Monday, January 31, 2011

Ronda-Ronda: Kampung Kling Mosque

Kampung Kling Mosque

Kampung Kling Mosque was built in 1748, located along Jalan Tukang Emas it is one of the oldest mosques in Malaysia. The mosque located on the corner of Jalan Hang Lekiu and Jalan Tokong. All the major faiths in Malaysia are represented along this road such as Islam, Hindu, Buddha n Christian. You might also see the Cheng Hoon Teng Temple and the Sri Poyyatha Vinayagar Moorthi Temple near to the mosque.

The minaret

The multiple styles revealed in this mosque attest to the synchratic building tradition that flourished in Malacca, a major trading port in the fourteenth through the 18th centuries.


Like most Southeast Asian mosques, Masjid Kampong Kling is built on a square plan rather than the rectangular or hexagonal plan of most Middle Eastern mosques. Corinthian columns both define the arcaded verandah that wraps around the prayer hall and also separate the mimbar space from the central prayer hall within the mosque.

The roof style

Wudhu' area

A fountain also called as 'lipat gunting' in Malacca classic language

Supported by timber post-and-beam construction, Kampong Kling's triple-tiered hipped roof is particularly indicative of a Malaccan mosque. The mosque's flared pyramidal upper roof is raised by four columns placed in the center of the mosque. These four great central columns are mimicked by two further quartets of columns placed further apart to support each of the two lower and wider roofs. 


The mimbar

Mihrab

The concentric squareness of this plan is only disrupted by the extension of the steps to the porch area, or iwan, from which access to the mosque is raised on a low perimeter wall. This upper roof is suspended over a second, middle roof, with a gap left between them to allow for ventilation and subdued natural lighting, particularly suitable for the humid and rainy climate. Each of these two roofs is covered with tiles. The lowest roof has a much more shallow pitch, practically horizontal and is covered by red clay shingles.


A courtyard behind the mosque contains a fountain-like pool for ablutions that is raised a few steps above ground level and circumambulated by a similarly raised and covered walkway. The commanding minaret was built entirely of masonry in contrast to the accompanying timber mosque. Likened to a Chinese pagoda or stupa form, this type of minaret has become characteristic of Malacca. 

The Arch of Kampung Kling Mosque

Renaissance embellishments 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 increasingly more prevalent and are useful in demarcating the mosque in dense urban areas. In 1868 the mosque and its minaret were enclosed by a high wall to protect it from the street.


Chinese ceramic tiles were imported to adorn the roof, the floor and the lower walls of the mosque. Furthermore, decorative motifs such as those applied to the doors and windows and ornamentation such as the curved eaves terminating in sculptural finials on the roof are attributed to an Oriental influence, as is the rooftop ornament, or mastaka. Built during the Dutch occupation that followed the period of Portuguese rule, European touches reveal themselves in the mosque in such elements as rendered plaster on the internal masonry walls.

A graveyard near to the mosque

Information board