Istana Mahkota Puri

Gambar 1: Istana Mahkota Puri, c. 1910 rakaman Charles Kleingrothe (1864-1925)
Sumber: Leiden University Library, Amsterdam 

Antara gambar terawal Istana Mahkota Puri adalah gambar yang dirakam oleh Charles Kleingrothe (1864-1925) pada tahun 1910 iaitu 11 tahun selepas ianya siap dibina.  Pada asasnya istana yang terletak di Klang ini dibina oleh Kerajaan British pada tahun 1899 (Gambar 1 & 2). Ia dijadikan khusus sebagai istana rasmi dan tempat persemayaman Sultan Alauddin Suleiman Shah Ibni Almarhum Raja Muda Musa (1863-1938) iaitu Sultan Selangor yang ke-5.  

Rekabentuk istana ini adalah sama dengan senibina dan rekaan yang ada pada Bangunan Sultan Abdul Samad yang dihasilkan oleh AB Hubback. Walaupun tiada rekod, kemungkinan besar AB Hubback juga terlibat dalam rekaan Istana Mahkota Puri ini.  Tujuan pembinaannya adalah untuk memudahkan urusan pentadbiran DYMM Sultan Selangor dan supaya ianya berdekatan dengan pusat pentadbiran Kerajaan British di Kuala Lumpur. Istana Selangor sebelumnya adalah di Istana Bandar Temasha, Jugra, Kuala Langat. Setelah kemangkatan Sultan Alauddin Sulaiman Shah, ianya menjadi tempat persemayaman Sultan Selangor ke-7 iaitu Sultan Hisamuddin Alam Shah ibni al-Marhum Sultan Alauddin Sulaiman Shah (1898-1960). 

Antara gambar terawal Istana Mahkota Puri adalah gambar ini yang dirakam oleh Charles Kleingrothe (1864-1925) pada tahun...

Posted by History Buff on Friday, December 4, 2020

Gambar 2: Kesan panoramik gambar yang dirakam oleh Charles Kleingrothe.

Gambar udara Istana Mahkota Puri terawal pula dirakam oleh G.E Livlock pada tahun 1924.  Rakaman dibuat dengan menggunakan kamera peninjau yang dipasang pada pesawat udara jenis "floatplane" model Fairey IIID yang dibawa ke Singapura dan Negeri-Negeri Melayu Bersekutu oleh kapal HMS Pegasus. (Gambar 3).

Gambar 3: Sekitar ruang udara Klang pada tahun 1924.
Sumber: Imperial War Museums, London.

Klip filem terawal yang menggambarkan Istana Mahkota Puri juga ada di simpan pihak Imperial War Museums.  Ianya diambil sekitar kawasan padang di hadapan istana tersebut. Klip filem bertarikh 13.5.1946 tersebut dirakam semasa sambutan Hari Keputeraan Sultan Hisamuddin Alam Shah yang ke-48. Baginda dilihat tiba bersama pengiring dan disambut pegawai tentera. Baginda kemudian berkenan mencemar duli memeriksa Perbarisan Istiadat Kawalan Kehormat. Barisan tentera semasa istiadat tersebut terdiri dari Regimen Askar Melayu Diraja, Regimen Artileri, dan Regimen Punjab. 

Rakaman Sekitar Istana Mahkota Puri pada tahun 1946

Sumber: Imperial War Museums, London.

Gambar 4: Istana Alam Shah
Sumber: Asiatravelgate.com

Pada tahun 1958, Istana Mahkota Puri telah dirobohkan dan digantikan dengan Istana Alam Shah (Gambar 4) yang kini menjadi tempat persemayaman Sultan Selangor ke-9 iaitu DYMM Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah Alhaj Ibni Almarhum Sultan Salahuddin Abduk Aziz Shah Alhaj . Fungsi Istana Alam Shah juga adalah sama iaitu sebagai istana rasmi dan tempat baginda menjalankan tugas-tugas baginda sebagai Sultan. Adat istiadat yang melibatkan pihak istana dan urusan di Raja Selangor juga diadakan di istana ini.

Sumber: 

1. Leiden University Library, Amsterdam.

2. Imperial War Museums, London.

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Kayaroganam Thamboosamy Pillay (1850-1902)

Kayaroganam Thamboosamy Pillay (1850-1902) (Picture 1) worked as a clerk at the legal firm of Woods & Davidson, Singapore. He moved to Klang in the early 1870s with James Guthrie Davidson, when the latter was appointed Malaya’s first British Resident. He was later transferred to the Treasury where he eventually became chief clerk and acted as State Treasurer on a few occasions. He was also a Justice of Peace and member of the Kuala Lumpur Sanitary Board. 

Picture 1 : Kayaroganam Thamboosamy Pillay

He founded the famous Sri Mahamariamman Temple in 1873. The temple was first sited near the Railway Station and moved to its current location in Jalan Tun H.S. Lee in 1885. In the 1880s, he resigned from the government and went into partnership with Loke Yew in the Rawang Mining Concession in which they both did extraordinarily well. He promoted Batu Caves as a place of worship and decided to dedicate it to Lord Murugan around 1891 by establishing the Sri Subramaniar Swamy Temple. He also contributed a sizeable amount of money to the building fund of St Mary’s Cathedral, Kuala Lumpur in 1893. Thamboosamy, together with Sultan Abdul Samad, Yap Kwan Seng and Loke Yew, proposed to set up an English-medium school for boys in Kuala Lumpur. It led to the establishment of the Victoria Institution in 1894. 

Picture 2: The Padang with the old Selangor Club in the foreground (c. late 1880s)

Picture 3: K.T. Pillay's family residence at 1st mile Batu Road (c. 1906)

Picture 4: Luncheon party at K. Thamboosamy Pillay's residence at Batu Road (c. 1899).

Picture 5: Sekolah Kebangsaan Lelaki Jalan Batu

The earliest record of power generation can be traced back to a small mining town in Rawang, Selangor. Here, Thamboosamy Pillai and Loke Yew and installed an electric generator in 1894 to operate their mines; thereby making them the first to use electric pumps for mining in Malaya, and marked the beginning of electricity use in Malaysia. In the same year, private supply for street lighting purposes was extended from their mines to Rawang town.  Thamboosamy Pillay was also a committee member of the Kuala Lumpur Electricity Board and played a key role in supplying electricity to the city. One of the first organization to receive electricity supply was the Kuala Lumpur Railway Station around 1895.

Thamboosamy was the acknowledged leader of the Tamil Community and was consulted by the Government on all matters of importance. He was a Member of the Selangor Club (Picture 2) and a strong supporter of the Turf Club, owning many race horses and was a member of practically every public body in the State. He died in Singapore in 1902, where he had gone for a race meeting. Sir Frank Swettenham sent his body back in the Governor’s yacht to Port Swettenham, Klang, and it was then transported in a gun carriage from the Royal Selangor Club to his house. His eldest son, K.T. Parimanan Pillay, took over the family business. Upon Parimanan's death in 1918, his younger brother K.T. Ganapathy Pillay took charge. It is believed that their family house at 1st mile Batu Road (Picture 3 & 4) was demolished around 1920s to make way for a primary school managed by the trustees of Victoria Institution, known as Batu Road School (now Sekolah Kebangsaan (Lelaki) Jalan Batu).(Picture 5).

Source:

1. Bygone Selangor: A Souvenir (1922), Rimba.

2.  "Twentieth Century Impressions of British Malaya: Its History, People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources" Arnold Wright, H. A. Cartwright, Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Co. Ltd., 1908.

3. The Star 26.10.2013, retrieved from https://www.thestar.com.my/news/community/2013/10/26/a-reminder-of-a-philanthropic-man-sri-mahamariamman-temple-and-victoria-institution-part-of-thamboos

4. https://agathiyarvanam.blogspot.com/2015/09/thambusamy-pillai-in-malaya.html

5. https://www.bfm.my/podcast/the-bigger-picture/live-learn/santa-kumarie-k-thamboosamy-pillai-life-legacy