Malay College Kuala Kangsar


The Malay College Kuala Kangsar (Malay College, MCKK, MC or Koleq, Kolek and sometimes dubbed "the Eton of the East") is a residential school in Malaysia. It is an all-boys and all-Malay school located in the royal town of Kuala Kangsar, Perak. In the Malay language, it is called Kolej Melayu Kuala Kangsar or formerly Maktab Melayu Kuala Kangsar.

Coat of Arms

The shield is quartered, coloured white (argent) in the first quarter, red (gules) in the second, black (sable) in the third and yellow (or) in the fourth.

The colors represent the four Houses into which the students are grouped; Idris (white), Sulaiman (red), Mohd Shah (yellow) and Ahmad (black). The Houses are named in honor of the four Sultans who founded the College.

In the middle of the shield is a red kris, a traditional Malay dagger. On top of the crest is a head of a tiger which is the symbol of the Federation of Malaya. Surrounding the left and right side of the shield are laurel wreaths symbolizing excellence. The school motto is Fiat Sapientia Virtus, which is Latin for Manliness Through Wisdom.

Buildings

The most recognizable feature of the school is the Big School (built in 1909), a building with pseudo Greco-Roman architecture fronted by a rugby field. The Prep School, built later in 1912, is smaller but with equally prominent features. In 1955, the West and East Wing, as well as the Administration Block and Clocktower were added. The Administrative Block was opened by High Commissioner for the Federation of Malaya Sir Donald MacGillivray in 1955. The West and the East Wing, together with the Overfloor make up what is now called the Big School. Two more hostel blocks, the Pavilion and New Hostel were built in 1963 and 1972 respectively; the latter houses second formers. Another prominent feature of the school is the Big Tree, a raintree (Samanea saman) in front of the East Wing that is said to be as old as the school itself.

Official Website

Overfloor and Big Tree, Malay College


PS : Taken from Wikipedia

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Labu Sayong



With simple tools and limited machine usage, minor flaws on the jars are to be expected. Indeed, they are the best indication of handmade authenticity.









Labu Sayong is a type of earthenware jug that certain Perak Malays used for the storage of drinking water.

Its burnt-black colour and unique gourd-shape give it the ability to cool its contents quickly and some believe that water stored in such a manner is palliative against many illnesses and disorders.

Labu Sayong is made from very fine clay soil, which is first pounded into extremely fine powder and then separated from coarser remains and wood (from the pounding). Water is then added and the mixture kneaded and shaped into its characteristic "double-bulb" shape, both of which are traditional skills.
The labu is then dried in the sun to ensure even pre-drying, and baked in a kiln to a sufficiently high temperature. When this is done, the labu is removed from the kiln and "roasted" in padi husk, until it turns into a rich black colour.

There is a labu cottage industry centred around Kampung Kelapa Bendang in Sayong, approximately 15 kilometres from Kuala Kangsar. Apart from this, the Malaysia Handicraft Development Corporation, Perak Branch, has opened a Handicraft Centre at Enggor nearby, which also offers a training course in the making of Labu Sayong, apart from selling these useful and attractive items.

Road side stall selling the famous 'labu' pottery jugs from Sayong.

On the former main highway, near Kuala Kangsar.

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Jambatan Victoria

The oldest railway bridge in Malaya is the Victoria Bridge in Karai, Perak. Built in 1897, it was the most advanced bridge in terms of its engineering in the Far East at that time. This bridge provides a communication link for the growth of the tin mining industry and the development of the mining towns in the Malayan Peninsula. With the opening of this bridge, the whole of the west coast from Perai to Johor Bahru was linked by rail.

Stamp : Historical Bridges of Malaysia

The bridge was officially opened in 1900 by the late Almarhum Sultan Idris Shah I of Perak and the British's Federated Malay States Residents-General Sir Frank Swettenham.
Victoria Bridge looks like a kind of "bridge over the river Kwai", but that's not true.There is another bridge in Malaysia, which looks like the bridge over the river Kwai: the Guillemard Bridge in Kelantan.

PS : Taken from http://braderdm.blogspot.com/2009/03/jambatan-victoria.html

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Istana Kenangan


Just a short walk from the mosque is another palace, one that truly represents traditional Malay architecture. Also known as Istana Lembah or Istana Tepas, this palace is home to the Royal Museum of Perak for the moment and is open to public everyday from 9.30am - 5.00pm. Fridays closed from 12.15pm - 2.45pm for prayers.
It was planned and built in 1926 after the great floods of 1926. Shaped like a sword, the entire palace was built without a blueprint and not a single nail was used. The walls are made of woven sliced bamboo, and patterned in diamond motifs called the 'kelarai'. The roof is in the shape of the 5 ridges of a traditional Malay house and the ridge of a row of bananas - known as 'perabung 5 and perabung pisang sesikat'. The palace was completed in 1931 and set up as a temporary residence for Sultan Iskandar Shah (1918 - 1938, the 30th Sultan of Perak) while the original royal palace or istana negara was being torn down for the new Istana Iskandariah.

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The Oldest Rubber Trees


Just outside the gates of the museum is a lonely tree. Not a big 'WOW' but a significant tree that changed the course of Malaysia's economy in the early 1900's. This is a rubber tree and one of two of the oldest rubber trees in Peninsula that have survived the years. Sir Hugh Low, the British Resident of Perak of that time, encouraged the growth of rubber trees as the car industry expanded rapidly in the west. Soon jungles were converted into plantations, and many areas that were once virgin forests were open for commercial use. Hugh Low planted a number of rubber trees in his garden in Kuala Kangsar. Another old rubber tree from those experimental days stands by the district office in town at the intersection of Jalan Raja Chulan and Jalan Tun Abdul Razak. However, the trees don't look too well, perhaps having been hemmed in by the expansion of roads and tarring of the ground around it.

It is one of nine seedlings brought over from Brazil by the English botanist H.N. Ridley (Henry Nicholas Ridley) in 1877, and is one of the two oldest rubber trees still standing in Malaysia.

This rubber tree helped usher in the rubber plantation era of Malaysia in the late 19th and early 20th Century, making Malaysia the world's largest producer of rubber at one time. This was made possible by the encouragement of Sir Hugh Low, the Resident of Perak, who planted several in his garden in Kuala Kangsar.

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