Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Culture: Melaka Wooden Clogs / Terompah

Jonker Street in Melaka (or Malacca, in English) is the centre street of Melaka's Chinatown which is renowned for its antique shops. Recently this street has also featured many clothing, crafts outlets and restaurants.

Like Amsterdam, Melaka has a cottage industry in making clogs, a type ofwooden slippers.

In Jonker Street, there are still a few of these traditional clog making shops . In some of these shops, you can persuade the shop keeper to let you in to the back of the shop to see how these clogs are made. This is a fast disappearing trade as it's difficult to recruit young apprentices.

A pair of wooden clogs can cost up to RM35. The more intricately designed ones are even sold at RM50 a pair.