The ornate roofs
Dragons, ceramic figures, carved columns and gilded walls.
Gryffindor — Public domain · This Photo was taken by Supanut Arunoprayote. Feel free to use any of my images, but please mention me as the author and may send me a message. (สามารถใช้ภาพได้อิสระ แต่กรุณาใส่เครดิตผู้ถ่ายและอาจส่งข — CC BY 4.0 · This Photo was taken by Supanut Arunoprayote. Feel free to use any of my images, but please mention me as the author and may send me a message. (สามารถใช้ภาพได้อิสระ แต่กรุณาใส่เครดิตผู้ถ่ายและอาจส่งข — CC BY 4.0 · This Photo was taken by Supanut Arunoprayote. Feel free to use any of my images, but please mention me as the author and may send me a message. (สามารถใช้ภาพได้อิสระ แต่กรุณาใส่เครดิตผู้ถ่ายและอาจส่งข — CC BY 4.0
You enter from a narrow lane and suddenly face a wide stone square with the most ornate building in George Town: the clan temple of the Khoo family from Fujian, its roofs crowded with dragons and ceramic figures, its columns carved and its walls gilded. The present building was finished in 1906 after a fire destroyed its predecessor; the story goes that the clan rebuilt more modestly because the first had been too grand. In George Town's Chinese society a kongsi was more than a temple: it was a clan association, court, bank and refuge for new arrivals, ringed by the houses of clan members in a closed compound. On the ground floor a small museum explains that life and the clan's origins in Penang, and the square holds an old stone stage for Chinese opera. Adults pay RM 15, and it opens daily from nine to five, closing on Chinese New Year's Eve and Day. An hour is enough to wander and read the museum panels. It is at the heart of the old town, steps from the Kapitan Keling Mosque, and one of the most photographed places in George Town, especially in morning light.
Dragons, ceramic figures, carved columns and gilded walls.
A wide stone square that opens suddenly off a narrow lane.
The kongsi as association, court and refuge.
18 Cannon Square, George Town, Penang
Acheen Street Mosque (Masjid Melayu Lebuh Acheh)One of Penang's oldest and most storied mosques, built in 1808 on land given by 1 minute walk
Kapitan Keling MosqueFounded by Muslim traders from South India in the early nineteenth century, a fe3 minutes walk4.7
Clan Jetties (Chew Jetty)Villages of wooden houses on stilts over the sea, linked by narrow boardwalks, b5 minutes walk4.2
Little India, George TownA lively quarter in the heart of George Town, fragrant with spices and incense a5 minutes walk
Pinang Peranakan MansionA green mansion on Church Street built in the late nineteenth century by Chung K8 minutes walk4.6The facade can only be seen from inside the square, so the ticket is needed to see the building at all. It is worth it: one of the finest buildings in town.