Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Penang One-Day Tour - #5: Khoo Kongsi

Since we were targeting tourist attractions in Georgetown, another good place to include in the itinerary would be "Khoo Kongsi", especially if you are really into both history and architecture.

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It looks like a temple, but strictly speaking, it is an ancestral shrine, for the Khoo (邱) clan.



The most remarkable thing about the architecture of the place is, IMHO, definitely those countless elaborate stone carvings.


They mostly depict mythical creatures or legendary figures, or, as in the next picture, one of the "24 stories of filial piety" (二十四孝).



Even the beams overhead are richly adorned with carvings and decorations.



The stone walls of the main hall are carved with figures from a legend that I was not familiar with.


Even the walls of the corridor behind the main hall are decorated with stone carvings.


Needless to say, all of these works of art are the creations of skillful artisans in Mainland China, imported to Penang by the Khoo people at the turn of the century. There appears to be a story regarding their struggle with the British Customs Officials when trying to bring in these stone carvings and the materials used in the building of the shrine; but you will have to pay a guide to tell you those stories. :-)

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The location of Khoo Clan Ancestral Shrine is unfamiliar even to some Penangites, because it is kind of secluded. You will have to know which byroad to take to get there. As you can see in the next picture, it is a one-way street that leads from that road (I'm very bad with road names) near Little India that has a lot of Indian-owned jewelry shops.


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