Tag: punjabi

Chuck Norris And The Dog

Burly temple president and community leader, Gurcharan Singh, was like Chuck Norris to me. Dogs walk away and children quiet down when he stares. The last temple priest ran away. He came to sit with me and chat when I ate.

We talked about the temple’s century old history,

I was nervous when I wanted to tell him that conservation of a heritage building is not about about flattening it and rebuilding from ground up. The truth is he is a gentle giant, He feeds the dog with leftover food but no meat. Meat is not allowed near the temple, he stressed. The kampung is much misunderstood too.

In seeking directions in my search or hunt, many Malay villagers from outside warned me about Kampung Singh’s aversion to outsiders. “Tidak campur” (do not mix), they cautioned me. I started to think they might be like an insular Amish community. In fact, outsiders were insular and ignorant. The inhabitants were warm and friendly when I engaged them.

See previous post Chapati in Kalumpang.

#sikh #punjabi #kampungsingh #gurdwara #sikhtemple #kalumpang #tanjungmalim #dog #chucknorris #vaisakhi

Chapati In Kalumpang

Chapati In Kalumpang.

I visited a small Gurdwara or Sikh Temple in Kampung Singh during Vaisakhi prayers. I like the gender neutral community spirit in which the women volunteered to cook at a little space at the temporary temple. I wanted to see the 100 year old temple but it was undergoing restoration.

Hot from the skillet or flat frying pan were chapatis. an unleavened flatbread, which is a staple food in North India. It is spelt as capati here. The very hospitable Punjabi community invited me, the mysterious stranger, to eat and I gladly did.

The little known and hard to find kampung is in Kalumpang near Tanjung Malim.

#sikh #punjabi #chapati #capati #kampungsingh #gurdwara #sikhtemple #kalumpang #tanjungmalim #ethnicfood #cooking #vaisakhi

Gurdwara Tanjung Priok Jakarta

I was exploring Jakarta Chinatown (Glodok) when I stumbled upon a Sikh Temple named Gurdwara Tanjung Priok in North Jakarta. It is also known as the Guru Nanak Sikh Temple and the Gurdwara Pasar Baru,

What awesomeness to be standing before a temple founded in 1925. Awesome also because many fellow Malaysians and friends are Sikhs. It was built, funded by Sikh workers and their families in the harbour or port area. The temple survived Dutch and Japanese Occupation but was moved from the old site in 1999 when the land was acquired by the government to redevelop the harbour area.

Nearby reasonably priced hotels are Classic Hotel, Alila Jakarta Hotel and Red Planet Hotel Pasar Baru where one can also walk to Jakarta. Cathedral and the National Monument or Monumen Nasional. All mentioned hotels can be found at MyCen Hotels – http://www.mycen.my/

#sikh #gurdwara #temple #jakarta #indonesia #landmark #travel

Only Chinese In Kampung Bota Singh

Saw a signboard that says Kampung Bota Singh in the Hulu Bernam area and decided to drive in. Heh. Didn’t I meet the only Singh in a Chinese village a few days ago? This time at a village named after a Singh, I met a lone Chinese guy holding a pair of garden shears.

Mr Ng who is 69-years-old and a Hakka, held on to the shears menacingly as I introduced myself. He soon let his guard and the shears down and started telling me the history of the village.

The former rubber plantation land was owned by a wealthy Sikh named Bota Singh. In fact, many of the land around here are owned by Sikhs, according to Mr Ng. He and his family bought the land from the now deceased Bota Singh.

I noticed an old-fashioned kitchen cupboard in a messy garage (behind him). You know the type grandma used with four water bowls on its legs to prevent ants from crawling to the cooked food stored inside?

Told him to hang on to it as someday a stranger will come and offer him at least RM 100 for it. The collector will take it back, restore it and some hipsters will gladly pay a thousand ringgit to own one.

He was bemused and flabbergasted. I didn’t know how to explain ‘hipster’ in Hakka or Cantonese. Unadulterated Hakka dialect is quite funny with the standard expletives thrown in. Is quite hard translating it to clean English. Nevertheless, I will try:

Me: Is true, some city people will pay a thousand bucks for it.

Mr Ng: Smelly worn-out birth canal opening, are there really such fools in the city?

Me: There are. We call them “hipsters” in English.

Mr Ng: Hip makai male reproductive organ people! Copulate! Ptui!

Me: Hahaha. You are a jolly man, sir.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 250, f4, 1/60 sec.