It has been my observation that in my dear country Malaysia we have a lack of well preserved historical sites - and that's embarrassing. While our neighbours in South-east Asia have their Angkor Wat, Borobudur, and ancient palaces intact and lovingly restored (save Singapore and Brunei of course), we in Malaysia have practically nothing of international interest! Maybe one or two small palaces and a crumbling A Famosa if you ask me. Sad, full stop.
We tend favouring the shiny and new, shunning the ancient and traditional in the process. Even the use of Jawi (Arabic-inspired) writing is fading away fast - it takes a Korean scholar to remind us to preserve it! I can still read and write it as opposed to so many kids nowadays who blatantly cannot.
Indeed the old cultural stuff is the identity of the people who made them and the very magnet that draws hordes of tourists to your country. You don't need to build them from stone to make them last for hundreds of years as many wooden monuments in Indonesia may attest to. On the other hand, we do have a whole city made from scratch, the architecture of which drew inspiration borrowed from dubious sources all over the world!
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Pura Ulun Danu Bratan - I'm made of wood! |
What can we do? It's the mentality of our people who like new things and discarding the old. New buildings go up and older buildings will be destroyed in the name of development.
ReplyDeleteI love shiny new things too, but i rarely throw away stuff that i can still use.
Yes we do like brand new stuff. Yet some people go overseas, look at an old monument and still say, " Why don't we have that in Malaysia?" Hmm..
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