SETIU: As a
20-year-old, Alex Lee Yun Ping had a
dream of owning palaces and
aristocratic villas of the ancient
Malay world.
In 1990, as Lee’s first step towards
realising his dream and after much
convincing, he turned two wooden
shoplots decorated with intricate
wood carvings owned by his
grandfather into a resthouse in the
tourism district of Marang.
“My neighbours and friends are
mostly Malays. I eat what they eat.
I eat belacan, petai and ulam.
I played traditional Malay games
like gasing (spinning
top) and wau (kite).
I speak fluent Bahasa Melayu and I
love traditional Malay carvings and
architecture,” Lee told the New
Straits Times.
“My fascination with Malay arts and
traditions has become a passion. I
dream that one day I will have a
complete ‘collection’ of Malay
aristocratic houses and palaces.
They are priceless as such buildings
have soul. It is difficult for me to
describe in detail the secrets I’ve
learnt about their architecture for
the past 30 years,” said the tourism
industry entrepreneur.
The old Marang house, Lee said,
became a tourist attraction and its
rustic architecture appeals to
foreigners who made it as a halfway
house before departing for Pulau
Kapas or Kuala Terengganu.
Inspired, from that year onwards
until 1999, Lee travelled to every
district in Terengganu and
befriended owners of aristocratic
traditional Malay buildings in
villages before buying them one by
one. He now owns 29 of such
structures.
He dismantled them and kept every
piece of plank in a store in Marang
because he had no place to
reassemble the buildings, as well as
due to the high cost of hiring
craftsmen to rebuild them with
wooden pegs.
“It was difficult to buy the
buildings because they were
heirlooms. I had to gain the owners’
trust and convince them that they
would be preserved for future
generations. For 20 years, I could
only keep the dismantled pieces in a
family store in Marang.
“I got a big break in 2005 when I
saw a land-for-sale sign in Kampung
Mangkok. Not wanting to miss the
opportunity, I hid the sign in my
car to make sure no one else bought
the 4ha plot of land, which was
parallel to the banks of Sungai
Setiu and fronting the South China
Sea.
“I was excited
as I could achieve my dream of
assembling the aristocratic
traditional Malay buildings. My
passion for them is because of their
historical value, intricate carvings
and architecture. Each of them has
its story on how it was built by its
first owners more than 100 years
ago,” he said at Terrapuri or the
Land of Palaces, in Kampung Mangkok.
Lee did not
regret spending more than RM8
million on the buildings. He said
some of the houses were more than
200 years old and were built using chengal wood
with no nails but just pasak (pegs)
and tanggam (joints).
Lee said the
restoration started in 2006 and he
employed 30 people who had no
experience reconstructing such
buildings.
“I had to show
them how to use pasak and tanggam.
In the end, some of them became
expert traditional Malay house
builders. The architecture of the
buildings belongs to this part of
the world, namely Laos, Pattani and
Cambodia.
“Singgora tiles
were used for the roofs, and
to simulate lakes I built ponds
around some of the buildings. The
first owners built the houses
cleverly by including spiritual
elements in the wood carvings. They
took great effort when raising the tiang
seri (main pillar) to ensure
that the buildings’ interior stood
out.
“When the
British came, they introduced
Moorish architecture elements. This
resulted in the traditional Malay
wooden houses slowly fading from
memory. It will be a loss if we do
not preserve them as the buildings
were built with philosophy attached.
“The younger
generation should study their
features. They should find out how
the first owners could build and
dismantle the houses like Lego
pieces. They should also study the
houses’ ventilation system because
the buildings’ interior is cool
every day. They should look at their
hidden story as well.”
He said the
houses’ wood carvings hid many tales
and that the carpenters had passed
on their knowledge and skills to the
next generation.
“These
buildings have soul,” said Lee, who
dedicated 30 years of his life to
realise his dream.
He said
history should not be lost and
aptly, historian Tan Sri Mubin
Sheppard had written that Terengganu
was the cradle of Malay civilisation.
“Preservation
is key to realising my dream. I have
to be patient because it is a costly
affair,” said Lee, who planned to
assemble another three aristocratic
houses, five palaces and eight
traditional houses from eight states
in the peninsula.
Lee also said
some of his friends believed he was
wasting his money by investing in
something that gave low returns.
“This is not
entirely about money. It is a dream
I have chased all my life. If I
want, I can just turn the buildings
and the traditional tools into
museum displays so that everyone can
appreciate the beauty of Malay
architecture and culture.
“It can become
a place that inspires architects and
students of the arts, as well as
historians. Although it may be
costly, I am aware of the buildings’
historical value and am concerned
about their existence as time may
destroy their value as art pieces.
“I have done
my research on the 29 aristocratic
buildings over the past 30 years.
Universities and museums should join
me in discovering the stories behind
their construction.
“Their stories
should be etched in journals, as
well as coffee-table books for
future reference.”
