No nails
Sixty hardwood pillars.
Akml5599 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · zzclef Egard89 at en.wikipedia — CC BY 2.0 · Wiki Farazi — CC0
A beautiful timber palace built in 1926 for Sultan Iskandar Shah of Perak by a skilled Malay carpenter, Enci Sepian, and his sons, from hardwood and without a single nail, resting on sixty pillars and about forty-one metres long. Its walls are faced with woven bamboo panels in geometric patterns under stepped roofs in Malay style. The sultan lived here only briefly; once the grand palace nearby was finished it became the place where the palace's guests were received, and since 1986 it has been a royal museum on the history of Perak's sultans, their regalia and photographs, with a hall centred on a royal throne. Entry is free, and it opens daily from ten in the morning to half past four in the afternoon, with a break for Friday prayers, according to the hours board at its entrance. The palace has undergone conservation work in recent years, so ask before you go whether all its halls are open. It stands on Bukit Chandan in Kuala Kangsar, Perak's royal town, a few steps from the golden-domed Ubudiah Mosque and the royal palace, so see them together, about an hour's drive from Ipoh.
Sixty hardwood pillars.
Walls in geometric patterns.
Between mosque and palace on Bukit Chandan.
Bukit Chandan in the royal town of Kuala Kangsar, about 50 km north of Ipoh
The golden-domed Ubudiah Mosque a few steps away, the grand royal palace from outside, and the banks of the Perak River. Half a day covers the town, and it pairs with Taiping on the way north.
