67. MALACCA REVISITED

link: post 65 - North of the border

Huh! Never expected to spend a short weekend in Malacca so soon after a recent visit, but I did'nt mind. It gave me the chance to check out a couple of mosques whose architecture I found fascinating.

Across the narrow Straits of Malacca is Indonesian Sumatra. The Tengkera Mosque and the Kampong Kling Mosque have strong Sumatran influences, together with Chinese and Malay touches make them special and unique from the ugly modern day mosques. 

The early settlers and local residents had more open minds and were more accepting of those who did not share their religious beliefs. They truly practised that all are the same, worshipping the same 'God' in perhaps a different form.
As with everything else, the humans have destroyed all that's good and beautiful. The Inter-Faith Dialogue won't be necessary if clerics (almost all are men) reigned in their egos, ambitions, pride, smugness and greed

It's all about power, control and dominance. Organised religions has become organised crime - it's a corrupt business 

 
























 















This beautiful pagoda-like minaret is like those incense and joss paper burners one sees in Chinese temples.

 






The Sumatran architecture has strong Hindu influences. Its wooden pulpit has Hindu and Chinese-style carvings with phoenix and bats and lotuses, painted gold - they look very peranakan. I like the fact that in its restoration, these features were not replaced by typically islamic stuff. Credit must go to the tourism people and other planners behind this...

Some extra touches may have been added during rebuilding to achieve this

The entrance to the Kampong Kling Mosque looks like a Hindu temple - Kling meaning Indian

This interesting building is the Sri Poyatha Venayagar Moorthi temple (1781) property of the Chetty Melaka Community. It's very Hindu decorated with cows and the trinity of Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu, it's not the typical Sth Indian-style temple with its pantheon of gods and whatnots. The Chetty Melaka folks are considered peranakans, so the term can be regarded as 'bumi', or aboriginal.

66. HARD DAY'S NIGHT

link: post 15 - Living the Teachings
 
House building in Cambodia is no walk in the park, no siree, not for urbanites like me and the other volunteers from different cities of the world who met one another only upon arrival at the hotel in Phnom Penh.







Ethnic good looks - who, me? Yes, I, thank you





















With the din from the hammering as we  put together his new home, this little tyke slept through it all.

Rainy day is fun day but for the team, it was mud....





































my family jewels are bigger than yours!



















Their homes before






















































 
 We started with this....











 
The Looking Lost Team in an Amazing Race to hammer together 4 homes in 2 days.....





































































 

I hit my thumb more often than I hit the nails on the head. Don't care if I never see another nail again....

 

protein snacks - bugs anyone?

 














 


The beneficiaries of our Labor of Love - their eyes and smiles told us how they felt...it was thanks enough..

 

















































































This little house on the prairie was our toilet for 2 days - our hosts dug it especially for us! I'm pleased to report the urbanites adapted very well.....!




The village which previous built teams put together over a period of time...