Chapter 3: THE MALAY HOUSE

Rituals and customs of constructing the Malay house

The Malay house is a traditional dwelling that existed before technologies and modern influences evolved in this country. Most of the Malay houses in Malaysia are constructed by the indigenous ethnic Malay.

The typical Malay house has a roof built to suit the weather and environment in this country. Decorative elements are not taken lightly as the carry a large significance in the design of the Malay house.


Building rituals
One of the main custom that has to be carried out is the preservation of wooden materials used to construct the Malay house. This is done primarily to avoid the wooden materials from decaying due to the weather and termite problems.


These are the steps taken before a house is being built:

In Mr Ariffin's house, the meranti wood is mostly used. This house is built with the minimal use of metal, including nails. His grandfather cut holes and grooves to fit the meranti elements into one another for most parts of the house.

From his house design, we can see that it is a typical Malay house due to the fact that:

-It is built on stilts

-It has stairs

-It is decorated in one way or another

-carving-

Those designs are a norm in building the Malay house.

-view of Mr Ariffin's house-


As you can see from the pictures, Mr Ariffin's house has a garden (or something close to that), and is surrounded by greens. He, in fact, planted some of the plants by himself.

Environmental study & space planning of the Malay house
In his house, there is a kitchen, a bedroom,an outdoor bathroom/ toilet, a living area and a dining area.

-Plan view of Mr Ariffin's house-

    

-Axonometric drawing of Mr Ariffin's house-


There are a few terminologies used for spaces of the Malay house, given according to its activities.

Anjung is the space at the entrance of the house, which has stairs leading up to a covered porch. The host entertains unfamiliar visitors here.
Serumbi guntung is the space where the host entertains most guests.
Rumah ibu is the main area of the house, where most activities such as praying, sewing and feasting are held in this space.
Rumah dapur is the cooking area of the house, and it is located at the back.

Here's end of this blog post. We will have a Raya celebration with the folks of the kampung. Stay tuned for our fun experience of the celebration!

Exterior outlook of the house with beautiful decoration on the window.

 The toilet which is separated from the house.

 Living area on the left side.

 Living area with the nice perfume bottles displayed on the shelf.

 Living area on the right side.

 Openings between the plane which provide air ventilation for the house.

View of the house kitchen.

 Multi-purpose storage. 

Few openings at the kitchen.

  A place to prepare daily meals.

Almost all the furnitures made up of natural materials.

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-ENJOY-

^.^

Chapter 2 : KEY PUBLIC BUILDING

The public building we chose to write on is Warung Fariz. It is located in the kampung itself, very close by the meeting place. This warung was built nearly 20 years ago.

2.1   View of the warung

Why did we choose this warung? Firstly, it is a makan place. We, Malaysians, are well-known for our ever-growling stomachs, longing for the yummiest delicacies we can find. 

And in this case, it's the Malay food that we can find in this warung.

From mi goreng, nasi goreng, pasembor, nasi lemak to laksa, most of the typical Malay food can be found in this warung.

2.2   The typical Malay food

But let's not get carried away with the mouth-watering food and get started with the more non-food related information 
on this warung.

-Plan view of the warung-

-Circulation elements-

The restaurant has a parallel plane and a symmetrical layout. The space and arrangement are balanced with the axis at the center. It creates a harmonic feeling within the space.

-Side elevation view of the warung-

-Form & space-

-Section A-A view of the warung-

A linear form is easily seen from the elevation. From the elevation, we can see that this house has an overhead base plan as the dining space is opened and with very little enclosure.

The dining space and cooking space are divided. The dining space is opened while the cooking space is enclosed.

-Axonometric drawing of the warung-

The opened space is public space, where people dine and gather. While the enclosed space includes kitchen, storage and toilet, where only staffs are allowed to enter.

It is kampung people's all time favorite warung because of its variety of food and also a gathering place for the villagers.

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Here's a picture to end this post.

We'll share about Mr. Ariffin's traditional kampung house in the next update. Stay tuned!

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-Enjoy-

Chapter 1: THE KAMPUNG LIFE

Introduction:

A visit to the Authentic Malay House at Dusun Tua, Hulu Langat.

Last Saturday(27/7/2013), our history 3 class went for a field trip, which was part of our assignment, to visit a kampung area, Batu 16, Dusun Tua. The location is around B52, Kampung Jawa, 43100 Hulu Langat, Selangor.

Location:

1. Dusun Tua

2. Ampang

3. Cheras

4. Hulu Semenyih

5. Kajang

6. Semenyih

7. Beranang

Direction:

The journey from UCSI North Wing, Taman Taynton View, Kuala Lumpur to Batu 16, Dusun Tua requires only 30 minutes by bus.

Origins:

-The origins of kampung-

-Joy of The Kampung-

We were greeted by the Penghulu, Mr.Ghazali when we arrived. We were informed that this kampung has been in its place for more than a century. Kampung defined as small village or community of houses in Malay-speaking lands. There are approximately 
1500 families in that kampung itself, with villagers close to 4000 people. 

-Places in this small kampung-

-Daily ritual of kampung life-

The Penghulu:

The Penghulu, Mr.Ghazali, was kind enough to answer our unending questions about his kampung. We were so eager to know more due to the fact that we're staying in a fast-paced life in the capital city of Malaysia.

Mr.Ghazali was chosen to be a Penghulu due to the responsible and trustworthy characters he possesses. A new Penghulu will be elected after every General Election of this country. 

 Roles as an Penghulu:
(Penghulu is a local community leader.)

• responsible to solve the problem like zakat (muslim needs to pay it as politic's purpose).
• to provide the villagers' needs from time to time.
• to supervise the members of his clan to resolve the problems arise among the villagers.
• in charge to carry out some gatherings or celebrations among the villagers to enhance the relationship among the villagers.
• responsible to check and repair the facilities and equipment in Kampung.

In this particular kampung, there are 2 schools, a secondary school and a religious school, and a mosque. There is even an orchard in this kampung, of which we couldn't locate, unfortunately; and 2 hot-springs. We were also told that there used to be many paddy fields, fruit plantations and rubber plantations, but due to the change in the river structure, these places slowly disappeared.

-Pondok ~ place for meeting-

-Mosque &Kampung house-

After quite a long session with the Penghulu, we then went our own separate ways in groups of 5, to look for a "perfect" house that describes the tranditional Malay house the most. We walked across our previous meeting place, thinking that we found the "perfect" house. But much to our dismay, the owner of that house was not in. His kids were there though. We managed to take a picture of them (without their knowledge, of course).

So, we decided to walk further down the road and we saw many other houses, but none of which caught our attention......until this house.

 -The Malay's Kampung House-

The house owner:

We 1st met Mr. Ariffin outside his house, cutting this boy's hair. It turned out that Mr. Ariffin is a part-time barber & tenders to most of the villagers' hairs.

-His part-time job-
-Barber-

 

He is a 42-year-old bachelor and stays with his 70-year-old aunt, Mak Cik Batimah.

We did not waste our time chatting around nothing, but came straight to the point where we introduced ourselves and he decided to help us with our current assignment.

Mr. Ariffin works in Kuala Lumpur on weekdays. We're not sure of what he works as, mainly because he always diverts this question to another direction altogether. So if there's anything we're sure of his job, it is that he works as a barber on weekends.

His house was built on the 22nd of December in 1960, which also means that his house is 53 years old! It was designed by his grandfather and built by 3 hired workers within 2 months! It costed approximately RM 30,000. The whole house is built using the Meranti 

wood. According to Mr. Ariffin, there should be a prayer of blessing by the agama leader after the house is being built.

Due to Mak Cik Batimah's old age, she has difficulty standing for long hours to do household chores, therefore she cooks on the floor.

-Kitchen-

-Cat of Mak Cik Batimah-

We were chatting with Mak Cik Batimah in the living room.

We were just excited to know more about the life in this Kampung and we were informed that there is a Mak Cik is selling home-cooked Malay food just opposite their house.

There is a cute handsome boy in the house.

-Hello!!!-

The Rural Atmosphere

Some things we can only find in a traditional Malay Kampung.

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-Enjoy-

^.^