How do we grow as Penang heritage enthusiasts

How do we grow as Penang heritage enthusiasts? Two things I tell people, i.e. when I speak to tour guides, is never take things in isolation, and never take things without question.

Taking it in isolation: it's not enough to learn when and by whom, it's necessary to find out why. It's not enough just to learn when Khoo Kongsi was built and by whom, to fully understand history, we need to learn the circumstance that led to its construction, why this group of people were capable of building such a structure, the political and economic climate of that time, the obstacles, etc. This allows us to piece together fragments of a seemingly unrelated historical puzzle, to form the basis of our understanding. Similarly, it's not enough to know that Francis Light established George Town in 1786, we should find out why, the circumstances he worked within, his life in Penang, etc.

Taking it without question: don't take as accurate anything a historian may say, anything you read in a book, anything you read in my or any websites. Historians are humans too. They base what they say on evidence gathered from existing documents and their interpretation thereof. Books and websites are by humans who also do the same thing. In most cases, neither the historians nor the book/web authors were there when the event took place. Even if they are already living when the event took place, they were not involved in it, and even if they were involved, they would often be so old that their memory of it is distorted. Those are the obstacles faced when we interview very old people.

In most cases, historians and authors report based on material at hand. The only advantage they may have is that they have read more, and they have access to documents or people privileged to the information that you don't. Still, don't expect them to get things right all the time. Do you always take everything you read in The Star or The Sun as fact? Haven't you ever thrown your hands up and say, "What blatant lies!"? The things you read in the papers today, the things in Facebook today, have as much accuracy as documents written way back then. To say that official documents don't lie is to be naïve. Every government provide its own perspective and interpretation of facts. So what the British colonials say in their documents is based on what they want you to hear, or more accurately, what they flattered themselves to hear.

Do I put away from writing because I don't have all the details? Should authors not start writing till they have all the information?

We shall never fully know history, unless we were there ourselves. When I write something on my sites, I approach it as one would a layer cake. Information is built layer by layer. If new evidence comes to light, I update the information to add it in. That, in a way, is the beauty of writing websites: immediate updating. Naturally, people often come to me with conflicting information. "That's not right," they say. When that happens, I probe. Where did you get that information, who gave it to you, what is the source, how reliable is the source. It's not enough to take things as fact, because someone says so. We need to investigate and weigh it in the light of existing information. We must always be aware of isolated information that cannot be substantiated. Is that fact or rumor?

As heritage enthusiast, we need to read and absorb information. Otherwise we won't be able to ask the right questions. But if we equip ourselves with a body of knowledge, then we can ask lucid questions whenever something doesn't make sense.

In Penang, we are lucky to have people who care for its history. If you count yourself as one of them, good for you! Now our next step forward is to approach the history of Penang (and elsewhere) with consciousness based on our understanding and not blind absorption.

Private Guided Tours of Penang

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 Buy, rent or sell properties in Penang

Do you have a property for sale or to rent out? Are you looking to buy or rent a property? Get in touch with me. WhatsApp me (Timothy Tye) at 012 429 9844, and I will assign one of my property agents to serve you. I will choose the agent for you, according to your property needs. So when you message me, provide me some details of what you need, whether to sell, to buy, to rent or to rent out, and what type of property, is it condo, apartment, house, shop, office or land.

Adakah anda mempunyai hartanah untuk dijual atau disewakan? Adakah anda ingin membeli atau menyewa hartanah? Hubungi saya. WhatsApp saya (Timothy Tye) di 012 429 9844, dan saya akan menugaskan salah seorang ejen hartanah saya untuk berkhidmat kepada anda. Saya akan pilih ejen untuk anda, mengikut keperluan hartanah anda. Oleh itu, apabila anda menghantar mesej kepada saya, berikan saya beberapa butiran tentang apa yang anda perlukan, sama ada untuk menjual, untuk membeli, untuk disewakan atau untuk disewakan, dan jenis hartanah apakah itu kondo, pangsapuri, rumah, kedai, pejabat atau tanah.

您有待出售或出租的房产吗？ 您想购买或租赁房产吗？ 与我联系。 WhatsApp 我 (Timothy Tye) 012 429 9844，我将指派一名房地产经纪人为您服务。 我会根据您的房产需求，为您选择代理。 因此，当您给我发消息时，请向我提供一些您需要的详细信息，无论是出售、购买、出租还是出租，以及房产类型，是公寓、公寓、房屋、商店、办公室还是土地。

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Map of Roads in Penang

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Discover with Timothy

Let me take you to explore and discover Penang through my series of walking tours on YouTube. You may use these videos as your virtual tour guide. At the beginning of each video, I provide the starting point coordinates which you may key into your GPS, Google Maps or Waze, to be navigated to where I start the walk, and use the video as your virtual tour guide.

Disclaimer

Please use the information on this page as guidance only. The author endeavours to update the information on this page from time to time, but regrets any inaccuracies if there be any.

Songs about Penang

About this website

Hello and thanks for reading this page. My name is Timothy and my hobby is in describing places so that I can share the information with the general public. My website has become the go to site for a lot of people including students, teachers, journalists, etc. whenever they seek information on places, particularly those in Malaysia and Singapore. I have been doing this since 5 January 2003, for over twenty years already. You can read about me at Discover Timothy. By now I have compiled information on thousands of places, mostly in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, and I continue to add more almost every day. My goal is to describe every street in every town in Malaysia and Singapore.