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| The historic Taiping central market is due for a RM9 million facelift soon |
TAIPING'S grand dame
of buildings isn’t a stately hotel or an ornate government office frequented
primarily by the rich and powerful. It’s actually a very public one that has
been visited almost daily by every layer of society for more than a century.
A survivor of two
great economic depressions and just as many world wars as well as countless
local strife, the former Perak capital's central market is today the proud
holder of two enviable records. The building, built sometime between 1884 and
1885, is Malaysia's oldest market as well as the largest free-standing
non-religious wood-and-cast iron structure in the country.
Recent news of plans
by the local authorities to restore and transform this historic structure into
a food and souvenir market has been well received by all quarters. It’s about
time that the pride of Taiping receives just rewards after serving the local
residents loyally for some 135 years.
Curious to know more
about what life was like in Taiping during those early days, I head for the
nearest public library in town for an afternoon of research. Contrary to my
expectations, there are not many references related to the early history of
this town. Most literature uncovered is about the tin rich Kinta district which
is located south of Taiping.
Nevertheless, nuggets
of interesting information start to surface soon enough and, within the hour, I
embark on a most exhilarating journey back in time, starting at a point about a
decade before the very foundations to the famous market were erected.
BIRTH OF TAIPING
Sultan Abdullah and his followers signed the
Pangkor Treaty in 1874.
Taiping's rise from
obscurity began soon after the British gained a foothold in Perak on Jan 20,
1874. Soon after Raja Abdullah and several Malay chieftains signed the now
famous Pangkor Treaty, James Wheeler Woodford Birch, Colonial Secretary of the
Straits Settlements made Bandar Bahru in Lower Perak his administrative
capital. At that time, Birch had just been appointed the first British Resident
of Perak.
At the same time,
Captain Speedy, who was the Assistant Resident, chose to station himself in
Larut and began making plans for the establishment of two key towns. Speedy
named the first, Taiping. He chose the name – Chinese for Everlasting Peace -
as it conjured thoughts of a happy omen for the future. The second town set up
was Klian Bahru which later reverted back to its original Malay name,
Kamunting.
A Taiping street scene in the 1880s.
Situated about four kilometres from Kota and
near the old mining village of Klian Pauh, Taiping recorded a population size
of 5000 by the end of 1874. A tenth of the residents were shopkeepers who dealt
primarily in goods destined for the surrounding tin mines. Duty on tin became
the primary
British forces ascending the Perak River soon
after Birch's assassination.
source of revenue for
Taiping at that time.
In order to encourage
growth, agricultural land was given free of any charge or duty. The people only
had to apply to the Sultan of Perak through the British Resident for land and,
based on the portion cultivated after a three-year grace period, a grant in
perpetuity was given at a nominal fee of $1 per acre. At that time, however,
agriculture was largely confined to rice cultivation by the Malays.
ESTABLISHING
CONNECTIVITY
Keen to establish a
direct line with Penang, Speedy set about building new roads that joined both
Taiping and Kamunting as well as with the road coming down from Province
Wellesley. The corduroy type of roads built then was of inferior quality and
required regular maintenance. They were simply constructed of tree trunks laid down
side by side for foundation into swamp land through which they ran for the most
part of the distance.
A six-inch layer of
clay was then placed on top of the trunks before a final top up with coarse
sand. Parts of the road regularly sank into the ground when the timber
foundations gave way to decay due to the extremely damp conditions.
The establishment of government departments
grew in tandem with the growth in Taiping. Key positions like Inspector of
Mines, Harbour Master and Treasurer were held by Europeans while the Malays and
Chinese held most junior posts. There was only one Indian in government
employment in 1874. Identified with just a single name in the records,
Muttusamy worked as an overseer in the Mining Department.
A Kuala Kangsar street scene in the 1870s.
The assassination of
Birch on Nov 2, 1875 resulted in a major confrontation between the Malays and
the British. Thanks to its location away from the incident, Taiping became one
of the rare beneficiaries of the ensuing upheaval. By 1877, Taiping was made
the new administrative capital of Perak while Kuala Kangsar became the royal
town.
EARLY
TAIPING
Bird travelled extensively throughout Malaya
in the late 1870s.
Renowned British
explorer, writer, photographer and naturalist, Isabella Lucy Bird visited
Taiping in early 1879 during her travels through Malaya. Excerpts from her
book, The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither, published in 1883, painted Taiping as a fine
town with a mile long street filled with bazaars and shops, gambling houses,
workshops and meeting halls for the local population.
Bird also noted the
presence of a large detached barracks for the Sikh police, hospital, powder
magazine, parade ground, government storehouse, gaol as well as neat bungalows
for English officials. She was most impressed with the grandest building in
Taiping at that time - the British Residency which was perched on top of a
steep, isolated terraced hill.
Bird was impressed with the British Residency
which was the grandest building in Taiping at that time.
Taiping at that time
had 6000 inhabitants who were primarily Chinese miners. According to Bird, the
town was tolerably empty during the day but came to life at dusk when the
miners returned. She also noted the reasonably good health of the people and
attributed that to the existence of the Yong Wa Hospital for paupers which came
under the watchful eye of Dr Wright. Well managed and staffed, the hospital could
cater to the needs of 900 patients at any one time.
The new Governor of
the Straits Settlements, Sir Frederick Weld visited Taiping in the middle of
1881. Impressed with what he saw, Weld suggested the construction of a rail and
tramway from Taiping to the port (later named Port Weld in his honour and much
later became known as Kuala Sepetang) among the next most necessary works to be
undertaken.
MAJOR
GAME CHANGER
An open-cast mine near Taiping in the early
1890s.
The construction of
the Taiping-Port Weld railway marked the beginning of a major transformation
that radically altered the landscape of the Malay Peninsula permanently. It
also brought about the first major influx of Indians and Ceylonese into Perak.
Weld showed great
interest in Taiping because of his ongoing pet project, visiting the town twice
in April and November 1883 with the hopes of spurring progress as well as to
inspect other new developments taking place in the town. The Governor was
particularly impressed with Taiping's newly completed water works which
supplied the purest water from a waterfall in the hills about four kilometres
from town.
Despite his impatience,
Weld found himself away on leave when the Taiping-Port Weld railway line, the
first of its kind in this country, was completed. Acting Governor Sir Cecil
Clementi Smith went on the trial run in his stead on Feb 12, 1885.
Taking a brief
breather from reading and copious note-taking, it suddenly dawns upon me that
the construction of the Taiping central market coincided exactly with the time
of the Taiping-Port Weld railway project.
Kapitan China Chung Keng Kwee was the leading
revenue farm owner in Taiping.
Surely there must have
been smaller markets in Taiping before then but the huge economic boost as well
as the significant influx of migrant workers brought about by the railway
project would surely have given rise to the need for a larger and better
equipped place for people to obtain their daily sustenance.
The large market, measuring
220 feet long and 60 feet wide, had the capacity for traders to bring in fresh
produce in large quantities from other parts of the country, including freshly
caught seafood, via the new mode of transportation from Port Weld.
Much to everyone’s delight,
the faster and more efficient railway together with economies of scale helped
to bring down cost of foodstuff sold at the new market significantly. Fresh
buffalo meat went for five or six cents a kati while fish and vegetables
bearing the same weight merely commanded 10 cents and 2 cents respectively. The
selling price of a bag of rice was $2.50.
The booming tin trade
and growing income gave the people superior purchasing power. Taiping people
were happy as they forked out less for the same amount of items bought before
the arrival of the railway. The excess funds meant that both they and their
families could enjoy a better standard of living.
The late 1880s saw
Taiping maintaining its position as a busy mining centre that serviced bigger
open-cast mines in Assam Kumbang, Kota, Kamunting and Tupai. These mines
employed huge numbers of Chinese migrant workers. It wasn’t uncommon at that
time to see individual mines having up to 4,000 workers each.
All the money earned
at the mines eventually ended up in Taiping. The abundance of prosperity
eventually gave rise to the establishment of revenue farms that operated
pawnshops as well as gambling and opium dens. The leading revenue farmer at
that time was the Kapitan China himself, Chung Keng Kwee.
END
OF AN ERA
Like most things in life, however, the good
times in Taiping didn’t last. By late 1894, there were signs that the town had
seen better days. Production at the once-productive Assam Kumbang mines was on
a steep decline. Things were so bad that the gambling house there had to be
abandoned almost overnight.
The closure was soon
followed by another which used to be the pride of Taiping as it had the rare
honour of hosting a visit by King Chulalongkorn of Siam (now Thailand) back in
1889. The second mine closure put to rest all lingering doubts about the end of
an era as far as tin trade was concerned.
Despite the bleak
outlook, the town refused to fade into oblivion. Contrary to expectations,
Taiping continued to develop thanks to rapid progress brought by the railway
and the innovative nature of its residents.
The locals began to
gradually shift their focus from tin to agriculture. They experimented with
tapioca and sugarcane cultivation. Interest in the former was short-lived but
the latter made rapid progress. By 1898, large swathes of padi land were
converted into sugarcane plantations.
European participation
saw a marked increase in total sugar exports from Perak, rising from 55,000
piculs in 1890 to 288,000 piculs at the turn of the 20th century. By 1905,
however, the enterprise fizzled out when Taiping began embracing the rubber
boom that was taking Malaya and the rest of the world by storm.
Within a decade, large
rubber estates like Simpang Estate, Lauderdale Estate and Matang Jamboe Estate
began to take shape and, like before, money once again began finding its way to
Taiping.
CONTINUED
DECLINE
The Perak Club in Taiping as featured in an
vintage picture postcard.
For a while, at least,
the decline of Taiping at the end of the 19th century can only be compared in
relative sense. Tin mining around the area continued into the early 1930s but,
as a mining centre, Taiping had been upstaged by its southern neighbour, the
Kinta district. The transition was so acute that the prestigious state capital
accolade passed from Taiping to Ipoh in 1937.
Taiping's dire
situation was exacerbated by the Great Depression that hit Malaya hard in the
middle of 1930s. Beginning in the United States, the scourge had devastating effects
in countries both rich and poor. International trade plunged by more than half
and unemployment rose rapidly. Demand for latex plummeted and many rubber
estates around Taiping and all over Malaya suffered severe losses.
Coupled with the
devastating effects of the Japanese Occupation that followed soon after and the
ensuing Malayan Emergency, Taiping gradually lost its economic clout and was
sidestepped by major developments as the years wore on.
Returning the
reference material, I come across a recent article heralding heartening news
about Taiping's recognition as the third most sustainable city in the world at
the 2019 Sustainable Top 100 Destination Awards at the Internationale
Tourismus-Borse Berlin (ITB) travel trade show in Berlin, Germany.
Together with the
upcoming RM9 million market facelift, this prestigious international accolade
recognised Taiping's leadership in urban sustainability and avoidance of
disruptive over-tourism. By the looks of things, the best is yet to come for
Taiping. Speedy was spot on when he chose to have the word “everlasting” in the
name of this wonderful heritage town that will forever be the pride of both
Perak as well as all of Malaysia.
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