- History of Kampong Glam......
- In Malay, the word "Kampong" means "village or settlement" and "Glam" is the name of a particular tree, which grew in abundance in the area in early Singapore. In the beginning, Kampong Glam was a fishing village situated at the mouth of Rochor River. It became more populated and grew into prominence after the Sultan of Singapore, Hussein Mohammed Shah and the Temenggong signed a treaty with the East India Company in 1819.
- In nineteen century, Kampong Glam remains an ethnic district with a strong Malay-Arab influence. It is a place where one will patronise for their Arab-Muslim traditional foodstuff and merchandise. In 1822 "Town Plan", Sir Stamford Raffles allocated Kampong Glam to the Malays, Bugis and Arabs.
- There is alot of Glam tree in kampong glum. The leaves of a Glam tree could be use to make oil. The bark of the tree could be use to repair boats.
- The Malay Perfume does not contain alcohol. In the Muslim Culture, alcohol is forbidden. There are two types of perfume. One for men and the other for women.
- This is a spiral staircase.When there is a fire, people can escape using it. This is known as a fire escape.
- This is a dark alley. In the past, when there was no toilet, the people who collect the stool will go by the dark alley and exchange the bucket of stool daily. If there is no dark alley, the people might have to collect the bucket through the front door to the truck. It might affect the business of the stall as people might think that the stall is very unhygienic. The dark alley is also used for escaping from the fire. Gang fights are happen there too! In the past, women used it to chop the spices. The ambulance can also used that lane.
- Some shops sell silk for sarong and sari. Malay men and Malay women need two metres of silk for their clothes. If you buy 1 metre of silk using Valentino designer, it cost about $150.
More about Kampong Glam......
- This majestic building was built in honour of Sultan Hussein of Singapore.It replaced an older mosque with a tiered roof. Some of Sultan Hussien's relatives were buried under the prayer of Sultan.
- This street is named Sultan Gate because it leads to an istana at the end of the road. A high brick wall surrounds the Istana Kampong Glam. At the entrance of Sultan Gate, there was a small house called the Pondok Jawa on the left side of the road.
- The name "Sultan Mosque" come about in honour of Husseis. The Mosque hung plastic crows upside down to scare away crows. Black glass are used as part of the design for the mosque. Rich people donated money and poor people collected bottles to contribute to the mosque as decorations.
- The moon meant new religion and the star has five pointed edges which meant the five rules. One of the rules is do five prayers a day. The timing are:
1) Before the sun rises.
2)Between 12pm to 1pm
3)At about 4.30pm
4)Before the sun sets
5)Between 8pm to 8.30pm.
- Before entering the mosque, the Muslims must wash their forehead,their face, behind their ears, gaggle their mouth, hands and legs. If there are no water, they will have to use the sand to wash.Children are also teach to behave in the mosque. When praying, women pray upstairs while the men pray downstairs. The light in the middle of the praying hall is called Mihrad. During feasting, the Muslims cannot eat sun rises to sun set. They also cannot drink any water and swallow the saliva. The Sultan mosque of the opening hours are:
Monday to Sunday
9am-12.45pm/2pm-4pm
Friday-2.30pm-4pm
You may want to visit this Mosque to explore and know more about it.
- This prayer bead has two medium beads, 1 big bead and 99 small beads which in total have 102 prayer beads. This prayer beads are made of wood. There also small prayer beads.
- Some of the shops hung a string of dried mango over its entrance. One of the examples of hanging dried mango leaves is to welcome customers. The people who usually hung those are Indian Muslims.
- Along Jalan Sultan the impressive Alsagoff Arab School. An Islamic religious school is called Madrasah. The old school building was erected in 1912 while the new school building was erected in 1992. This school was built by Arab.
- In some shophouses, there is a hole at the celling which can see the person who knock the door.
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On some walls, there are many patterns on them.
- Spices, textiles, basketry items and songkoks are sold along this row of shophouses with five-foot way at Arab Street.
Arab Street / Kampong Glam
- There are many traditional games.One of them is called Kuti-Kuti. The game can have 2 or more players. Each player will have some Kuti-Kuti and the game is similar to eraser fighting. If one of the Kuti-Kuti is on top of another, the player's Kuti-Kuti which is on top is the winner.
- There is a shop called "Zam Zam". It means holy water. There are some food selling there. Example : Roti Prata and Murtabak.
- Kandahar Street is now famous for its nasi padang stalls. There is a well-known stall at the entrance of Kandahar Street called 'Warong Nasi Pariaman'. There used to be a row of street hawkers along this road in the sixties.
- When Malays passed away, they will buried the dead body in the cemetery.They have to buried within 24 hours.
- “Kledek","Klapa" and "Pisang" are names of some sides of streets along North Bridge Road. They are sweet potato,coconut and banana in english respectively.
