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Malaysia's Malacca thrives with history
On the tranquil grounds of the Cheng Hoon Teng
Temple, Malaysia's oldest Taoist house of worship, late afternoon visitors
bowed and offered burning wands of incense to a gilded statue of the Goddess of
Mercy, the deity for whom the temple was founded in the 1600s. Tourists quietly
watched or focused cameras on the structure's ornate, figurine-covered roof.
The placidity was interrupted by the muezzin's
call from the nearby Kampung Kling Mosque, an amalgam of Corinthian columns,
Portuguese tiles and Hindu carvings, built by Indian Muslims in 1748. And down
the street at the 230-year-old Sri Poyyatha Vinayagar Moorthi Temple, the
country's oldest Hindu temple, bare-chested and barefoot men in pastel-hued
sarongs and garlands made of yellow blooms gathered to pray.
It was another seemingly sleepy afternoon in
Malacca, Malaysia's oldest city, just two hours south of Kuala Lumpur and about
four hours northwest of Singapore. But underneath that sleepiness, its
foundation of vibrant multiculturalism, which dates back centuries, is very
much alive and increasingly accessible, as it welcomes a handful of hotels and
millions of international visitors a year.
"I just love Malacca — its laid-back,
slow pace of life and the history in the buildings, the people, the
culture," said a local resident, Colin Goh, 66, at Cheng Hoon, surrounded
by a pair of red-and-gold sedan chairs and black-and-white photos that chronicled
decades of the temple's religious festivals. "Everything you touch that is
not new is old."
With his mix of Portuguese, Dutch, Chinese and
"God only knows what else" heritage, Goh, a retired civil servant who
now manages 8 Heeren Street, a restored 18th-century Dutch shophouse, embodies
the city's colonial past. Founded around 1400 by a Malay-Hindu prince, Malacca,
within a century, became Southeast Asia's most important trading port, luring
an international cast of colonialists and merchants seeking a piece of the
region's lucrative spice trade.
The hub of Malacca's civic colonial sites is
Dutch Square — also called Red Square because of the color of its buildings —
where tourists pose in front of the century-old Queen Victoria Fountain and
trishaws festooned with plastic flowers gather. Nearby are the ruins of the
A'Famosa fort, one of Asia's oldest European-built structures, erected by the
Portuguese 500 years ago, and the imposing Stadthuys, or town hall, built by
the Dutch in 1650 and later painted salmon red by the British, Malacca's last
foreign rulers, whose reign lasted until 1957.
On the west side of the Malacca River, which
flanks the square, along the old center's narrow, atmospheric streets, are
hundreds of lantern-hung shophouses, some distinctly Chinese in style, others
bearing geometric Art Deco trademarks, and grand residences with ornately tiled
stoops built by wealthy families of the past. For centuries, these streets
served as the town's commercial and residential center.
Malacca's eclectic charm, with some help from
a UNESCO World Heritage designation in 2008 and its reputation as one of
Malaysia's most exciting culinary destinations, has resulted in a steady growth
in tourism. Last year 12 million visitors came, an increase of over 17 percent
from 2010, according to a state tourism committee.
While some heritage buildings are still
occupied by generations-old family businesses — silversmiths, watchmakers, dim
sum purveyors — others have newer identities. At Temple Street, a shop run by a
local artist, watercolors and hand-painted tiles depict idyllic street scenes.
In another building, Nancy's Kitchen, a no-frills restaurant known for its
local Nyonya cuisine, sells addictive delicacies like buttery pineapple tarts
and onde-onde, glutinous rice balls filled with Malacca's famous palm sugar,
known as gula Melaka, and covered in fresh coconut.
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