PHT Site Visit: Lunas

The Old Lunas Rubber Smokehouse, today a restored heritage site.

Lunas PHT January Site Visit 9:45am - 3:00pm, Sunday, 28 January, 2007 Report by Timothy Tye A busload of PHT members and friends joined the PHT January Site Visit. This month's visit took us out of Penang State, to visit the town of Lunas, which is located just outside the border of Penang in neighbouring Kedah. According to Laurence Loh, who played host for this visit, Lunas is located immediately east of George Town, as the crow flies. I checked and found that the latitude of Lunas indeed corresponds with Gurney Drive and Pulau Tikus on Penang Island. The participants assembled at the Caring Society Complex at Jalan Utama, at 9:45am that lovely Sunday morning, 28 January 2007. PHT rented a coach to take us there. Our coach left Penang at 10:00am. Traffic that morning was smooth, save for a diversion where the Gelugor Underpass was closed. This trip is almost like a tour guide outing, because there were seven licensed tour guides on board. As the law requires tour coaches to include an accompanying guide, Mr Yeap Peng Hoe graciously volunteered his services for the occasion, entertaining us with light-hearted explanation on the Penang Bridge as well as the journey through the East-West Highway. We continued our journey to Lunas without a hitch, stopping once at the Butterworth-Kulim Expressway for a toilet stop (Laurence said that locating a toilet in Lunas could be a challenge), and arriving in Lunas at about 10:35am that morning. Our first stop was at the old Lunas rubber smokehouse. It is located by the main road as one enters Lunas town. There, Laurence gave us a briefing. He happens to be the grandson of Loh Boon Ghee @ Loh Boon Ngee, one of the three men who had founded Lunas. The smokehouse was built in the late 1960s by Laurence's uncle for the use of smallholders to smoke their rubber. It had been left in a state of abandonment since the 1980's. In 2006, Laurence restored the smokehouse as part of Digi's Amazing Malaysians 2006 "Rubber Story" programme, and turned it into a site museum exhibiting the history of Lunas and its position as a rubber plantation. The Rubber Story holds the distinction of being the only rubber exhibit in Malaysia located in situ of an actual rubber smokehouse. The three-storey structure is divided into two sections. On one side, we get acquainted with Lunas town, its founding, and anything interesting that we can come across in Lunas today - no stone was left unturned, no one and nothing was spared a description. On the other side, we enter an authentic smokehouse. Authentic because the smokehouse has been preserved as it was, to give visitors the feel of how and what a smokehouse is like. At the basement level, there is a exhibit of the documentation work done by the children of Lunas. As part of the programme, Laurence Loh engaged the involvement of 80 children in the Lunas community to document the sites as well as to interview the residence. The children, aged 10 to 14, were drawn from three schools in Lunas, namely SRJK (China) Hwa Min, SMK Kulim and SMK Jalan Paya Besar. Practically every shophouse in Lunas was photographed, videographed and carefully documented. The children also drew up a Lunas heritage trail. The effort is now exhibited at the Lunas smokehouse. From the smokehouse, we walked through Lunas town. On the way, we passed the Sri Maha Kuttakarai Muniswarar Alayam Hindu Temple, established as an estate temple for the Indian community. The Indian community in Lunas has since dwindled with the disappearance of the rubber estates, and the town is today decidedly Chinese in character. Continuing our walk, we passed the only single-storey detached house along the main road. This house is dubbed the "Strong Wall". It was built in 1951 and was nicknamed as such, because it was reinforced to withstand ammunition fire. We arrived at a junction. Turning left would take us to the Hock Teik Soo Temple, the Hokkien Tua Pek Kong Temple of Lunas and furtherdown, the Buddhist Hermitage. Turning right takes us to the mansion of Soon Ah Lee @ Baba Lee. Baba Lee was one of the three founders of Lunas. (I have so far mentioned Loh Boon Ghee and Soon Ah Lee as founders of Lunas; Lim Lean Teng completes the trio.) The Palladian type bungalow was built in 1928. The exterior has since been repainted and restored, but nothing much has been done to restore its interior. PHT members had the opportunity of browsing around at the period furnishing - I am not sure how long ago was the bungalow last used. I did see a bottle of Scott's Emulsion in one of its cabinets. I wonder how long it had stayed there. From the Soon Mansion, we broke for lunch. Lunch was each to his own. Chooi Yoke (my wife-to-be) and I joined a few other members to enjoy the famous Tan Kee Lunas Duck, located prominently on the main road. I did enjoy the lunch very much. For two persons, we spent a mere RM17.00, quite cheap (by Penang standard) for the amount of duck and accompanying mixed vegetable stew that we received. Chooi Yoke bought one duck for her family to enjoy; I got none for my own family members - none of them are fond of duck. After lunch, we visited a cottage industry where local cookies such as Love Letters were made. We all crowded into the backyard to watch the lady make cookies, and quite a number of us came away with massive tins. Next we boarded our coach and off we go to visit the Buddhist Hermitage. Arriving at the bridge across Sungai Kulim, the coach driver refused to go any further, for fear that he would not be able to back out. So we all had to climb down and walk the remaining 400 meters or so to the hermitage. The walk was of no issue to me, as I am used to exploring places on foot. Approaching the heritage on foot was also a good idea, as it allowed me to stop and take photographs. We entered the newly built pagoda at the hermitage. It has a statue of the Buddha in Santida Mudra gesture, represented by a standing Buddha figure with a raised right hand. Afterwards, participants of the site visit had a group photograph taken on the steps of the pagoda. It was a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend a Sunday, and I slept all the way back to Penang. Timothy Tye Penang Heritage Trust Council Member Soon Mansion. Period furniture within the Soon Mansion. Tim (in black, front middle) with participants from the Penang Heritage Trust Site Visit. Laurence Loh in standing at the top of the stairs, in white.