Potential Places to Explore for the Subjective Mapping

One of the places which caught my attention from the Klang Valley was Putrajaya, for its unique architectures. It feels like a mixture of the ancient temples and the modern highly developed civilization of ours. It has also a lot of green areas, considering that it is a city.

After some research, I found that the city was actually part of the Multimedia Super Corridor, which was a test-bed for experimenting with multimedia technology and the evolution of a new way of life in this modern age.

It was meant to be the second city of Kuala Lumpur, a smart city with the ability to compete with the neighboring highly developed cities such as Hong Kong’s Cyber Port Information Technology Park, Singapore’s Singapore One among others. (Marshall Richard, 2002, p.169)

(Marshall Richard, 2002, p.184) “Charles Coulter depicted a vision , which captures the civic expression of what a capital city should be.” Therefore, we can see why the city has this unique modern appeal.

Furthermore, the project has left 40 percent of the plan used, which was then turned into a series of interconnected public parks that are linked throughout the city. These parks allow people to wander around on foot or bike (Marshall Richard, 2002, p.187), which explains the green areas.

The project of the Putrajaya has proven me that men, even in their quest to fit in the global trend can still show some creativity and bring some ease for different type of people of the civilization, not all people can afford having a car to explore a large city, the presence of the connection of parks surely help some person.

Another interesting area is the Batu Cave, where the Tamils of Malaysia have built a temple within it. It’s really wonderful with all their colorful item they use for their rituals

The Tamil community of Malaysia was believed to have arrived in the beginning of the historical period which were Sriwichai period and Langkasuka period. They were worshiping the deity Pra Mu Ru Ka on the month beginning at the end of December to the beginning of January, and it was called the Thaipusam festival, And they’ve chosen this particular site for their rituals. It is stated that this festival has help Malaysia to raise a great amount of money. (Waradet Mesangrutdharakul Nakhon Ratchasima Rajabhat University, 2016, p.100-p.102)

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The death of the politician Mazlan Idris was an event which captured my attention. It happened at the Aeroplane Bungalow in Kuala Lumpur. A trio, consisting of Mona Fandey, who afterwards revealed that her real name was Maznah Ismail, her husband, Mohamed Affandi Abdul Rahman and their assistant, Juraimi Hussin, convince Mr Mazlan, a US educated assemblyman in central Pahang state that they will perform a ritual to provide him with more money. The politician was asked to lie down during the ritual, at this moment they slaughter him with an axe, skinned him and cut him into piece to bury him into cement. (BBC, 2001)

The criminals were later on discovered and arrested, Mona showed some really aggressive and psychopath behavior during the trial. Mona claimed that she performed several ritual for other politicians as well and when the investigators searched their house, they found a lot of black magic artifacts and substances. In the end they admit that it was all for stealing the money of politician and they were all given the penalty of death. (TheStar, 2018)

I like this event because it represents how people are greedy, specially politician, who already have a high standard, yet they still want more, and furthermore how the low class people are ready to do anything for some more, regardless of the degree of the crime. The modern world is too directed towards luxury and wealth that part of the people have lost part of their sanity.

Another intriguing area I found is the Victoria Institution. However I found no actual proof to these claims, but it’s still interesting.

Built by a group of Catholics missionaries who arrived in 1912, with a unique French structural design as a school, later on used as a Japanese headquarter during the World War 2. It was filled with sealed up tunnels which was believed to be used by the Japanese forces to torture the British and some of the locals as well. It was also used to store food. (Was your school a japanese HQ & Torture Chamber, 2019)

Nowadays the Victoria Institution is known for being a secondary school for males. It is quite interesting when you think about it. If the claims are true, which a lot of locals belief in, how could they have simply erase it. I believe that such stories need to be investigated and told. How tragic it may be, I believe that remembering our pasts will help us to create a better future while safely avoiding our mistakes from the pasts.

The Thean Hou Temple is another fascinating location. It’s known to be the largest temple in Southeast Asia and was built for the Chinese goddess of the sea, Mazu in Kuala Lumpur. It has astonishing Chinese architecture with colors symbolizing prosperity and good fortune. It consists of a multipurpose hall, prayer hall, altars, Chinese medicinal herbs garden, a wishing well, a tortoise pond, a lot of statues, including the statues representing the twelve animals of Chinese astrology. Of course several rituals and celebrations are done there but they also provide marriage registration services, fortune telling, traditional Chinese exercises and martial arts. (En.wikipedia.org, 2019)

The reason of my attraction to this place was because of my interest in religions and the spirituality. Moreover, it was due to my desire to become more familiar with the Chinese religion which I barely know. This temple seems to display various aspect of the religion so it can be a nice fruitful trip.

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Bibliography

BBC (2001). Malaysia hangs three for witchcraft murder. [online] Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1634584.stm [Accessed 6 Sep. 2019].

En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Thean Hou Temple. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thean_Hou_Temple [Accessed 6 Sep. 2019].

Marshall, Richard. Emerging Urbanity : Global Urban Projects in the Asia Pacific Rim, Routledge, 2002. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/intiuc-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1144410. Created from intiuc-ebooks on 2019-09-06 02:41:36.

TheStar (2018). Face to face with Mona Fandey. [online] Available at: https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2018/04/15/face-to-face-with-mona-fandey-watching-dukun-23-years-after-the-bomohs-conviction-transported-the-wr [Accessed 6 Sep. 2019].

Waradet Mesangrutdharakul Nakhon Ratchasima Rajabhat University. (2016) The Tamil's Ramayana at Batu Cave, Malaysia. A Comparative Case Study of Thai Ramayana and Valmiki's Ramayana, 5(NRRU)

p.100-p.102., Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8567/4bab97523a420710f7f7929cef11a70c866d.pdf

Was your school a japanese HQ & Torture Chamber. (2019). [Blog] 1942malaya. Available at: http://1942malaya.blogspot.com/2009/08/was-your-school-japanese-hq-torture.html [Accessed 6 Sep. 2019].