KL KrashPad - Chow Kit Kita (Part 4)

When we come to Jalan Tiong Nam 5, we face Jalan Thamboosamy.

This road connects Tiong Nam Settlement to Jalan Putra which is more an extension of Jalan Chow Kit after Jalan Raja Laut.
No need to guess, Jalan Putra is named after our First Prime Minister.

A street/road named after an Indian (Tamil) in this predominantly Chinese area?  Who was he?

 photo from 'The Victoria Institution - The 
Reminiscence of Mr R Thampipillay'

     K. Thamboosamy Pillay was a prominent Malaysian during the pre-independence years and was considered the leader of the Tamil community.

     Born in Singapore in 1850, he received his early education at Raffles Institution. He sailed to Klang in 1875 with James Guthrie Davidson, when the latter was appointed Malaya's first British Resident.

     He was later transferred to the Treasury where he eventually became chief clerk and acted as State Treasurer on a few occasions. He was sent to India by the Malayan Government to bring over the first batch of Indian immigrants for the Railway and Public Works. 

     Thamboosamy resigned from Government service in the 1880s and, going into partnership with Towkay Loke Yew, managed the New Tin Mining Company in Rawang. 

     He was one of the founders and one of the original Trustees of Victoria Institution as well as the founder of the Sri Mahamariamman Temple, Kuala Lumpur.

(source: Wikipedia)

 We then come to this temple along Jalan Tiong Nam 5.  (This is the temple where I first witnessed Chinese Opera during the Hungry Ghost Festival many, many years ago.  The temple was just a wooden structure and not so grand in those days.)

It was some sort of festival day at the temple and there was a lot of activity going on.  There was also a steady stream of worshipers coming in to pray. 

One of the Elder Volunteers at the temple had earlier agreed to meet with the children to brief them about the temple and answer any questions that they may have.  See how keen the children are in learning about other cultures.

Something I never knew, a news paper clipping at the temple.

A Spider Did It

On a cobweb - Merdeka

     Crowds are flocking to a Chinese Temple in Tiong Nam Settlement Kuala Lumpur to see the word "merdeka" spun by a spider on the web in a palm tree.

     It was first discovered by elderly Chinese devotee who gasped with excitement as he say the spider complete the word.

     This was shortly after morning prayers on Sunday.

     Since the discovery, hundreds of people in Kuala Lumpur have rushed to the temple to catch a glimpse of the spider at work.

     Threads of many other unreadable letters also hang on the cobweb.

     To protect the palm tree from being trampled by the crowds, the temple authorities have erected a wire fence around it.

(No source or date of the clipping is available.) 

Posing for a group photo before leaving the temple.

KL KrashPad - Chow Kit Kita (Part 3)

From Jalan Sri Amar, we move along to Jalan Raja Laut.

The children at the overhead bridge, waiting to cross the road.  They are in for lesson number 2.

Question: Who was Raja Laut?
     YTM Raja Laut ibni al-Marhum Sultan Muhammad Shah, born in Kuala Selangor in 1850.  Penghulu and Magistrate Kuala Lumpur, member of the Kuala Lumpur Sanitary Board, Chairman of the Kampung Bahru Agricultural Settlement.
     Appointed Raja Muda in 1899 but superseded in 1903.  However, allowed to keep the title until his death in 1913. (Source: royalark.net)
     When Sultan Muhammad died in 1857 without appointing an heir, Raja Laut, while being competent, was not able to succeed his father as he was the son of a concubine (Raja Asiah). (Source: http://yapahloy.

tripod.com/the_death_of_sultan_muhammad.htm)

Prominent residents of Kuala Lumpur, 1884

(from: MALAYSIA a pictorial history 1400-2004 by Wendy Khadijah Moore)

Raja Laut (cropped and enlarged)

The Chow Kit area is also home to vagrants and homeless people.

A number of NGOs do operate food kitchens and other social services in the area.  I think that this is becoming a vicious cycle - more people - more help, more help -  more people....... but  to paraphrase the words of the late Mother Theresa, 'do it anyway.'

Passing the Thakardas building.  The National Library used to be located here before moving to its own premises at Jalan Tun Razak.

I never noticed it before, but there is a Gurdwara (Sikh prayer house) located in this building.

We now arrive at Tiong Nam Settlement.

     In all my years of growing up here, I never once wondered about the origins of the name.  I just assumed that it was the name of the developer or something.  It is one of the earliest Chinese housing settlements in KL but it is now considered a slum according to this article.

     According to the same article also the Chinese community refer to this as Tiong Nam Ku meaning the Middle South Area.

     According to an interview with Mr. Ong Yoong Nyock, founder of Tiong Nam Logistics Holdings Bhd (I don't think there is a link between the company and the settlement, I was just looking for the meaning or origins of Tiong Nam) published in www.frost.com, he said that the name carries the meaning of East (Tiong) and South (Nam) in Hokkien.

     Middle South or East South, either way it baffles me as the area would have been North or North West of KL Town Centre not the South East.

I only remember one Chinese Temple at Jalan Tiong Nam 5.  Over the years, a number of residential houses have been converted into Temples.

Posing for group photos in-front of the Temples.  For most of the children, this was their first time visiting Chinese temples.  Unfortunately, however, these were closed.