French Heritage Trail in Penang
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
The Embassy of France in Malaysia presents: I T Y G U I D - C E - FrenchPenang, Heritage Malaysia Trail A French Heritage Trail in Penang French people have been present in Penang since the very beginnings of the city. From Church Street and Bishop Street (which owe their names to a French church and a French bishop!), to great schools such as Convent Light Street or the Saint Xavier Institution, and to villages and plantations on the Peninsular side of Penang – Kampung Val d’Or, Kampung Alma or the Malakoff Plantations – there is a lot of French heritage in Penang. Penang was once nicknamed “The Montpellier of the Indies” – a reference to the good climate of Penang, comparable to the city in Southern France! introduction Penang could even have become a French colony! After the French Revolution of 1789, Rear-Admiral de Sercey had been sent from France with significant forces to impose the abolition of slavery on the then French territory of Ile-de-France (now Mauritius). But he also tried to extend French possessions in the region and, in July 1796, with a strong armada of six frigates, he set sail from Ile-de-France with the intention of seizing Penang from the British. The attempt was short lived, though: having suffered losses in a battle against British ships North of Sumatra on 9 September 1796, Admiral de Sercey decided to abandon his project. Penang did not become French… Nevertheless, history continues! In 2018, a “sister cities” agreement was signed between Penang and the French city of Arles - both are listed as UNESCO World Heritage. With this agreement, the two cities now exchange experience on heritage conservation, cultural policy-making, and have launched an artist-in-residence programme. This is one more good reason to dig into our common heritage. 2 So, follow the guide along Penang’s French Heritage Trail! 3 A Bishop, Churches and Mission Schools Lebuh Gereja (Church Street) and Lebuh Bishop (Bishop Street) are, indeed, very French! In 1786, just a few months after the very foundation of George Town by Francis Light, the first French Catholic priest moved to Penang at the invitation of Light himself. He came from Kuala Kedah, where he had been allowed by the Sultan of Kedah to settle down in 1782, after being expelled from the Kingdom of Siam. Father Garnault came to George Town with a small group of followers, mainly Siamese and Siamese-Portuguese Eurasians. He established a church and later a school, teaching in Malay at the beginning. George Town’s Early French Heritage Early French Town’s George Lebuh Gereja is named after that church, and Lebuh Bishop is named after Father Garnault, who was ordained Bishop in 1787. The French church was first built in wood, then rebuilt in bricks in 1802, and then it moved in 1857 to its current location on Lebuh Farquhar. The original church and residence of the Bishop (which have by now disappeared) were situated in the area between Church Street, Bishop Street and Pitt Street (today Lebuh Gereja, Lebuh Bishop and Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling). 4 The new Church of the Assumption, rebuilt in 1857 on Lebuh Farquhar, is well worth visiting. The construction was started by Father Pierre Favre, who also launched the construction of the new Convent School on Light Street. Fr. Favre later became a famous linguist and teacher of Malay in Paris, also author of Malay-French dictionaries in the 1870s. Notice, inside the church, the list of its The Church of the Assumption, on Lebuh Farquhar parish priests since the date of its foundation in 1786, and in the front-yard of the church, the monument in memory of sailors who died on board a French Navy ship in Penang during the First World War. You can also visit the Roman Catholic Diocese Museum, just beside the church. Talking about Farquhar Street, it is George Town’s Early French Heritage Early French Town’s George interesting to note another link between Penang and France: Robert Townsend Farquhar, who was Lieutenant-Governor of Penang in 1804-1805, became the Governor of Ile Bonaparte (also called Ile Bourbon, and nowadays Ile de la Réunion, a French territory of the Indian Ocean) in 1810, and then Governor of Mauritius List of parish priests at the Church of the Island for 13 years until 1823 – after both Assumption since 1786 islands were seized by the British from the French. 5 Saint Xavier Institution: in 1825, the small Catholic school initially founded by the French parish priests in 1787 changed its tuition language from Malay to English. In the 1850s, the school management was transferred to the La Salle Brothers – a French Catholic congregation specialized in education, and the school, which was by then called the Catholic Free School, was Saint Xavier Institution, on Lebuh Farquhar later renamed St Xavier Institution. It became, over the years, one of the major education institutions in Penang. Not everything was always easy for the Brothers, though. Up on Penang Hill, on 19 April 1954, the French La Salle Brother and supervisor of secondary classes at Saint Xavier Christian Brothers’ Bungalow Institution, Brother Symphorien Augustus, (Photo credit: http://spunkyexhibits.blogspot.com/) aged 63, was shot dead by communist George Town’s Early French Heritage Early French Town’s George insurgents at the bungalow owned by the Institution on the hill. This took place during the period of the Emergency (1948-1960). The bungalow was originally a hermitage called “Mount Sacred Heart” and built with a chapel above a dormitory. It was extended to become a retreat house, later known as the “Christian Brothers’ Christian Brothers’ Bungalow Bungalow”. (Photo credit: http://spunkyexhibits.blogspot.com/) 6 Convent Light Street: in 1852, at the request of the local parish priests, the first French nuns, members of the congregation of the Infant Jesus Sisters, arrived from France and established Convent Light Street School. It had been CLS photo an adventurous voyage: five nuns had left Paris a few months before, but only three of them arrived in Penang – one had died at sea, as was still frequent at that time, and one had decided to quit the congregation. Convent Light Street (sometimes called Convent St Maur, From 1852 onwards, with Penang as the because the headquarters of the main centre of their expansion, schools congregation was in Rue St Maur in Paris) founded by French missionaries was nonetheless founded, and it is one of mushroomed all over Malaysia – more the oldest girls’ schools in Malaysia (if not than 120 of those are still operating today, the oldest), but also in the whole of including 19 in Penang: Convent Schools South-East Asia. This school and the Bukit Mertajam, Butterworth, Datuk extraordinary French nuns who Keramat, Pulau Tikus, Green Lane, but also George Town’s Early French Heritage Early French Town’s George established and ran it during decades St Xavier Institution, St George School, played an essential, pioneering role in the etc… all of them established by French development of girls’ education in the missionaries. country. 7 At the Port of Penang: Memories of WWI, of Triangular Trade and of Literature On 28 October 1914, during the Battle of In 1969, a salvage operation was carried Penang, French warship Le Mousquet and out by a private company on the wreck of allied Russian cruiser Zhemtchug were Le Mousquet. Remains of the sailors found sunk by a German ship off the port of during this operation were brought by a George Town. The German cruiser Emden French Navy frigate to New Caledonia in had sailed surreptitiously, before dawn, 1970, where a monument to the memory into the port of Penang, masquerading of these sailors was built. Another as a British ship by adding a fake funnel to monument, in the front yard of the its three real ones. It first sunk the Russian Church of the Assumption on Lebuh ship just a mile away from the port, then, Farquhar, was also built in 2015 to as it was chased by the French destroyer, commemorate these tragic losses of World the German ship also sunk her, about 10 War I. One of the anchors from Le miles North of Muka Head (North-West Mousquet, brought ashore during the of the Penang Island, now within the salvage in 1969 is shown at the Penang Penang National Park). 44 French and State Museum. Vietnamese sailors died in that battle (Vietnam was, at that time, a French colony), while the rest of the crew – 35 sailors - were rescued from the sea by the German ship. They were taken prisoners and soon released at Sabang, on the small island of Weh (North of Sumatra), while another 4 At the Port of Penang: Memories of WWI, of Triangular Trade and of Literature Trade ofTriangular Memories of ofWWI, Penang: At the Port of them had died on the way. Three other The memorial to the French and Vietnamese sailors French destroyers which were in Penang of Le Mousquet, in the front yard of the Church of remained untouched (Le Pistolet, Le the Assumption, Lebuh Farquhar D’Iberville and La Fronde) and they continued thereafter to contribute to the protection of the Malacca Straits. 8 Fort Cornwallis seen from the moored frigate L’Artémise, in Captain Laplace’s book, published 1841 The port of Penang saw regular visits by French merchants and, sometimes, French government ships in the 19th century. Captain Laplace, Commander of Frigate L’Artémise, stopped in Penang in 1837 as he was conducting a round-the-world exploratory mission. His crew was plagued by a severe epidemic of dysentery, and sailors were dying in numbers aboard the frigate.