoc basis as there are no specific tours to trace the Muslim heritage in George Town, although most of the 14 sites under the new trail are part of two historic heritage trails offered by PHT.

The first stop on the new trail is the Kapitan Keling Mosque on Jalan Kapitan Keling which was founded in 1801 by an Indian-Muslim merchant, Cauder Mydin Merican.

The white-washed structure adorned with yellow Moghul-styled domes and turrets, fenced in by a low wall, is the first mosque to be built in Penang. It is also part of PHT’s Street of Harmony trail which showcases some of the country’s oldest religious buildings, namely the mosque, St George’s Church, Mariamman temple and Goddess of Mercy temple.

theSun tagged along on a tour of these sites with two visitors from New Zealand on a sweltering afternoon and learnt a thing or two about the living heritage right at our doorstep.

Despite having visited Penang numerous times before, David Broome, 38, a business development manager and his sister-in-law Dr Karmel Isa, a dentist, were still as intrigued by the architecture and history of the inner city as they were when they first visited Penang years ago.

Adorning the jubah at the Kapitan Keling Mosque, Broome and Isa listened attentively to heritage walking tour guide Joann Khaw who had previously taken both Broome and Isa on other trails in the inner city.

Broome, who confessed to be a fan of colonial architecture, said Penang was unique as it has a living heritage no other tourism destination in the region, including Indonesia and Thailand, could rival.

“I have been all over Southeast Asia and Penang has, by far, the best offerings where heritage architecture is concerned.

“I come from New Zealand which is also a product of the British empire but has lost most of its colonial architecture.

“Tourists don’t come to Penang to sit by the beach. This (pointing to the mosque) is what we come here for, to learn about the rich and diverse history and by doing this walking tour, we get to hear bits and pieces and sidebars of history which I would never learn by sitting in a tour bus and being driven past these amazing buildings. This is a living heritage,” Broome said.

He stressed the importance of conserving the heritage at all costs, failing which Penang may lose her edge in drawing tourists.

Karmel, who had also been on a walking tour with Khaw a few years back, but lost her contact number, managed to trace her to arrange the walking tour during this visit.

“She took me on a tour of the blue house (Cheong Fatt Tze mansion) and other interesting sites the last time and I enjoyed myself so much with her narration that I wanted to learn more about the historical sites in the city,” she added.

Khaw, who is also instrumental in coming up with the content for the Muslim heritage trail for PHT, said most tourists did not mind spending hours and paying for the tours of these historical buildings.

Other places of interest on the Muslim heritage trail is the tomb of Cauder Mydin in Kampung Kolam who led a community of Tamil Muslim traders from the Kedah coast to settle in Penang and was appointed by Francis Light as Kapitan Kling, the head of the Indian community.

Another historical monument is the Noordin Family Tomb at Chulia Street, built in the 1800s by Mohamed Merican Noordin who succeeded to the position of Kapitan Kling.

The Noordins ran a fleet of ships that called at the ports along the Straits of Malacca, Myanmar, China, India, the Middle East and Europe.

Another must-visit site is the majestic blue-and-white Nagore Shrine founded by Tamil Muslim traders and built in the early 1800s as a memorial to Syed Shahul Hamid, a 13th century Muslim saint.

The tour drops in on songkok- maker Haj Mohidin, who specialises in making the headgear for Muslim men on King Street, and the Al Madrasah, popularly known as Madrasah Hamid Arabi, on Ah Quee Street which was founded in 1900 by Shaikh Abdul Hamid Al Khahirah, an Indian-Muslim diamond merchant.

Other stops include the Gudang Aceh, or Acehnese warehouse on Beach Street, which is reputed to be the first four-storey building in the city. It was built by Tengku Syed Hussain Al-Aidid, a wealthy Arab merchant prince from the Acehnese royal family.

The godown became a landmark along the waterfront and used to be called “The Tall House” by the Malays while the Chinese referred to it as “Small Tower Junction”.

The tour also includes a stroll along Acheen Street, which was known as the “Second Jeddah” as in the 18th century, pilgrims to Mecca from all over the country, Sumatra and Thailand gathered in Penang to await their ships to Jeddah.

Next, we called on a tombstone engraver on what used to be “Chisel Stone Street” where Chinese stone engravers carved pestles and mortars for Chinese and Muslim tombstones.

Masjid Aceh, founded in 1808 by Syed Hussain, is still surrounded by surviving buildings from the 19th century Arab kampung and the houses here are fine examples of the first Malay urban dwellings.

Syed Hussain, who died in 1826, was buried beside the mosque as was customary for mosque founders.

Then came Nos. 65, 67 and 69 Acheen Street. No. 65 was the home of Syed Mohamed Aqil Alatas and was later used by Persama Press, one of the earlier publishers of Malay language and religious books. No. 67 was the home of Achenese trader Omar Meulaboh, which later became the Madrasah Al-Mashoor, a famous religious school while No. 69 was the home of Sheikh Omar Basheer from Hadramaut, a Sufi mystic and imam of the Acheen Street mosque.

The trail also includes Nos. 70 to 74 Acheen Street, the first premises of the Madrasatul Al-Quran in 1916 and was part of the compound of Kampung Tuan Guru, where a famous and influential 19th century religious teacher Abdul Ghani from Madura used to live.

Nos. 2 to 4 Lorong Lumut once served as the trading offices of Sheikh Zachariah Basheer & Sons, a ticketing agency and resthouse for pilgrims heading to Mecca. No. 2 was the residence of Ahmad Rashid Talu, author of the best Malay novel before WWII Lakah Salma published in 1928, and was the first Malay novel featuring a local setting and local characters.

No. 14 on the trail is the Syed Alatas Mansion, which is now the Islamic Museum located at 120 Armenian Street.

It was restored in 1993 by world-famous French conservation architect Didier Repellin with financial assistance from the federal and state governments.

The PHT offers brochures for self-guided tours of the Traditional Trades and Food Trails of Georgetown, Inner City Trails of George Town and the Historic George Town Trails.

It also offers customised tours to meet the different requests of tourists besides traditional guided tours of Little India and Pinang Peranakan Mansion; Heritage Trail and Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion; and Streets of Harmony and Historical Enclave.

PHT also offers customised tours for students on the different trails.

For more details, call 04-2642631 or fax 04-2628421 or e-mail to phtrustATstreamyx.com

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Posted by admin on March 30, 2011 under Penang Story.