On the tour in Kuala Lampur

Celebrating Independence

If you are a KLite, you are a resident of the most populous city in Malaysia, and you’re probably one of three major ethnic groups: the Malays, the Chinese and the Indians. However, the city also has a mix of Eurasians, Kadazans, Ibans, and other indigenous Malaysian races. To me this makes the city even more interesting. There are all sorts of cultural areas, foods, events and shopping to sample without ever leaving the city. But to sample some of the things we hadn’t seen in the city, we hired a guide and took off on a short adventure!











When Frank Swettenham arrived at the Klang River in 1872, he found a village inhabited by Chinese even though there was already a Malay

Frank Swettenham

stockade at Bukit Nanas. After the war years the British recruited Malays to work as a police force, moving them and their families from rural areas to KL. And with the coming of the railroad more immigrants arrived. By 1891 the majority of the nearly 50,000 population was still Chinese, followed by Malays, and a small numbers of people from India. As the years have gone by the population has continued to increase, partly because that’s what healthy populations do, and partly because of the increase of foreign residents moving into the city. Lately KL has the same issues with illegal immigration that most other countries are having. Rapid economic development has generated a flood of unskilled workers from Bangladesh, Burma, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. And of course, with immigration comes different customs, languages, and religions; this makes the area interesting, as well.




Kuala Lumpur has many places of worship catering to the multi-religious

Top L to R: At the caves, Murugan, Deity, Deity group
Bottom L to R: Deity groups, Monkey, Peacocks

population. Mosques, temples and churches can be found in most of the neighborhoods. Islam (46.4%) is practiced mostly by the Malays and the Indian Muslim communities. Buddhism (35.7%), Confucianism and Taoism (1.1%) are practiced mainly among the Chinese. Indians traditionally adhere to Hinduism (8.5%). Some Chinese and Indians also subscribe to Christianity (5.8%). There are about 2% of the population that follow other religions, while 0.5% are non-religious. Of the places of worship I visited, the least decorated were the mosques, which surprised me. Some of the most decorated were the temples at the Batu Caves. These caves are actually in a limestone hill with a 42.7 meter tall statue of Murugan dominating the entrance. When we visited the folks were getting ready to celebrate Malaysian independence so everything was getting a fresh coat of paint. There are 272 steps up into the caves – and I counted each one of them. Climbing wasn’t too difficult, but walking down them was a bit of a tester; I had spaghetti knees by the time I was back on terra firma. Decorating the sides of the hill as you climb the stairs are vignettes of the gods lives; this continues on inside until the main room where there are all sorts of places to worship. I was also surprised to see long-tailed macaques inside; of course they were begging hand-outs from the visitors. I’m assuming that they get fed very well by the end of any festival; be aware that if you don’t have food they won’t bother you, but if you do they expect a handout. There are also a large number of peacock statues decorating the cave. In Hinduism, this bird is associated with Saraswati, a deity representing benevolence, patience, kindness, compassion, and knowledge. Although this is a large site, our tour guide told us that more than a million people would come through the cave on Malay Independence Day.

One of the reason folks came to the KL area was for the tin mining. This is one of the oldest industries in Malaya, beginning in about 1820 when the Chinese immigrants settled in Perak and started tin mines. The

L to R: Pewter designing, Worker and Owner, Teapot

industry grew and became a pillar of the Malay economy, accounting for 31% of the world’s output. And of course you need tin to make pewter, which is an alloy. Yong Koon from Shantou, China was a pewtersmith who started a small business to make household goods out of tin, but quickly found an outlet for goods made out of pewter, instead. This pewter shop grew and became the Royal Selangor Pewter which is still active today. We actually got to see his great granddaughter; she comes to work every day and makes sure that everything is running well. We also saw the largest pewter stein in the world – filled with beer – and the pewter processing floor. I was surprised that most of the detail workers were women. The things they produce are absolutely gorgeous. Fortunately, they allowed us to make purchases on site.

Another piece of art that is woven into everyday use is batik cloth. As

Batik painter

usual we were on the look-out for fabric to use in our own designs for quilts. Batik is a technique of wax-resist dyeing applied to whole cloth either by drawing dots and lines of the resist with a spouted tool called a canting, or by printing the resist with a copper stamp called a cap. The wax resists dyes and lets the artisan selectively tint by soaking the cloth in one color, removing the wax with boiling water, and then repeating if multiple shades are desired. In October 2009, Indonesian batik was designated by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. However, Malay batik has a legend that Laksamana Hang Nadim was ordered by Malacca King, Sultan Mahmud, to sail to India to buy 140 pieces of batik cloth with 40 types of flowers depicted on each. He couldn’t find any fabric that met the requirements explained to him, he made up his own. However, on his way back his ship sank and he only managed to bring four pieces, earning displeasure from the Sultan. Malaysian batik is different from Indonesian Javanese batik; the pattern is larger and simpler with only occasional use of the canting to create intricate patterns. Brush painting is used to apply colors to fabrics; these colors are lighter and more vibrant than Javanese batik. Malaysian batik often uses plants and flowers to avoid the interpretation of human and animal images as idolatry, in accordance with local Islamic doctrine; however, the butterfly theme is a common exception.

Although I had a great visit in KL, there are still many things left for me to see and do. For information about my rating system, see Reading the Reviews.

Where we ate:

Four Carrots

Grandmama’s (168, Bukit Bintang Street, Bukit Bintang, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, +60 3-2143 9333)

Top L to R: Menu, Beef and rice, Noodles
Bottom L to R: Char Kway Teow, Bananas,
Stew

is a casual restaurant that is great for a quick meal; in fact, we ate there several times. The food is rather mainline, but it is also what the locals tend to eat. The maître d' liked us so well that he gave us the ‘national tea’ of KL as a treat each time we came in. They had the usual chicken and beef satay, along with other noodle and rice dishes. One of my favorites was Char Kway Teow, which has lots of seafood in a tasty rice base. We also had fried bananas with ice cream for dessert.




Songket Restaurant (29, Jalan Yap Kwan Seng, Kampung Baru, 50450

Top L to R: Menu, Green rice
Bottom L to R: Shrimp, Ribs

Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, +60 3-2161 3331) is a rather up-scale local restaurant. We were told that it had authentic food and that the service was good. Our informant was right on both counts. We had shrimp curry, green rice, and grilled ribs; they were all excellently prepared and served. I was surprised at the number of non-alcoholic drinks this particular place had available.








Tosca in the DTH (348 Jalan Tun Razak, Kuala Lumpur, 50400, Malaysia, +60-3-21727272) was a surprisingly good Italian restaurant. I

Top L to R: Menu, Bruschetta
Bottom L to R: Lamb, Carbonara

am rather critical of Italian restaurants since my paternal grandmother was not only Italian, but a restaurant owner and cook. For dinner one night we had carbonara, lamb, and risotto along with some nice wine. A few days later I had some tasty bruschetta while lounging by the pool. If I ever have a swimming pool, it’s going to need an Italian restaurant plus a couple of pleasant waiters to bring me such good food.

What we did:

Four Carrots

One of the best places I visited was the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia

Top L to R: Horse book, Koran, Rosewater Ewers
Center: Rabbit plate
Bottom L to R: Pharmacological book, Bowl, Clothing

(Perdana, Jalan Lembah, Perdana Botanical Gardens, 50480 Kuala Lumpur, Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, +603 2092 7070). The Museum houses more than seven thousand artifacts, as well as an exceptional library of Islamic art books. The building, itself, is a gorgeous place with domes that are spectacular when viewed from both the outside and the inside. The traveling exhibit was about medicine and pharmacology, including veterinary medicine. The books were so preciously drawn that as each page closed, it matched exactly the page before and after it. The other books I found fascinating were the Korans. They were in many different languages and each was beautifully illuminated. The other artifacts included metal work, ceramics, clothing and jewelry. This is a wonderful museum and I spent three hours without being bored.

Monkey God

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