MangoVine
Adventures in East Asia

Entries in History

 22 September, 2009
Tuesday A Famosa Ruins in Malacca
The A Famosa or "The Famous" in Portuguese, was a fortress located in Malacca. It's among the oldest surviving European architectural remains in Asia and the Porta de Santiago, a small gatehouse, is the only remaining part of the fortress still standing.

Afamosa-Close

The gatehouse was part of our little walking tour of Malacca and actually has more relevance and history that is at first apparent. Well, I guess that's the case with alot of ruins.

Read more... 22 September, 2009
Tuesday St Pauls Church Ruins in Malacca
The St Paul's Church ruins stand atop the Bukit St Paul and was worth climbing the short path up to for the fine views over Malacca. Originally built in 1521 by a Portugese captain, its history has seen ownership pass to the Dutch and British, gaining two storeys and a tower before falling to ruins over a century and a half ago.

St-Pauls

Visiting on a fine, sunny day, there were scores of people climbing up steps built into the hill, to look around before descending at a different point. We found ourselves exploring in and outside the church walls whilst a busker played and vendors sold tourist items on makeshift stalls in the shade.

Read more... 19 September, 2009
Saturday Longhouse Visit Part 3 - Educational Evening
Part of what made our visit to the Annah Rais Longhouse and to Mr. Edward's homestay special, was what I call his "Educational Evening". After our delicious dinner, Mr. Edward's joined us in his outdoor (covered) living room, the walls of which hung items of clothing, weapons and other historic, cultural objects.

Longhouse-Eve-Wall-Clothese

The plan was for him to give us a bit of background about the Longhouse culture, history and his experiences. He did this accompanied by props that were all around us.

Read more... 12 September, 2009
Saturday Asian Civilisations Museum
Next to the historic Singapore River, the Asian Civilisations Museum specialises in the material history of China, Southeast Asia, South Asia and West Asia. Ten thematic galleries explored the traditional aspects of pan-Asian culture with an emphasis on the the regions strongly connected with Singapore's ethnic make-up.

Asian-Civil-Muse-Exterior

An eleventh gallery also exists to put on special exhibitions and when we visited, this consisted of the Hunters & Collectors Exhibition - The Origins of the Southeast Asian Collection.

Read more... 11 September, 2009
Friday National Museum of Singapore
As the oldest museum in the country, the National Museum of Singapore prides itself on introducing cutting-edge ways of presenting history. It does this within a fantasic, Neo-Palladian and Renaissance architecturally-styled building consisting of two rectangular parallel blocks and a dome at the front.

National-Museum-Exterior

As we entered the rotunda at the front entrance, we faced the fantastic sculpture Love Tank (The Temple) by Indonesia artist S. Teddy Darmawan. It was pretty striking and I probably spent too much time trying to photograph it.

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