Explore The west coast
Visiting GEORGETOWN in 1879, stalwart Victorian traveller Isabella Bird called it “a brilliant place under a brilliant sky”, a simple statement on which it’s hard to improve – though the confusion of buses, lorries and scooters make Georgetown’s modern downtown unnervingly frenetic and polluted. Filling a triangular projection at Pulau Pinang’s northeastern corner, Georgetown’s heart lies between the decaying remains of Fort Cornwallis, which guarded the city in its earliest years, and the towering modern bulk of the KOMTAR centre, overlooking everything 1.5km to the south. In between is Chinatown, a maze of lanes liberally sprinkled with grand clan association halls and two-storey shophouses in various stages of decay and restoration, which itself encloses the smaller ethnic enclave of Little India and a vaguely identifiable Muslim quarter.
Certainly no sleepy backwater (most of the island’s one-million-strong population lives here), Georgetown’s historic lanes and street life make it an appealing place to explore, and a hangout for budget travellers seeking to renew Thai visas. The city’s main arteries are traffic-clogged Lebuh Chulia (named after the Tamil word for “merchant”), which cuts east–west through central Georgetown, and slightly less busy Jalan Masjid Kapitan Kling (or Lebuh Pitt), which crosses it at right angles. Almost everything of interest – shops, museums, temples, restaurants and accommodation – lies within a short walk of these roads, while the rest of the island can be reached on buses from KOMTAR or Terminal Weld, on the seafront where ferries from Butterworth dock.
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Street names in Georgetown
Street names in Georgetown
Georgetown’s original street names reflected the city’s colonial past. The current trend, however, is either to rename streets after indigenous worthies – as in Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah – or to translate the existing name, such as Lebuh Gereja for Church Street. This would be straightforward enough, except that the new names have not always been popularly accepted – Lorong Cinta, for example, is almost universally known as Love Lane – and even official maps might use either name. The most awkward of the new names is Jalan Masjid Kapitan Kling for Pitt Street, which more often than not is referred to simply as Lebuh Pitt. Several names are also used repeatedly, so watch out for Lorong Chulia (Chulia Lane) and Lebuh Chulia (Chulia Street), Lorong Penang and Lebuh Penang, and so on. Finally, don’t confuse Lorong Cinta with Lebuh Cintra.
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Kongsi and clan mansions
Kongsi and clan mansions
In modern Chinese, kongsi simply means “a company”, but in former times each was more like a clan or regional association providing help and protection for nineteenth-century immigrants, who naturally tended to band together according to the district in China from which they came. Formerly a focus for community rivalry, the kongsis have now reverted to their supportive role, helping with the education of members’ children, settling disputes between clan members, or advancing loans.
Many of the kongsi buildings in Penang are excellent examples of traditional southern Chinese architecture: there is generally a spacious courtyard in front of the clan house, opposite which is a stage for theatrical performances, and two halls in the main building itself, one for the shrine of the clan deity, the other for the display of the ancestral tablets (the equivalent of gravestones).
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The Penang Riots
The Penang Riots
Chinese immigrants to Penang brought their traditions with them, including secret societies, which provided mutual aid and protection for the Chinese community – bolstered in Georgetown by alliances with similar Malay religious groups.
As the societies grew in wealth and power, gang warfare and extortion rackets became commonplace. Matters came to a head in the Penang Riots of 1867: for nine days Georgetown was shaken by fighting between the Tua Peh Kong society, supported by the Malay Red Flag, and the Ghee Hin, allied with the Malay White Flag. Police intervention resulted in a temporary truce, but on August 1, 1867, the headman of the Tua Peh Kong falsely charged the Ghee Hin and White Flag societies with stealing cloth belonging to Tua Peh Kong dyers. All hell broke loose, and fighting raged around Lebuhs Armenian Church and Chulia. Barricades were erected around the Khoo Kongsi, where some of the fiercest skirmishes occurred – you can still find bullet holes in the surrounding shops and houses.
The fighting was eventually quelled by sepoys (Indian troops) brought in from Singapore by the Governor-General, but by then hundreds had been killed and scores of houses burned. A penalty of RM5000 was levied on each of the secret societies, some of which was later used to finance the building of four police stations to deal with any future trouble.
