 Suria KLCC Complex / Malay healer consults with patients |
by Philip Game
When the Union Jack was lowered for the last time at Kuala Lumpur’s Merdeka Square on 15 August 1957, a nation began to coalesce from the bits and pieces of British Malaya. Kuala Lumpur has grown into one of Asia’s major cities, yet despite scattered pockets of gleaming high-rise towers, the Klang Valley conurbation remains a hotch-potch of towns and garden suburbs and even the occasional Malay kampung or village.
A walk through Chinatown reveals a vibrant street life which continues today.
One of the city’s most endearing features is the legacy of Victorian architects entranced by the Islamic domes and spires of Mughal India. The Masjid Jamek or Friday Mosque, conceived by A. B. Hubback in 1907, remained the city’s principal mosque until 1965. I never tire of admiring its onion domes and its candy-striped colonnades and minarets, rising from a coconut grove inside the river fork at the very heart of Kuala Lumpur.
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