TRADITIONAL ARCHITECTURE OF THE IMMIGRANT COMMUNITIES
The visible face of modern Malaysia is a wonderfully complex tapestry. Strands from every part of both historic and modern-day life—language, dress, customs, religions, food, but more than anything else, the architectural heritage—lead one around the globe, revealing historic connections with other eras, other cultures and other lands. Malaysian architecture can be described as a synthesis of several immigrant architectures. Many of these stylistic or material influences have undergone various degrees of integration with not only the local traditional genres, but also other immigrant practices. The result is a truly Malaysian architecture.
The two major immigrant groups—the Chinese and the Indians—have, however, retained some elements of pure ethnic origin in their architecture, which provides an interesting comparison with the structures that have absorbed alien modifications.
Prominent among these are the temples built by the early settlers, often the first structures they built to both give themselves some link with their homeland, and also possibly to impress the local people. Most of the early community buildings of these immigrants—Indian and Chinese temples and kongsi (Chinese clan houses)—were built following traditional specifications and using imported materials. The Khoo Kongsi complex and the Sri Markendeshvarar Temple in Penang are strongly inffluences by Chinese and Indian architecture.
In their domestic architecture, the Chinese also retained many of their own traditions. Thus, Chinese houses are firmly rooted to the ground, and follow the concepts of feng shui (Chinese geomancy). In some houses, superficial, decorative styles from other cultures have been grafted onto an orthodox form. One of the rare major private buildings in this category is the 19th-century Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion in Penang, one of the few examples built outside China of such an outstanding quality. This house was built following traditional Chinese concepts, but incorporated several Western features, such as wrought iron staircases and stained glass windows.
The influence of Indian architecture on local temples is highly visible. The familiar outline of the Indian temple, both in its simpler village forms in the rubber estates, and in the more structured Hindu temples in the urban areas, seems to have remained unadulterated by long association with Malaysian influences.
With the ever increasing fusion of ethnic styles, it is particularly important that the origins of the various strands woven into the architecture of Malaysia are noted and appreciated, and that the few buildings that are the source of so much of our eclectic architecture are zealously guarded.
