Myth of The Big Rock in Kuching

They told me that my grand father has a piece of farm land beside The Big Rock. So I came to the rock to search and found  beside the rock is Temple of Maha Sri Maha Mariamman.

In “Wong Family History”, Christopher Wong mentioned about a “big rock” :

“……a “pony-tailed” son from China landed in Kuching by ship via Singapore and under the White Rajah’s program was allocated a large block of virgin land near a natural big rocky outcrop which is now a landmark along Rock Road, Kuching.”

Pang Lien Yin, my grand mother, also mentioned to me a few times between 1964-1966 that “…… your grandfather’s land was beside a huge rock along the Rock Road….”


This “Huge Rock” has since become the oldest earliest landmark of the Wong Shin Tshing, my grandfather, living location.


And Wong Syak Kee, my father, and his family members have been living just opposite this huge rock in the Batu Lintang Government Quarters area for decades.


While my father has never shown any interest in this huge rock, I came a couple of times in 1971 while still staying at quarter no: 66. It just 5 minutes walk.


Not quite understand why my father did not shown interest in his father’s (my grand father) history, but the verbal history of the Wong family was mainly passed down from the female :  Grandmother and Aunties


After 1971, I cam back again only in 2005. 34 years later.


These are recent photos in 2005 :

The Rock Road is named after a rock crystal known by its Malay name Batu Kinyang. It has a myth. The outcrop of rock is supposed to be a keramat, graveyard of a holy man, often visited by believers seeking divine help or just giving thanks for help already rendered. People began losing interest in the   place, however, when an abattoir was built nearby.
Read more:
http://www.theborneopost.com/2011/12/11/road-names-in-kuching/

Sri Maha Mariamman Temple at Batu Lintang is one of the three Hindu temples in Kuching City.

On the north side of The Rock is the newly completed Sri Maha Mariammar Temple.  This Hindu temple is another myth in the history of Sarawak.

Sri Maha Mariammar Temple was originally built 100 years ago on Matang Mountain kilometers from Kuching City. The temple was built by Indian and Ceylonese  workers recruited by the second White Rajah Charles Brooke to tend his tea and coffee plantation on the slope of the mountain.

The unsuccessful tea plantation was closed down in 1912 and the workers were given a choice to move down to Kuching or go back to India.

About  50 Indian families decided to stay back in Kuching. When they left the plantation they took the bronze statue of the deity Maha Sri Maha Mariamman. Later they moved it to a small temple built along Batu Lintang Road.  The old original Bilian wood temple on top of  Matang Mountain eventually forgotten by the young Indian generation till 1962.

This second temple beside Batu Lintang Road was familiar to me. In 1960s I stayed in Batu Lintang Government Quarters No: 117 and  No: 66. Each time I passed this small wooden temple I would be attracted by the ringing bell, or the colorful flowers hanging at the entry gate or by the Indian worshipper. 

On the right hand side of this temple were a wooden barber shop and a wooden sundry shop both were frequent by me and family members.  I came here for hair cut and family members came for sundry goods like rice, and sugar.

I left Kuching for too long and tings have changed much since then. The wooden temple was not more there but a much bigger concrete  big temple dedicated to the deity was built near by at Jalan Rock in 1991. The 100 years old bronze statue of the deity Maha Sri Maha Mariamman originally from the forgotten Matang Mountain is now finally rest and remains in the new Temple to be Re-declare  open soon.

Photo above : Mount Matang Sri Maha Mariamman Temple rediscovered in 1967 http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mount-Matang-Sri-Maha-Mariamman-Temple-Kuching-Sarawak/200262026677821?sk=photos

Sri Maha Mariamman - The Lost Temple of Matang :  http://worshipdevotion.blogspot.com/2010/11/sri-maha-mariamman-lost-temple-of.html

Japanese in Batu Lintang

http://www.far-eastern-heroes.org.uk/Life_of_Riley/html/batu-lintang_camp.htm

The Japanese during the Second World War established an internment camp in Borneo Island.

This Batu Lintang camp (Lintang Barracks and Kuching POW camp) housed both Allied prisoners of war (POWs) and civilian internees.

This camp operated from March 1942 until the liberation of the camp in September 1945.



Before the Japanese conqueror came to this place was originally British Indian Army barracks. The Japanese extended the area to 50 acres (20 hectares).

The camp population fluctuated, due to movement of prisoners between camps in Borneo, and as a result of the deaths of the prisoners.

It had a maximum population of some 3,000 prisoners.

Batu Lintang camp : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batu_Lintang_camp



Our house was just 1 Km to this  location of Japanese camp. We lived in Batu Lintang Government Quarters Area 10 minute walk to Batu Lintang Teacher College where the POW Camp was located during the war time.

Little oil lamp over The Big Rock

Photo above: From top of The Big Rock looking toward South.  

At the right side is housing build in 1971. 

At the background is Government Quarter Area where my family lived in Quarter 117 (1959 to 1961) and Quarter 66 (1966 to 1972).  A row of wooden quarters could be seen in the photos. The windows were all closed indicating the houses were not being occupied. All these quarters have been demolish by 2010 making way for a mega commercial multi purposes area that include hotels and a water park.

In front is the Shell petrol station original location at the corner of traffic light. The station shifted 100 meters further up the Rock Road to give way to expansion of the highway junction.

Photo above : On top of The Big Rock, an ordinary oil lamp housed in special created lamp housing. Showing the determination of the worshipper who place it there has a determination to keep on the lamp burning.

“Give me oil in my lamp keep it burning, burning …..I prayed” 

This is a favorite song of my Christian friends. But the real determination to keep a lamp burning and burning I found in this little Hindu oil lamp.

An ordinary oil lamp placed on The Big Rock by a worshipper most likely Hindu because of the Hindu style clay lamp.  

Keeping an oil lamp in the wide open space to keep on burning and burning is impossible every knows. A breeze blew over and the fire is easily extinguish. A shower of raindrop not only put off the fire but also replace the oil in the clay with water. (Water is heaver then oil).

But wind and rain do not deter a Hindu devotee to keep his oil lamp burning burning till he return again to give it some more oil. 

A genuinely created lamp housing I never seen earlier. Hand made and unlikely made in Carpenter Street which is well known for skilled iron works. 

The square glass housing protects the fire from blowing wind.  The chimney on top keeps ventilation of flow of air and smoke necessary for the fire to keep on burning. The slanting corn shape keeps the rain water flow to the side. And an umbrella like shade on top keep heavy rain drops away.  A big ring handles on top for comfortable and firm gripping and carrying.

Wish upon a rock in Batu Lintang

By CHOONG MEK ZHIN 

http://election.thestar.com.my/sarawak/news/story.asp?file=/2011/4/16/sarawakpolls/8493165&sec=sarawakpolls

KUCHING: Though the city has grown in the name of development, there is still room for the mystical and it exists right here in Batu Lintang where there is a rock that is said to have mystical properties to grant wishes.

The dark-coloured rock is located beside a Hindu temple along the aptly named Jalan Rock and is hard to miss due to its size.

“Oh yes, the locals know about the rock. My grandmother made a wish on it once and it was fulfilled,” Manjeet Kaur Sidhu, 42, a businesswoman said though she had never made a wish there.