Sunday, January 13, 2013

Kampung Kling Mosque

The Masjid Kampong Kling, built in 1748, is one of the oldest mosques in Malaysia. The mosque is found on Malacca's busy north-south running Jalan Hang Lekiu, on the corner of Jalan Tanjong, or Temple Road, both fulled of Chinese shop-houses. However, when Masjid Kampong Kling was set up, the community of Kampong Kling, which runs along the coast to the west of the Malacca River, was still mostly inhabited by South Indians or Klings. The several styles disclosed in this mosque vouch for the synchratic structure tradition that thrived in Malacca, a significant trading harbor in the fourteenth with the eighteenth centuries.


Kampung Kling Mosque

Like most Southeast Asian mosques, Masjid Kampong Kling is built on a square strategy as opposed to the hexagonal or oblong strategy of the majority of Center Eastern mosques. Corinthian columns both define the arcaded verandah that coils the prayer hall as well as different the minbar area from the main prayer hall within the mosque.

Supported by wood post-and-beam construction, Kampong Kling's triple-tiered hipped roofing is especially a sign of a Malaccan mosque. The mosque's flared pyramidal upper roofing is raised by 4 columns placed in the center of the mosque. The concentric squareness of this plan is only disrupted by the extension of the actions to the deck location, or iwan, from which access to the mosque is raised on a low boundary wall.

A courtyard behind the mosque includes a fountain-like pool for ablutions that is raised a few steps above ground level and circumambulated by a similarly raised and covered pathway. The commanding minaret was developed completely of masonry in contrast to the accompanying wood mosque. Likened to a Chinese pagoda or stupa form, this sort of minaret has actually become particular of Malacca. Renaissance decorations include the use of engaged columns as well as the arched windows and piping that traces them. Minarets are not traditional to Malay Islamic architecture, though they have become progressively more widespread and serve in demarcating the mosque in dense urban locations. In 1868 the mosque and its minaret were enclosed by a high wall to safeguard it from the street.

Chinese ceramic tiles were imported to decorate the roofing, the floor and the lower walls of the mosque. In addition, ornamental motifs such as those applied to the doors and windows and ornamentation such as the curved eaves terminating in sculptural finials on the roofing are credited to an Asian influence, as is the roof accessory, or mastaka. Built during the Dutch occupation that followed the period of Portuguese rule, European touches disclose themselves in the mosque in such elements as rendered plaster on the interior masonry walls.

The Masjid Kampong Kling, constructed in 1748, is one of the oldest mosques in Malaysia. The mosque is found on Malacca's hectic north-south running Jalan Hang Lekiu, on the corner of Jalan Tanjong, or Temple Road, both filled with Chinese shop-houses. Supported by timber post-and-beam construction, Kampong Kling's triple-tiered hipped roofing is specifically a sign of a Malaccan mosque. The mosque's flared pyramidal upper roof is raised by four columns put in the center of the mosque.

Click Here Kampung Kling Mosque