A nation is as rich as its\ngeography; and geography is enriched when it is over-determined. In this\nrespect, we in Malaysia are — or were — rich indeed. Rich, because of the\nfact that — being located as we are at the crossroads of Asia — this patch of\nearth was the meeting point of so many cultures and civilisations: from\nmainland China and South Asia, from Central Asia, the Mediterranean and Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Looking back at the maps, both oral and graphic, left since the days of Ptolemy, we see that this was indeed a land blessed in many ways. Across the archipelago we find some of the greatest kingdoms and empires that have ever graced humankind’s earth: Angkor, Majapahit, Srivijaya, Langkasuka, Khmer, Mataram, Vijaya, Champa, Indrapura… the list goes on, endlessly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These settlements were not isolated:\nthey traded with the empires of China and the numerous dynasties that ruled over\nmainland India and Lanka. During my trip to Sri Lanka, earlier this year, I\nstood amidst the ruins of the great monasteries of Anuradhapura, and sat awhile\nin thought: I contemplated the journeys that were made by the monks of Lanka as\nthey travelled all the way to Java, bringing with them the Theravada tradition,\nas well as a sprinkling of Tantraism along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The landscape of Southeast Asia\nbears silent witness to the great migrations of the past, with the great temple\ncomplexes of Pagan, Angkor and Borobudur reminding us of the days when the\npeoples of Southeast Asia were indeed global in their daily outlooks. No, we\nwere never a parochial lot, us Southeast Asians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Bombing of Borobudur<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sadly, geography has not evolved a\nmeans of defending itself against the writing of a political and politicised\nhistory, and landscapes have precious little means to defend themselves against\nthe onslaught of ideological reconstructionism. Southeast Asia today remains a\ncontested landscape — though the contestation in question has less to do with\nthe scramble for resources, and more to do with the erasure of history: the\nneed to erase the past, in order to plant ever more firmly the stamp of the\npresent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We should have seen it all coming when, in the 1970s and 1980s, our region was swept by a new wave of conservative religiosity, wedded to the interests of sectarian politics. The great temple complex of Borobudur was bombed in January 1985 by radical Islamists, who claimed that the time had come to ‘cleanse’ Indonesia of its Hindu\u00ad-Buddhist past — and that the destruction of the magnificent Buddhist monument would signal the coming of a new age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These Islamists were undoubtedly\ndisappointed that millions of tourists were flocking to the country to see\nBorobudur in all her glory; and that these same tourists were not equally awe-struck\nby the Soviet-realist statues and monuments of Jakarta — dedicated to the\ninflated egos of Indonesian politicians — or, worse still, the painfully ugly\nutilitarian-modernist edifices built by Saudi money in the Indonesian capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Malaysia we have come to hear similar voices being raised. Not too long ago a prominent religious scholar and politician — ironically, known more for his arcane knowledge of Djinns and other assorted spirit-folk — uttered the lament that a town up north was still named Indera Kayangan. In his speech, this polemicist stated, quite bluntly, that the name of the town should be changed to something more Islamic, to mirror the mood of the day. One wonders what would serve as an appropriately Islamic name, then. As if pronouns had a religious identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But municipal name-changing isn’t\nthe worst of it. Of late, we Malaysians have witnessed the erasure of history\nin no uncertain terms: the destruction of Hindu temples all over the Peninsula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Demolition of the Sri Mariamman Muniswaran temple<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Sri Mariamman Muniswaran temple\nis located at Batu Lima, Jalan Tampin, near Seremban. Historical records of the\nestate that used to sit at the site indicate that the temple was built around\n1870 – 1890, meaning that the temple may be anywhere between 110 to 130 years\nold. Further, this temple — a modest structure with a simple roof sheltering\nthe image of the local deity — is backed by a spectacular specimen of the Banyan\ntree species, a sprawling mass of vegetation that would bolster the temple’s\nclaim to relative antiquity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even more interesting is the fact\nthat, during my visit there a couple of weeks ago, I found a tiny Chinese\nshrine situated behind the temple and its tree, with — of all things — what\nappeared to be a small statue of a Javanese King as the primary totem of\ndevotion!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here was multiculturalism at its\nbest and most unapologetically hybrid. This combination of Hindu, Chinese and\nMalay elements was evident for all to see — including those who seem bent of\nlevelling the structure down, all for the sake of road expansion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On February 26, 2005, the temple\nstructure was smashed by men wielding sledgehammers. Devotees who regularly\nvisit of the temple rebuilt it immediately. Today, the fate of this tiny\ntestament to Malaysian culture is currently being decided in the courts, though\nopinion on the matter remains divided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Bulldozing of Malaysian History<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The case of the Sri Mariamman\nMuniswaran temple is not an isolated one, and this trend continues: last April,\nthe century-old Malaimel Sri Selva Kaliamman temple was destroyed by bulldozers\nsent by the Kuala Lumpur City Hall; between February and May, eight such\nstructures have been torn down or given notices in the Klang Valley alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In practically every case, the\ndemolition of these Hindu places of worship came with the following rationale:\nit was for the sake of ‘development’, and the temples in question were\nillegally built anyway — as if the foundations of Angkor Wat or Borobudur were\nlaid on legally-sanctified ground as well, or those who built them had applied\nfor planning permits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Partisans to the development\nargument will undoubtedly claim that the loss of one more temple would make no\ndifference to our landscape. After all, many others have fallen under the\nhammer and the bulldozer — so why not this one? It has often been said that\nsuch ‘Indian temples’ are an eyesore, that they have been built illegally, that\nthey somehow do not match the overall flavour and patterns of the Malaysian\nlandscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here one is forced to interject by\nstating the obvious. Lest it be forgotten, let us remind ourselves of a basic\nfact: the structures that are being destroyed are not ‘Indian temples’, but\nrather Malaysian<\/em> temples: structures\nthat are just as much a part of the Malaysian cultural-religious landscape as\nany other mosque, church or pagoda in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To call them ‘Indian temples’ would\nsuggest an Otherness or alterity they neither profess nor possess. These\ntemples were built by Malaysian Hindus, on Malaysian soil. They are, therefore,\na part of the Malaysian landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Defending Ourselves<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The recognition of the Malaysian\ncharacter of these temples would mean recognising that Hinduism has been — and\nremains part of — the cultural fabric of Malaysian society; it is not some\nalien faith and cultural system that was transplanted to the country yesterday,\nwhile we were all sleeping. There is nothing new, odd, alien or unusual about\nHinduism in Malaysia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, Hinduism counts as one of\nthe foundations of Malaysian and Malay identity — it has been part of the\norganic culture and history of the Malaysian peoples, more than any other\ncultural or belief system. The Malay language itself is proof of this — I can\ncite you a Malay sentence that is made up almost entirely of Sanskrit words:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mahasiswa-mahasiswi berasmara di asrama bersama pandita yang curiga<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Living, as we do, in a country whose\nhistory is being diluted on an hourly basis, we all need to recognise the fact\nthat this land of ours is rich in culture and history only as long as we\ncollectively preserve and protect it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The defence of these temples should\nbe seen by all Malaysians as a Malaysian concern — to see it as a problem\nsolely or exclusively for the Malaysian Hindu community is to make a grave\nmistake. The systematic destruction of the spiritual landscape of Malaysia\nshould not be pathologised simply as a Hindu problem — or, worse still, an\nIndian problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Employing the legalese of the\nparties that perpetuate this destruction, one might lawfully say that there are\nno ‘Indians’ in Malaysia — save for those who carry Indian passports and\nhappen to be citizens of India. Malaysian ‘Indians’, as this shaky\ncategorisation is usually delineated, are citizens of Malaysia who may or may\nnot have ethnic roots in the Indian subcontinent — and who may or may not\nidentify themselves as believing, practising, nominal or even atheistic Hindus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In short, what we are witnessing\ntoday is the destruction of Malaysian temples, and that is why we should all be\nconcerned. It doesn’t matter what religion you may or may not choose to\nprofess: this is an issue that needs to be addressed by all of us,\ncollectively. To recognise that these temples are Malaysian temples means\nlocating them here, at home, as part of our collective identity and what\ndefines us as what we are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I grew up in a neighbourhood of\nKuala Lumpur where, at dawn, I could hear the sounds of both the azan from the\nmosque and the chimes of the Hindu temple, nearby. Today those temple bells are\nbeing silenced. My world — and yours — is poorer as a result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ~~~ <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr Farish A Noor is a Malaysian political scientist and human rights activist who has just launched OtherMalaysia.org, an online source of articles, columns, travelogues and creative writing for those ‘interested in unearthing aspects of Malaysian history … marginalised or erased in the official historiography of the post-colonial state’. <\/p>\n\n\n\n First Published: 02.11.2006 on Kakiseni <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A nation is as rich as its geography; and geography is enriched when it is over-determined. In this respect, we in Malaysia are — or were — rich indeed. Rich, because of the fact that — being located as we are at the crossroads of Asia — this patch of earth was the meeting point […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"iawp_total_views":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3505,34,3544,3897],"tags":[3917,530,501,3923,3918,2772,3925,3927,568,628,3920,621,3926,3924,3921,3582,3919,3922],"language":[7523],"writer":[7607],"class_list":["post-27537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-architecture","category-articles","category-culture","category-history","tag-architecture","tag-chinese","tag-culture","tag-hindu","tag-hinduism","tag-history","tag-identity","tag-india","tag-indian","tag-islam","tag-malaimel-sri-selva-kaliamman-temple","tag-malay","tag-malaysia","tag-malaysian","tag-multiculturalism","tag-southeast-asia","tag-sri-mariamman-muniswaran-temple","tag-temple","language-english","writer-dr-farish-a-noor"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27537"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38928,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27537\/revisions\/38928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27537"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=27537"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/writer?post=27537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}