Seberang Perak, Alor Setar,Kedah...

Tracing back the history is not a simple task especially when you were left with inadequate information, evidence and documentation. Things that I've gained so far were based on personal experience and observation as well as 'cakap-cakap mulut', 've been surfing the net and could only found few that relate to the history of this place : Seberang Perak. Most of the site are repetitive and mostly centred on Dr.M's house and history, this could only help maybe 5 percent of the entire picture.

Time is running out as it wait for no man...old building were replaced with a new one, people are leaving, the eldest has moved out or could only met them but not really seeing them.

This is an ambitious project but with no discipline and dedication it will be left in the computer for another year..so this could be my new year resolution : to finish up this mini research before end of Dec 07.

So far I have no problem getting information on the general history of Alor Setar as it is interconnected but when I narrow down to this particular area what I found was a blur imagery. The evidence are still there, but of coz not 100%, and no pictures to proof the activities and history. I could only traced back to maybe 30 or 40 years back, and in history that is nothing..it should be at least 100 years...I wish I have a time capsule or something...or a magic mirror.

As for now there are few building that have been identified its history significants: Sekolah Seberang Perak, Sekolah Seberang Perak (L),rice factory (only remnants of it), JKR quarters, flat, two old madrasah, Masjid Al-Ihsan, Pagoda, IKM, Dr.M's house, Kilang Ais, Market Lama, the place itself and the most important is the Kedah River.

Some of the houses are proof to the existence of mixed architecture where traditional Kedah house were combined with concrete stairs similar to Malacca house, same goes with the madrasah. Based on my family background, my ancestor (my mom side) were from Malacca and from Bugis descent, he was known as Pak Man Melaka..so I am trying to relate this two together. But why is this place called Seberang Perak? Does someone from Perak opened this village or there were some kind of activites that connected to 'perak'.
One of the interesting features is the composition of people here, we have Malay, Chinese, Indian, Indian Muslim (from India) and also a small community of Muslim from Pakistan (Kg Bibi).

From grandmothers story Seberang Perak were also affected during Japanese occupation, her house were visited by Japanese soldier who tought that one of her nephew as Chinese, and there were also Japanese soldier who during British occupation ran for their life and jump into the river at the back of the house..the river were lined with nipah tree and the water level is higher than now.

It seems like this journey of tracing back the history is still a long way to go...

When I was about 12 or 13, it wasn't hard to just scratch and digged the soil and found old coins around the house..and at one time I was so obsessed with this till I didn't realised what I found was actually not an ancient bowl but a praying bowl that some Chinese left on the ground at a big fragrance tree in front of my house, they came and pray to get this 4D ..... :-( aku tertipu!!!

So, lets play Indiana Jones...

p/s : its supposed to be my due date today, since doc has given me REDD this 1st Feb, I still have enough time surfing and bloghopping, I want this baby to be away from architecture, maybe I'll persuade him or her to continued digging the past...