Taboo

Almost all festival are always followed with taboo and Hari Raya Aidilfitri also cannot be excluded. These taboo should be avoid especially during the festival.

ATTIRE is very important when visiting a Malay Muslim home. Guests are avoided visiting in shorts, ripped jeans, sleeveless tops or skimpy dresses as anything that is revealing for both males and females to show your respect to the host.

Guests should knock the door to inform the host about your arrival, this does not necessarily mean that guests should enter the home as they please. 

Before entering, guests will usually take off their shoes, as a sign of respect to the hose and his home. A typical Malay home is a space shared but all, and it's not unusual to find that the living room also becomes a dining room or a place where they conduct their prayers. As these activities require a clean space, one cannot go wrong entering either barefoot or with socks on.

The Muslim handshake is known as salam, wherely both parties extend their arms and clasp each other's hand in a brief but firm grip. The man offers either one or both hands, grasps his friend's hand and bring his hands back to his chest to mean, "I greet you from my heart".

Handshake has become acceptable nowadays because of the awareness of western style. However, Malay women do not shake hands with men in accordance with Islamic practice.

When partaking in food or drink, always receive or take with your right hand. This is because the left hand is considered "unclean" and it should never be used to handle food.

Those open houses generally will receive guests throughout the day, it's best to avoid coming during prayer times such as in the morning, 1 pm, and late at night time.

The roof of Malay traditional house

The roof of traditional Malay houses are designed to provide shade and protection from heat and rain, as well as to provide ventilation. At this building, the type of roof is Bumbung Panjang, which is large, dominates the low walls and the open stilted bottom of the house. 

           

The juxtaposition of the roofs with different sizes and at different orientations creates an interesting visual form.

Roof 1 built above the‘serambi' space, one level/ storey in height

Roof 2 usually built above the‘middle house' which also consist of the attic, two levels/ storey  space

the degree of roof 1 is 30°，roof 2 is 45°

Because the building is too high that can not take the detail dimension so I foundthe proportionate rules of this building: the proportion of stilts and walls height of the houses is equivalent as a proportion of X,while the roof height measured  from  the roof eaves to the ridge is a proportion of 2X.

The main material is timber and palm leaves .It does not retain heat and cools immediately,  because the building in Malay need a low thermal capacity to keep interior cool.

The other climatic responsive design is roof gable. In the roof 1 gable, it have a small opening,  in the roof 2 gable, it have some ventilation panels.

                             the section of roof gable 2 is like that

The roof purlin in here is not really fix on the top or rafter, it is just have a balance and support the rafter and cover 

By this kind of design, it is allow air to flow into the roof space and cool the house, maintain good ventilation and make people's lives more comfortable.

The Construction

Istana Ampang Tinggi Negeri was built by using timber joinery techniques.

STAIRCASE...

DOOR-SLIDING DOOR...

WINDOWS...

JOIST...

ROOF

LEGENDS AND SIGNIFICANCE

SIGNIFICANCE OF HARI RAYA AIDILFITRI

Hari Raya Aidilfitri presence or nature actually promises an abundance of blessings and be thankful for the great Muslims.Aidilfitri is also referred to as a Divine favor legislation. A great favor the basis of the characteristics of the construction of a united humanity and nature, In fact, it cover basic spiritual about purity, truth and justice, science and wisdom and good fortune.

Hari Raya Aidilfitri is the day of independence, the first day after Ramadan in which people believe themselves to regain independence and return to enjoy Divine good Fortune after a month of submitting their soul to God. 

Aidilfitri also highlight the human victory in the conflict between reason and desire, as fasting in the human ability to subjugate lust that always tends to boost the violation of Islamic teachings.  

Hari Raya Aidilfitri also means back to the human identity as a servant of God, the nature of human beings.  The nature of eternity before they exist as human beings, we have recognize the oneness of Allah swt and promised to obey his orders. God affirms in his word which means: And when your Lord made a covenant with the children of Adam from eternity and bore them over themselves.

it should be noted that real Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebration is one inwardly or spiritual victory. Therefore it should be reflected in the improvement of the quality of religious behavior ; a stronger faith and piety and become thicker.

Naturally physical and spiritual purity is a motivation to create awareness to help those who are poor or a afflicted. Awareness will lead us into a righteous man and glory in His presence. 

As we celebrate Hari Raya Aidilfitri at least there are three things that must be done:

1. "Bertakbir" magnify Allah for all His instructions, so that we remain in His path.
2. Thanks to divide the provision obtained by paying the tithe.
3. Control anger and mutual forgiveness. 

thus, the holiday Hari Raya Aidilfitri is day of improvement our divinity and humanity. What is more important is the spirit of Shawwal we continue to improve total personal behavior, relationships with others and our relationships with God.

Istana Ampang Tinggi Muzium Negeri

ISTANA AMPANG TINGGI MUZIUM NEGERI

Istana Ampang Tinggi Muzium Negeri

The Istana Ampang Tinggi was a royal residence in Negeri Sembilan in Malaysia.

This palace was built without using any nails.

Introduction of the Palace 

This palace is 66.5 feet of length and 23.5 feet of width, ordered by the 5th Yamtuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan, Yam Tuan Imam. It was built around 1865 - 1870 at Ampang Tinggi. After that, Tunku Abdul Rahman gave the permission for the Istana to be dismantled and transported to its current location and today it is served as a small museum with weapons and other historical artefacts from Negeri Sembilan.

As usual, we took our lunch around 12:00pm and started our journey to Seremban using GPS since we didn't know much about the directions. It took us about 1 hour to reach this beautiful place including the 15 minutes of us trying to find the way in to this place and it's parking area. Everyone was quite tired at first because of the long journey but after we have arrived this palace, we opened up our eyes shine and bright. It was already beautiful at first sight, almost let us believe in love at the first sight.

Without hesitation, we immediately walked to the management counter and asked for permission to let us take pictures and look around the palace, they looked at our letter and just said "Ok, ok, can, can." "Leggo!" I talked to my minions to start moving to the direction of the palace and start our work.

Entrance of the palace

Saw that entrance?! How can you not go in when you see this beautiful entrance?! Nah, just being over dramatic. Well yes, we definitely have to go in to have a look inside. Within seconds, Wynne, Chu shan and I stepped up to the entrance, 3 of us didn't dare to take off our shoe because the floor was dusty, but end up we still took it off.

This is the inside look of the palace. Isn't it nice? A palace without nails and could be built into such wonderful and perfect palace. Together with the timber, it makes the palace have even more ventilation. Also, the palace feels very solid as well, it doesn't feel like it is built by timber, well finished.

The inside look of the palace

We also took a few basic knowledge and details of the palace on the signboard in the palace itself.

While busy taking pictures of this gorgeous place, we took a lot of measurements of the palace too. This palace's columns/pillars has various dimensions, they are not equally placed. After 30 to 45 minutes, we managed to take the measurements and dimensions that we need.

Plan of the palace

This is the plan of the palace with the scale of 1:75. It has 24 windows, 2 entrance and also 24 columns/pillars under it. Although the "serambi" is a bit narrow but once we stepped in the "rumah ibu", it is very spacious and wide. Together with the combination and design of the roof, it makes the palace looked even closer to perfect. I know I do compliment a lot but who doesn't like compliments? ;)

Each of us are doing our own thing after that, because different members has different task to do.
While I was busy taking some photos after finish sketching and giving dimensions to the plan. Here are some details and views of the palace.

We spent about 5 hours wandering the palace, and its already 6:00pm with a clip of an eye. We were hurrying to finish the things we should finish and have to leave before night. Then we had some fun as well after finishing our work there. Wynne the Sketch God sketched the palace with her powerful sketching skills. And of course, we will not leave without any selfies/wefies! =D

Panorama!

Goodbye Istana Ampang Tinggi Muzium Negeri! See you again <3