Exploring the happenings around the 1874 Pangkor Treaty in Perak... From Kampung Gajah to Pasir Salak

Greeting earthlings! The article Exploring the happenings around the 1874 Pangkor Treaty in Perak... From the tomb of Keramat Kuala Bidor to that of Raja Ahmad... was concluded with the story of Raja Ahmad and how we arrived at his tomb at night. The same night, we head to Kampung Gajah for dinner. That's when some of us parted ways to resume with whatever business we have elsewhere while the rest of us decided to bunk at a mosque.

This is a picture from behind the mosque where we bunked at, Masjid (or the mosque) of Sultan Azlan Shah named after the current ruler of Perak. As far as my travels go (and I've been around, have slept at many mosques), this is the most 'user-friendly' mosque when it comes to find a place to bunk at...

Originally, we plan to go to the Pasir Salak, the place where the first British Resident to Perak J.W.W. Birch was killed right after visiting the tomb of Raja Ahmad. But by the time we're done visiting followed by dinner in Kampung Gajah, it was already way past 10pm! So we decided to bunk at this mosque and this is the picture morning after.

We could have gone straight to Pasir Salak from the mosque but decided to turn back down south towards Teluk Intan some 15km or so to get to Chenderong Balai. You see one of the trip's participants who goes by the nickname RadenCilik (he came with a nephew) had problems with his car. So we decided that it's best he parked his car somewhere and continued the rest of the journey in Zaidi @ PerpatihTulus's car.

Another participant Zam offered his family's place in Chenderong Balai to park the car. That would surely be much safer... So we took the offer. But Zam who joined the trip from Teluk Intan up to the visit to the tomb of Raja Ahmad and dinner in Kampung Gajah was among those who had to part ways as there's a family function coming.

Anyway the car was safely parked there. Above is a picture of the place we had breakfast at in Chenderong Balai.

Then it's time to head back to Kampung Gajah as we have to go through there to get to Pasir Salak. On the way, between the tomb of Raja Ahmad and Kampung Gajah, we decided to visit the tomb of Sultan Ja'afar Muazzam Shah, the 23rd Sultan of Perak.

view the video clip posted in the article Menyusuri sejarah sekitar Perjanjian Pangkor 1874... Sultan Jaafar dan Bandar Tua at the Malay blogspot CATATAN SI MERAH SILU . For the record, Sultan Ja'afar is the son of Raja Ahmad. Furthermore, he is also the father of Sultan Abdullah II, the 26th Perak Sultan who was exiled to the Seychelles islands in Africa for being involved in the killing (I would rather use the word kill than murder here) of J.W.W. Birch in 1875.

Oh, just in case you forgot. The killing happened in the wake of the Pangkor Treaty 1874. Birch who was assigned by the colonising British to "sort out" matters in Perak proved very crude and rude and this upsetted the locals especially the Sultan and the nobles. That's why he was murdered (now I can used the word 'murder' within the right social context)!

Soon enough we arrived at Pasir Salak which is on the other side of the Perak river across Kampung Gajah... Quite early actually, I think just before 9am or so. Since we had time on our hands (then we had time, later we had to rush!), we decided to have a look at the area south of it particularly an area called Bandar Tua.

A video clip on the visit is available in the article Menyusuri sejarah sekitar Perjanjian Pangkor 1874... Sultan Jaafar dan Bandar Tua . You can also read the article Masjid (mosque of) Bandar Tua, Perak... posted earlier today in the bi-lingual blogspot SENI LAMA MELAYU (MALAY OLDEN ART) .

Actually, apart from abundance of time, the main reason we decided to make the foray down south Pasir Salak was to look for a certain unique mosque mentioned by Zam as existing somewhere along the area. More than half an hour later, after a few false stops and a few kilometres down south, we finally found it. Please look at the article Masjid (mosque of) Bandar, Perak? , also in the blogspot SENI LAMA MELAYU (MALAY OLDEN ART) ...

A look from the tower of the mosque... That is Zaidi down there...

A look towards the south-east with the Perak river in view...

To the north-east... And then it's time to go...

Soon enough, we arrived again at Pasir Salak and decided to park in front of the old mosque there...

Behind it lies the Pasir Salak historical complex...

We went into the complex using the back door besides the old mosque. That's when we got scolded by the guards who directed us to use the main entrance!

Hmm... It seems, the back door was built only for the locals to get around... Since the main entrance is some 300 metre away, might as well park our car at the area above...

That's when we noticed this graveyard...

Inside it lies a tomb, one gazetted as a place of historical significance...

For here lies the remains of a person known as Si Puntum, a frontline person in the killing of Birch. For more information, please open the picture in a new window. To be continued...