Malaysia - While travelling in Terengganu to research last week`s story on the Terrapuri heritage conservation project, we were introduced to another type of heritage that is also threatened with extinction: ancient Malay building principles.
How do you know if a site is good for building a house? Keep some water in an earthen container there. If, by the next morning, the water level has dropped, or worse, the container has been knocked over by some stray animal, the site has “bad luck”.
Or try this. Cut some bamboo or rattan to the length of your mother`s outstretched arms. Stick it into the ground at the proposed site. If it`s shorter the next morning, it`s time to retreat.
After all that, if you`re still unsure, dig a hole for the main (wooden) pillar and throw in seven grains of rice. Then recite certain incantations and insert the pillar into the hole. If some rice grains have disappeared in the morning, whoa, stop work!
Welcome to the ancient art of Malay geomancy, a parallel to Chinese feng shui and Indian vasthu sastra.
This was how Malays determined where and how to build their kampung houses in centuries past, says Abdullah Haji Ahmad, better known as Pak Awie, 53, a retired bomoh.
He is a consultant of sorts for Terrapuri, a unique heritage project in Penarik, 90 minutes north of Kuala Terengganu (Treasuring Terengganu, StarMag`s cover story last week, told the tale).
Here, 28 antique Malay houses from all over the state have been dismantled and reassembled into a luxury resort by Alex Lee, the CEO of the state`s leading tourism operator, Ping Anchorage.
Awie, who claims descent from Sheikh Ahmad Zabidi, a famous Muslim scholar of Aceh, Sumatra, has undertaken a sort of kampung-style “PhD thesis” on Terengganu Malay feng shui.
A fading art
“In my youth, I used to ride my bicycle to many different kampungs and ask traditional house builders about the petua (rules) of construction. I would write down what they told me in exercise books.”
Over the decades, many of the builders have passed away, taking their knowledge to the grave.
“Youths don`t learn about such things any more,” says Awie.
Moreover, according to Lee, Terengganu folk nowadays prefer modern concrete homes (sometimes with Greek and Roman-style pillars and balustrades!) and the demand for traditional Malay house-building arts has dried up.
So now, what remains of Terengganu`s feng shui are Awie`s tattered exercise books, which are half-eaten by silverfish – so tenuous is the thread back to centuries of irreplaceable community knowledge.
Once the location is chosen, how should the house be laid out?
“Ensure the home is not in a puddle,” smiles Awie.
Also, there is the art of tengok tapak (viewing the site).
“If there is a mound, it should be in the eastern or south-eastern corner of the plot of land,” he explains.
“Imagine it as your palm. The water should flow from your thumb mound towards the north-east.”
The old house-building principles are rather gender-friendly as they recognise the mother`s role as homemaker – literally. For starters, the main part of any traditional Malay house is called the rumah ibu (mother house). Its construction is based on the length of the matriarch`s outstretched arms, which is called a depa (wingspan).
If the height of the home`s main pillar, or tiang ibu, is a round number, say six depa, then this measurement is called ular cinta mani (snake loves sperm), and that is supposed to bring great fortune.
However, if the height of the pillar is, say, six and one-tenth depa, the petua tinggi rumah (house height rules) names this one-tenth “extra” situation as tinggal tangga (leave steps).
“That means, the house will always be shifting,” says Awie, referring to the fact that wooden Malay homes can, like giant Lego kits, be dismantled and reassembled elsewhere if situations like floods, famine, wars – or, in the case of Terrapuri, heritage conservation and tourism – demand it.
The petua tinggi rumah share the Chinese aversion to the number four, because if the main pillar`s height is, say six and four-tenths depa, it is called anjing kekurangan (dogs in scarcity) and the occupants will always argue.
People-friendly homes
StarMag`s Architecture Inside Out columnist, Prof Mohd Tajuddin Mohamad Rasdi, director of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia`s Centre for the Study of the Built Environment in the Malay World, argues for a rational and reasonable approach to feng shui.
He has written about how our houses should be built to promote racial harmony. For instance, one simple design is a ventilation shaft in ceilings so that incense smoke (from joss sticks) can be released instead of offending (or even incensing!) neighbours of different faiths.
“Terrace houses are built next to each other and air circulation is poor,” says Prof Tajuddin, who laments that we have blindly copied European terrace house designs without taking local culture into consideration.
“In the past, our construction was in harmony with the surroundings and community values.
“Whether it was called vasthu sastra, feng shui or tajul muluk, the system promoted community life so that everyone knew each other and the surrounding environment was not destroyed.”
Dr Amir feels that environmental impact assessments (for construction projects), or EIAs, should take community customs into account.
“Right now EIAs value plants and animals. What about the community`s long affinity with the land? Nowadays, kampungs are demolished and people are stuffed into flats. EIAs don`t recognise that as an adverse impact.”
Could it be that centuries of accumulated “good feng shui” is destroyed when horizontal kampungs become vertical ones? When jungles turn from the green version into concrete?
Dr Amir thinks Malay house-building customs are not just a matter of “faith” but also simple common sense.
“Those customs evolved from centuries of experience. Now the West talks of going back to the earth and all that. But the Malay kampung house has been well adapted to the tropical climate for centuries.
“There were harmonious aesthetics, and a human sense of scale where neighbours could easily mix.”
In other words, even if one thinks that the “magical” part of Malay feng shui is all hocus-pocus, one can still embrace its common sense approach of being people-centred and eco-friendly.
In that broader sense, traditional Malay houses certainly had “good feng shui”!
Source: thestar.com.my (17 Maret 2008)
