About Kapitan Keling Mosque

The Kapitan Keling Mosque, the oldest mosque in George Town, was established with a large site endowed by the East India Company in 1801. The original brick mosque was built by Kader Mydin Merican, the Kapitan Keling Headmen of the South Indian Community. The present mosque complex, with its towering minaret and elegant domes, is the result of several rounds of expansion in the early 20th century.

Our Chosen Topic: Kapitan Keling Mosque

In the end we decided to choose the Kapitan Keling Mosque as our icon. This is because as I had mentioned earlier that we always lost our way for a few times in George Town and somehow we arrived at the Kapitan Keling Mosque. There is also that one time we found other groups at the Kapitan Keling Mosque while were lost. So to me it’s kind of iconic and irony at the same time to end up there for a few times.

Kapitan Keling Mosque

Trip Around George Town

On the first of March 2016, we went to Georgetown to conduct our research. We arrived there in the morning. At first we walked with other groups but, it is hard to conduct our research by walking with them so we split up. We walked around George Town searching for our potential icon that is the gallery and mosque. While I was taking the photograph, my partner was busy looking at the map to find our way around George Town.

Although most of the time we were lost, eventually we end up finding our icon. We found a few Galleries and Mosques in our way. Among the galleries are Penang Hajj Gallery, Armenian Gallery, Khat Pulau Pinang Gallery, and Seni Mutiara Gallery.  Meanwhile the mosques that we came across are the Jamek Benggali Mosque, Acheen Street Malay Mosque, Pintal Tali Mosque, and Kapitan Keling Mosque.

Gallery

Penang Hajj Gallery, Armenian Gallery, Khat Pulau Pinang Gallery, and Seni Mutiara Gallery

Mosque

Jamek Benggali Mosque

Acheen Street Malay Mosque

Pintal Tali Mosque

Objective Of This Blog

The main reason for the creation of this blog is to share my experience exploring George Town and working in pairs with my partner Shafiq. We were required to choose a topic as an icon to make a fridge magnet and conduct a background research about the history of the topic that we have chosen.

Before we went to George Town, we had a short discussion in the Hamzah Sendut Library of Universiti Sains Malaysia. Our discussion was about the topic that we are going to concentrate when we arrive there. Since both of us have never been there, we faced some problems in deciding on the final topic. Initially, I suggested doing a research about food but my partner said that we could face difficulty to do a research about that topic because of the time frame and lack of knowledge about George Town. While discussing in the library, we came across a George Town tourist map on the internet. The map stated a few types of buildings that are located all around George Town. Two types of buildings stated in the map attract our attention which include the Gallery and Mosque.

Cultural Mapping

George Town, Penang, Malaysia

Malaysia is a developing country that has a privilege to four UNESCO World Heritage Sites. One of the sites is George Town which is located in the north-east corner of Penang Island. The George Town area was once known as Tanjung (Cape) in Malay by the Malay community living there as it was situated on a cape area. The name is derived from the older name of the town, Tanjung Penaga (Cape Penaigre). But in the end, it was named after King George III as George Town after a settlement was established and founded by Francis Light who was a British Captain in 1786.