kampung

Chapter 4: Hari Raya Aidiladha Celebration at the Kampung

Hari Raya Haji, Eid al-Adha or feast of festival is celebrated on the 10th day of the last month of the Islamic Calendar. It honours the willingness of prophet Ibrahim to sacrifice his first son (Ismail) as an act and faith to Allah command.

According to the story in Quran around 4000 years ago in the valley of Mecca (present Saudi Arabia) was an uninhabited place, after years of worship, Ibrahim and Hajra, his wife were blessed with a son. In order to test the devotion and faith of Ibrahim, God decided to command Ibrahim to sacrifice his one and only son. As Ibrahim was about to strike his son, Allah stopped him and revealed that it was a test and a ram was to be sacrifice instead.

This ultimate act of sacrifice by the Muslim commemorate is done yearly to remember the sacrificial intentions of Abraham towards Allah. Cow and sheep is use to sacrifice in a mosque during this festival and it usually cost around RM 800-1200 depending on the cow size. The most important is not the price because it is the meaning behind the sacrifice and the ritual itself. Animals are killed according to the proper religions rites and meat is then distributed to family, neighbors and most important, the less fortunate in the community.

During the week of the hajj, pilgrims gather in Mecca to perform a series of ritual such as walking counter-clockwise 7 times around the Ka’bah (cube-shaped structure covered in black cloth which serves as the Muslim prayer direction), kissin the black stone in the corner of the Ka’bah, drinking from the Zamzam well and throwing stones as a symbolic act of stoning the devil. Upon completion of the pilgrimage, the men will earn the title “haji” and the women “hajjah”.

In the kampung during Hari Raya Haji, the men perform prayers in the mosque. Sermons are read out in the mosque. Afterwards, the volunteers participate in “korban”, or sacrificial of sheeps and cows hosted by mosques across the country. The meat will then be distributed through the Muslim community, particularly to the less fortunate. The holiday is also a reminder for the people to be thankful and share their blessing with one another.

Introducing the Key people

Haji Zarali bin Malek, who teach us how to make lemang step by step.

Haja Norlia binti Nokman, Haji Zarali bin Malek's wife who teach us how to put the banana leaf inside the bamboo as the ‘cloth’ for lemang.

Kamal Urin, people who teach us setup the place for cook the lemang.

(Ahli Jkkk 1) Mr Kamal, people who bring us looking for bamboo for lemang making.

Ahli Jkkk 2, people who teach us how to determine the bamboo is cooked or not.

Ibrahim bin Ohman, who help us setup the place for soak the pulut rice.

Mohd Ramdzan bin Yaakub

Day 1_ preparation day

the Making of Lemang

process of making lemang

Day 2_event day

Traditional clothings

Traditional Malay clothes are being classified into 2 category-men and women. For men there are Baju Melayu and Tanjak while woman is Baju Kurung, Baju Kebaya, Baju Kebarung and Tudung. These clothes are normally worn during formal events like wedding, Hari Raya Haji and Puasa and sometimes visit to relatives.

Baju Kurung can be paired with “songkek” or “batik”, usually worn with “kain selendang” or scarft. The baju kurung looks quite like men’s wear. It is a simple knee-length blouse worn over a long skirtpleated at the side.The outfit is completed with a selendang or tudung around the shoulders or on the head. Baju kurung too can be matched with "kain songket", "batik" or even "pelikat".

Baju Melayu consists of 2 type which is “Teluk belanga” and “cekak musang”,they usually worn on Friday prayers, wedding ceremonies and other occasions. Other than matched with trousers, the Baju Melayu can also be worn with “kain pelikat”.

One of the group member wearing Baju Melayu on the event day

Serving 'lemang' in the morning on the event day

Food prepared on the event day

"Ibadat Korban"

Hari Raya Aidiladha/ Haji is the day Muslims carry out the "ibadat Korban", where they will slaughter certain animals to pray and to share.

Slaughter of cow

Weighting of meat and distributing

Packing and cleaning

Timeline of the process of "korban"

Chapter 5 : INDIVIDUAL STATEMENT

City boy Liang

I am a city boy, living in a world where people groom up to work, food is prepare with machine and serve fast, house is only a place to rest and sleep. When one gets tired with this kind of rushing life with no purpose, they tense to dream to get away from all this and to a land where birds are your alarm clocks. You wake up and found yourself lying on a soft fresh smelling carpets. Wild flowers and tall trees grow around you. A ray of sunlight shine from the heaven and you can relax and take your time doing things you never did in the colourless city. This is what I dream about of a place that I want to reach so much.

Visiting a kampong is never an intention of mine because I was taught that kampong is a place where you can’t get Wifi service, boring, to television, video games. But this time I was given a chance to visit a Malay kampong as we are taking AA432 Architecture History & culture 3. On the first day of the trip I doze off along the journey and when I woke up I found myself in the wonderland that dream all this while! The birds singing as to us as they were welcoming us, I saw green everywhere, and the air smells like a fresh daisy just pop out from its bulb.

When I wake down the streets everyone seems to live a happily ever after life in the kampong. They were smiling, even though they are not living a luxuries live, everything is just so simple and live still goes on. Then we reach our adopted house and the first impression of the owner was- wow they are so healthy. They planted lots of vegetables, fruits and also keep chickens and ducks. They are actually self sustaining! They need not go all the way down to the shops or town to buy food. They are growing their own food and I was like they are still people keeping these kind of lifestyle? Yes! They are and I can prove that.

On the second trip we went back to the kampong to celebrate Hari Raya Aidiladha with the villages. This time, we get our hands dirty to learn how to cook the local dishes for the celebration. There are several dishes for example: rendang daging, rendang ayam, ketupat, lemang, and dodol. I consider my group lucky because we were preparing one the main dishes- lemang. I have good time going around the kampong to search for bamboo with lecturer and friends. Then we learn how to wash the pulut and the bamboo, cut and slip the banana leaves into the bamboo. How to fill in the bamboo with pulut and pour the coconut milk on the bamboo. Last but not least how to cook the lemang. It was a amazing yet fun experience visiting the kampong this time. After this I might consider to stay in the kampong after retirement.

As an architecture student, the curiosity towards building has become one of our nature act. When I was in the adopted house it was very airy and very bright. There are no fan nor air-conditioning system, no lighting system. That start the spark in me to study the Malay architecture. After all the case study and readings, I found that Malay architecture applied a lot of passive design toward building and houses.

To me, I think we should really treasure all these rich culture and practices, and maintain the culture so that more generation y like me can enjoy the beauty of nature and the culture of kampong. Maybe not only for us but the future generation. The Malay house should not be modernized as it stands out and represent Malaysian architecture. Malay house is the perfect design for the tropical country where Malaysia is located. All passive design is shown in the image below. All these design can only found in Malaysia.

To me the space planning of a Malay house is extremely good because it focus on privacy between gender and also activity level.

The surrounding vegetation helps to shade the house is the best passive design where you no need any maintainance. besides that, the pitch attap roof helps to run down the rain water and cool down the entire house. The rise of level of the house is to increase the level of privacy and also avoid bad natural disaster like floods.Furthermore, the owner can rare chickens, ducks and other animal for food purposes.

1. The stacked roof allow natural ventilation to pass through the house.

2. Double volume in the middle of the house is to increase the air movement in the house itself.

3. Wide opening on both side of the house encourage cross ventilation.

4. Timber is used as the main building material because it is widely found in Malaysia and it is sustainable.

5. The elevated floor level also allow the cool air under the house to slip into the house through the timber flood.

Benson NG

I had having a delightful and pleasant journey with the kampong people whose life is totally simple and more related with nature. And this is my first time to having celebration with Malays, and we cook the food before the celebration and it is an unforgettable memory for me. I learnt how to cook the Lemang and the culture of Malays which are unfamiliar for me. In my opinion, it is an opportunity to exchange the culture between the Chinese and Malays. It does have more often happening in our country so the relationship between different races will be closer. Since we all are lives in Malaysia so we are in a big family.
The kampong should remain the traditional because Malaysia is a racial diversity country, it consists of many types of nationalities, but Malays, Chinese and Indians are the main nationalities. Malays culture is one of the heritage in Malaysia which should be reserved .

Malay house is a significant identity to Malaysian architecture it apply sustainable architecture since long time ago which building is trying to achieved at this centuries. Malay house does low cost, natural material, natural ventilation, vegetation surrounding, and so on.

Timothy

This is my first time in joining a Hari Raya celebration. I really enjoyed celebrating Hari Raya with the people at the kampong. There were many traditional foods I enjoyed eating at the celebration. Foods like dodol, rendang, lemang, ketupat, and etcetera. The day before we celebrate, my group and me were taking part in preparing the lemang. The people at the kampung were really friendly. They taught us how to cook lemang patiently. It was really an unforgettable experience.

In my opinion, the kampong’s culture and tradition should be preserve and should be remain traditional. Because it shows the originality of Malaysian culture.

The kampong house is also a significant identity of Malaysian architecture. Kampong house are designed according to Malaysia’s climate and it is suitable for Malaysia’s environment. The kampong shows where the Malaysian architecture came from. That is why we need to preserve and be proud of its rich culture.

Chua BC

Malaysia tempat tinggalku,

India,Cina dan Melayu.

Hulu Langat Tua Dusun,

Orang kampung gembira selalu.

Malaysia is a multicultural and multiracial country, and i was honoured that i can experience different kind of celebration with kampong people other than Chinese. I can feel only PASSION when doing my first chapter until the last chapter. Kampong people always were willing to help no matter when we measuring the dimension of Malay house or prepare the ‘Lemang’ for Hari Raya Aidiladha. For the preparation for ‘Lemang’, i always get help from the kampong people. At here, i especially want to thanks Haji Zarali bin Malek. Haji had helped me a lot when preparing the ‘Lemang’. When the Lemang cooked, the first bite i can
feel the fragment of coconut milk with salt that wrapped the ‘pulut’ rice. Delicious never tastes before. Although that two day was busy and exhausted, but when see the people eating the ‘Lemang’ with satisfy. That two day totally worth.
In my opinion, kampong should not be change or modernized because it is very important culture of Malaysia. Kampong should be remain so that next generation can also experience the kampong house or the ‘gotong-royong’ spirit which it not really strongly applied in city. The kampong is the significant of Malaysia architecture because localized in matter of material and climate. Kampong house is designed to it and cannot find in another place. Kampong should become the National Identity of Malaysia architecture.

Vices Soh

This is my first time visit to Malay kampung which is Kampung Dusun Tua located at Hulu Langat , celebrated of Hari Raya Haji with the local villagers and to study about the Malay traditional house . It was a great opportunity for me to experience the life in a Malay kampong and learn more knowledge from Malay house and their culture.

During last weekend, our architecture course students and interior architecture students spent 1 days with the villagers to plan the Hari Raya Haji program and it is allow us to experience for cooked other ethnicity cuisine. Indeed, the process of cooking lemang was so excited because it was my first time to experience it and the villagers was very enthusiasm and mild to teaching us during procedure of cooking lemang. The lemang was tasty and it was very good looking because have a banana layer that wrapped it. This is really an unforgotten memory and I would like say million thanks to all the kampong people who help me and my group throughout the assignment.

I not agree Malay kampong being modernised and change. Kampong culture is one of the root culture that influence Malaysian. Kampong culture is priceless because it form from the natural surroundings of kampong such as the topography, the weather and also the material. Kampong is the significant identity of Malaysian architecture because it designed to be in Malaysia no matter the climate or technology use. Indeed, the entire architecture elements have created with sustainable design and eco-friendly. It is also designed without using any style or other influences of other country.

Bert How

This is the best raya experience I’ve seen, the kampong traditional Malay house does an impact in building architecture identity of Malaysia. The community in a kampong was great as helping out each other is the key to happiness, nobody is left out. Hari Raya is not only a singular event but multiple that bring everybody and everyone together. The kampong life is simple and easy unlike the city where everyone is so busy and buzzing around their hectic life.

On 14th October 2013 our class went to a kampong at Hulu Langat to prepare a feast to everyone in the kampong. It was an unforgettable Hari Raya Haji preparation, we were greeted by the Mak Cik (aunties) and Pak Cik (uncles) in an open arm and they were delighted to have us help in the preparation of the food. My group is involve in the making of Lemang, other food preparation involve Dodol, Beef and Chicken rendang, ketupat and kacang curry. Those are delicious food that they share in the making and I can say I do learn few skills in making some of the wonderful food and it was not easy.

The next day we were ask to wear in Malay traditional clothes like Baju Kurung and Baju Melayu, unfortunately some of us unable to get or borrow clothing. Everybody looks great and we get to enjoy the food we made. After having the feast some of us went to witness the “korban” or sacrifice of a cow in a nearby mosque, it was a meaningful event as the cow eyes fill with tears. The meat is than distributed evenly among the families and the needy.

I think the kampong is best remain traditional, modernizing things is like having evolution in a bloodline. These modern days are involve in technology such as gadgets and internet, the words use by raya is always balik kampong; to the kids it is an exiting and meaningful journey to visit their grandparents and a tradition to the grown-ups and adults.

The kampong is in fact a significant identity of Malaysian architecture as it involves not only the respond of climate but the custom of Malay tradition. One of the best example is Korean kimchi, how far has it come from its traditonal farm to the world and I believe that one day Malaysian traditional custom will reach out the world as a rich heritage.

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 3

Chapter 2