New trip to the East Coast - Tomb and mosque of Tok Ku Paloh revisited

Peace be upon you all. Following my latest visit to the East Coast where I revisited some places, I'd like to present a series of articles starting with this...

OK. This is the mosque of Tok Ku Paloh, a very prominent 19th Century religious man said to be of saintly status, situated some 3 km outside the city of Kuala Terengganu. The full official name of the mosque is Masjid (mosque of) Almarhum (the deceased) Engku Saiyid Abdul Rahman Tok Ku Paloh.

His real name is Saiyid Abdul Rahman, Saiyid being an inherited title signifying him as from the lineage of prophet Muhammad SAW. The title Engku is a calling attributed to some members of the royal family... and in some countries like Terengganu, a descendant of the prophet is considered a royalty.

Tok is short form for Datuk or Datok (in normal usage a calling for a grandfather, also for a respected elder) and Ku being a short form for Engku. As he was based mainly in Kampung (village) of Paloh where this mosque is situated at, thus Saiyid Abdul Rahman is known as Tok Ku Paloh.

I've been to this mosque quite a few times and have slept here nearly as many times. Everytime, I would make a point to at least take a wash if not a bath using the water from this well.

A unique feature of this well is the lever system for taking out water using a metal pail. In the picture is my friend Shamsul Yunos having a closer look and taking some pictures.

Oh! This latest trip to the East Coast was actually made to visit and take pictures of some chosen mosques. It is for a coffee-table book project we're working on for a certain publication.

We also visited Tok Ku Paloh's tomb some 300 metres from the mosque.

The tomb is situated inside this building. For some more pictures on the subject do have a look at the articles Gambar bersejarah Kuala Terengganu (Historical pictures of Kuala Terengganu) and Gambar berkaitan Tokku Paloh (Pictures to do with Tokku Paloh) made in the blogspot SENI LAMA MELAYU (MALAY OLDEN ART) end of 2006. Malay readers can also refer to the article Keluarga besar Tokku Paloh, wali agung Terengganu abad ke 19 Masihi... made in the blogspot CATATAN SI MERAH SILU half a year ago.