(Click
here for map)
 6. Benggali
Mosque
(Lebuh Leith)
The Indians from Bengal first came to Penang in the late 18th century as
'sepoys' and convicts with the East India Company. Francis Light also brought
out some 'Bengal farmers'from Calcutta to encourage agricultural enterprise
on the island. While the early Bengalis hailed from Bengal, the term 'Benggali'
soon came to apply to other northern Indians who travelled overland to Calcutta
in West Bengal and then sailed to Penang.
The mosque is believed
to have been founded in 1803, on a site granted by the East India Company
during George Leith's term as Lieutenant-Governor of Penang. Urdu was probably
the principal language used in this mosque, although in certain periods the
dwindling Urdu-speaking population was overshadowed by an increase in Tamil
worshippers. Today, the Masjid Benggaii has become a base for the Tablighi
movement, and the main languages used here are Malay and Tamil.
Turn back along Lebuh Leith,
and walk post the junction of Lebuh Leith and Lebuh Muntri. You will pass
several lovely mansions and bungalows, including the Cathay Hotel on your
right, a heritage hotel offering mid-budget accommodation. Leith Street has
been dubbed the Hokka Millionaire's Row, because several prominent Hokkas
had their homes here. You will come to a palatial Chinese residence on your
left commonly known as 'The Blue Mansion'.
 7. Cheong Fatt Tze
Mansion
(Lebuh Leith)
Cheong Fatt Tze was the Hakka name of the powerful Nanyang industrialist
who was also known as Chang Pi Shih (in the Mandarin language) alias Thio
Tiauw Siat (Fujian dialect). He became a Mandarin of the Highest Order in
the government of China. Regarded as one of the most prominent historic
personalities of the East, Cheong was the Qing Government's Consul-General
in Singapore, a director of China's first modern bank and first railway,
and Special Trade Commissioner for Southeast Asia. His importance was
acknowledged by flags flown at half-mast by Dutch and British Governments
when he died. The China-born Hakka came as a penniless immigrant to the island
of Java.
Prospering from Dutch contracts
in Sumatra, he ran steamships plying between Medan in North Sumatra and Penang.
He moved his base to Penang in the early 1890s, where he served as the Qing
government's Vice-Consul (the highest post in Penang), representing the Chinese
of Malaya and the Dutch Indies, before being promoted to Consul-General in
Singapore. In Penang, he built his family home and donated generously to
Chung Hwa Confucian School, the Kek Lok Si Temple, and many other causes.
He continued to expand
his empire of trading, shipping, opium, agriculture and mining in Southeast
Asia. In China, he was director of China's railway works and its first modern
banking institution and at one point even became economic advisor to the
Empress Dowager. Just before his death in 1916, he undertook a mission to
America on behalf of Yuan Shi-Kai's Republican government, for which the
New York Times dubbed him 'China's Rockefeller'. The new owners of the Cheong
Fatt Tze Mansion have carried out a Grade I restoration over the last few
years, and the monument is now ready for viewing.
Tours of the Cheong Fatt
Tze Mansion are offered at I I am on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
Across the road are five blue shophouses which were formerly the servants'
quarters attached to the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion. They have undergone renovation
and adaptive reuse to become food and beverage outlets.
Next to this, at the junction
of Lebuh Leith and Lebub Farquhar is Leong Fee's Mansion.
 Leong Fee's Mansion (Lebuh
Leith)
Leong Fee (I 857-1911) is the Hakka name of the tycoon also known as Liang
P'i joo (in the Mandarin language). A friend of Cheong Fatt Tze, he was the
Qing Government's fourth Vice-Consul in Penang from 1902 to 1908 and a member
of the Perak State Council till his death in 191 1. He was a wealthy miner
and an educational philanthropist The tin wines he owned in Tambun, Perak,
employed European engineers in the 19t century and were among the first to
introduce open cast mining with modern machinery. This mansion at 7 Lebuh
Leith was built around the turn of the century. Although it was described
as 'built in the latest European style', the mansion is a westernised form
of a courtyard house with a pair of enclosed courtyards on either side of
a central aisle. It is decorated with Victorian elements such as cast iron
balconies, and is distinguished by its imported slate roof. After the war,
Leong Fee's Mansion served as the St Xavier's Institution for a number of
years. The mansion now belongs to the Christian Brothers and has been leased
to an art school in recent years.
From Lebuh Leith, turn
onto Lebuh Farquhar and proceed west until you come to the junction ofjalan
Penang. On your left next to the petrol station, is a gray bungalow with
an old garden setting.
 8. Residence of Ku Din Ku
Meh
(20 Jalan Penang)
Ku Din Ku Meh was born in Anak Bukit, Kedah around 1848. He started his career
at 14 as Head of Kedah Prisons. Ku Din was a literary man, fluent in Malay
and Thai. He was known to have transcribed a book of laws in 1894. His diary
and some jawi records pertaining to his administration in Setul (Satun) are
now kept in the Thai National Archives in Bangkok. In 1897, Sultan Abdul
Hamid Halim Shah of Kedah appointed him the High Commissioner of Setul. At
the time, Setul, Kayang and Phuket were provinces of Kedah under the domination
of Siam. Setul later became a part of southern Thailand under the Treaty
of Bangkok in 1909.
Ku Din was highly regarded
as an administrator, judging by the various advances which he introduced
to Setul in the areas of administration, agriculture, trade and commerce,
and education. In 1902, Ku Din assumed the title 'Raja of Setul' and used
the name Tengku Baharuddin bin Tunku Meh. During his time, the local ports
of Setul traded actively with Rangoon and Penang.
Ku Din himself owned several
shipping vessels exporting goods such as birds' nests, timber and coconuts
from south Thailand to Penang. Ku Din married a woman from Penang, and had
his trading office in this town house on jalan Penang. The Siamese government
retained Ku Din Ku Meh in his position until he retired in 1916. He passed
away in 1932 and was entombed in Setul.
Return to the junction
oflaton Penang and Lebuh Farquhar and take a left turn. Walk around the petrot
station until you reach an open gate of the Christian Cemetery.
 9. Christian
Cemetery
(Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah)
The Christian Cemetery along jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah (formerly Northam Road)
deserves to be explored at leisure. Shaded by frangipani trees, it is the
final resting place of Penang's European pioneers such as Francis Light,
several early governors, Stamford Raffles' brother-in-law Quintin Dick Thomas,
James Scott, David grown of Glugor Estate, Reverend Hutchings, the Reverend
Thomas Beighton of the London Missionary Society, George Earl, author of
Eastern Seas, and James Richardson Logan, editor of the journal of the Indian
Archipelago and Eastern Asia (also called Logan's joumals). Many of them
died of some mysterious tropical fever, probably malaria, brought about by
the widespread clearing of forests.
Another personality buried
here is a young officer named Thomas Leonowens whose widow Anna Leonowens
became a schoolmistress in Siam in the I9th century. Her romanticised account
of her life in the East inspired the play and film 'The King and I' and more
recently 'Anna and the King' which was partially filmed in Penang. Over 30
Chinese graves dating from the 1860s to the 1880s may have belonged to Christian
Hakkas who came to Penang after the Taiping Rebellion in China. In 1994 the
Penang Heritage Trust, as part of an effort to spruce up the Christian Cemetery,
whitewashed and re-inked the tombs. Today, a signboard near the entrance
shows the location of the tombs of Light and other notables.
Taking a little detour,
you can come out of the Christian Cemetery through the western front gate
onto Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah. Here you will get a glimpse of two fine examples
of Penang's early suburban villas. The first is the peach-coloured villa
of Leong Yin Kean, the son of Leong Fee. The ltalianate villa by the sea,
with decorative mosaic panels, was designed by Charles Miller of the
architectural firm of Stark & McNeill in 1926. Leong Yin Kean seems to
have inherited his aesthetic sense from his father Leong Fee, whose mansion
is found on Lebuh Leith. The second is the Shih Chung School, a unique
Anglo-Chinese mansion. This was Cheah Tek Soon's residence, built in the
1880s, and at various times used as the Chinese Residency, a hotel and a
school. In its original five-storey form, it had a striking multi-tier pagoda
shape.
Getting back into the Christian
Cemetery, you can enter a small doorway in the southern wall of the cemetery.
This takes you post the small Roman Catholic cemetery on the other side of
the wall where the early Sisters of the Holy Infant Jesus were buried.
 10. Saint Francis Xavier
Church
(Jalan Penang)
Bishop Boucho, who was responsible tor encouraging the founding of education
missions in Penang, also started an Indian parish in 1857. The Tamil-speaking
Catholics used the cemetery chapel for the first I0 years. The Saint Francis
Xavier Church was then built in 1867 on land donated by the Godfrey family
to the Church of the Assumption.
The church is named after
Saint Francis Xavier, the famous 'Apostle of the Indies' who brought Christianity
to the non-European peoples of Portuguese Malacca in the 16th century. Walk
back through the church grounds to Jalan Penang. You might see a fleet of
trishaws parked outside the Catholic Information Service. Since this is the
lost stop of this trail, you have some options for your next steps, depending
on the time of day.
NEXT STEPS
OPTION I
Head back to Lebuh Leith, where you can enjoy a drink lunch or dinner
at 20 Leith Street or Jaipur Court, one of the restaurants occupying the
premises opposite the Cheong Fou Tze Mansion.
OPTION 2
Head back east along Lebuh Chutic, where you will find a number of travel
agencies, antique, curio and rattan craft shops, framing shops, cheap cof6s
and hotels that are usually listed in the backpackers' guides. just before
you get to Jalon Masjid Kapitan Kling, take a left turn to Lorong Chulia.
Have lunch or dinner at a traditional Hainanese café' called Sin Kheng
Aun. This place is well patronised by locals, a sure sign that its food is
as good as its ambience. lfyou decide to sit upstairs, food will be taken
up to you by a 'dumb waiter'. Lebuh Chulia is on the main route for buses
that take you to Kamtar and from there to other parts of the island.
OPTION 3
Take a trishaw down to Jalan Penang, and turn into the Campbell Street Mail,
a semi-pedestrionised shopping street with a wide range ofshops selling textiles,
Chinese herbs and teas, and a choice of Indion Muslim or Chinese restaurants.
Or proceed to the Chowrasta Market further down jolon Penang, where you can
find local products like nutmeg, durian cake and shrimp paste sold at reasonable
prices.
For more information, contact:
Penang Heritage Trust, 26A Stewart Lane, 10200 Penang. • Tel:
604-264 2631
E-mail: phtrust@po.jaring.my • Website: www.pht.org.my
The Penang Heritage Trust
(PHT) is a registered, non-profit, non-govermental organisation promoting
the conservation and preservation of the cultural, historical and architectural
heritage of Penang. The trust organises site visits, heritage trails, talks
and educational programmes on Penang's heritage. |
