Nice of them to include (or commission) a piece of local history by a local artist.
The kandar pole traders roamed the streets with food pots carried on each end of the long, strong and flexible wooden poles balanced on a shoulder.
The nasi kandar dish derived its name from the kandar poles used by the mobile street hawkers who were mostly of Indian or Indian Muslim descent from Tamil Nadu state in India.
It seem to be inaccurately depicted as turbanised Sikhs or Punjabis here. The artist is Chinese and was probably culturally insensitive and geographically ignorant, like many other non-Indians here.
They erroneously and habitually call any Punjabi or a Sikh with a turban Bengalis (Bang Ka Lee in Chinese Hokkien) but then, Bengal is another region altogether.
I think Kandar wood is from the Sal tree (Shorea robusta), native to India
Kudos to Little Penang for including a plaque to credit the artist who is Penang born deaf mute, self-taught mural artist Louis Gan. His most famous wall mural is “Brother and Sister on a Swing” in an alleyway off Chulia Street Ghaut, in George Town, Penang.
Panasonic GM-1, ISO 1250, f4, 1/60 sec.
#muralart #kandar #wallart #penang #littlepenang #hawkers #ioicitymall
