BABA House

I went with a group of ladies to a museum called the BABA House on Thursday, May 14.  The group of ladies were mostly from the Australian/New Zealand Women's Club and a few from the American Women's Association.  I was happy to have been invited to go with them.  The BABA House was the home of a very wealthy and prominent family of the Panakaran Culture.  This culture comes from the blend of Chinese and Malaysian cultures.  Wealthy Chinese men would marry local women and that was how the culture came about.  The house was very beautiful.  It was decorated as it would have been in the 1920s.  This culture was very prominent in the politics at the time and from the house there is a lot of symbolism that shows the prominence of the family.  I was able to take pictures of the outside of the house but none were allowed on the inside.  Symbols of birds, flowers and statements written above the door - all pronounce  these things to the eyes of people as they look upon the house.  After the II War this culture was despised because of their support of the British during the invasion of the island by Japan.  The locals felt that the British just left them to be overtaken by the Japanese.  The people of this culture then mostly just called themselves Chinese to avoid the discrimination.  Not until just recently has the culture started to explore it's roots again and have pride in the culture.  The museum is fairly new and so I really enjoyed the experience very much.  

After we visited the museum we went to a restaurant that serves the Panakaran food.  It was very, very good.  The blend of spices were wonderful.  It seemed like a blend of Chinese, Indian and Malaysian.  I am learning to enjoy the spices of the Asian cultures very much.