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The Residence Overlooking The Perak River, Kuala Kangsar
The picture shows the Residence on the hill above Kuala Kangsar and facing the Perak River. There are a lot of workers in the foreground who appear to be loading or unloading items from a boat on the river using coolie poles. There are also two, attap roofed, boats in the river and on to the right is a rickshaw. A large number of what may be bricks lying on the shore.
Kuala Kangsar, known as the Royal Town, is the seat of the Sultan of Perak and has been so since the Sultan Muzafar moved there in the mid 1700’s and built a palace and a fort.
The town has seen much history before being overshadowed by the tin mining towns of Taiping and Ipoh: administrative seat for J W W Birch until he was assassinated by the Malays; site of the first nine rubber trees planted in Malaya. by Henry Nicholas Ridley and encouraged by Hugh Low; site for the first Conference of Rulers, the Durbar, in 1897; founding of the Malay College Kuala Kangsar (MCKK) Jan 2, 1905; and more.
Holding a strategic site on the Perak River, at the lower reaches of the Kangsar River, the name is believed to have come from Kuala Karong-Sa meaning “99 tributaries” and referring to those that flow into the Perak River close to the first palace, on the bend. However, the spelling of the town has changed over the years and it was Isabella Bird, that famous lady traveler, who spelt it as below when she said in 1879:
“I like Kwala Kangsa better than any place that I have been at in Asia
and am proportionately sorrier to leave it”.
To read more about J W W Birch click here.
To read more about the first Durbar, click here.
To read more about the Malay College Kuala Kangsar, click here.
To read more about Hugh Low, click here.
To read a brief history of the rickshaw, click here.