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 A
century ago, this house was built on the banks of the Perak River in Kampong
Ngior, Tanjong Blanja, now known as Parit. Little of its history is known,
although family tradition suggested that it was built by Maharaja Lela,
the assassin of Birch, the British resident of Perak, in 1875. Supposedly
Maharaja Lela substituted a slave to be hanged in his stead and went into
exile, but later came back and built the house. Coins found under the
principal pillars of the house during the restoration, placed there according
to custom, are dated 1901 and indicate that the lapse was too long for
this story to be likely.
 It is more likely that Uda Manap built the house for his bride, Ngah Porbu,
who came from Indonesia in the 1890's to marry him. She was a wealthy
woman who brought with her beautiful textiles and household artifacts.
As the local custom, or adat, prescribes that property is held by women,
the house should rightly be known as Rumah Ngah Porbu. Ngah died in 1946
and left the house to her granddaughter who apparently married the grandson
of Maharaja Lela. She died in the '80s and left the house to her youngest
daughter Rohani.
The house was built by Chinese craftsmen from Indonesia, at a time when
the Perak River was the main thoroughfare into the hinterland and the
village was wealthy from the tin trade. The wooden shingle roof timber
can only have come from Sumatra where belian wood is found.
The house, made of durable indigenous hard woods, is typical of Perak
in its form and layout, but its decoration is unusual. Carved wall panels
and window shutters feature Chinese motifs, dragons and calligraphic characters
combined with flowers and birds. The lightness of the carving, necessary
because of the extreme hardness of the wood, is balanced by the brightly
coloured lime based paint (kapor) that highlights the design.
 Relocation
By the time the house was moved to Rimbun Dahan in 1998, it was derelict.
The roof and floors had collapsed and much of the diagonal wall paneling
was rotted and broken, but most of the structural members were sound.
All timbers, carvings and shutters were numbered and photographed before
dismantling.
The rooms behind the rumah ibu were not worth salvaging, they had been
built of inferior materials and lacked the decorative detail of the front.
They were measured and documented from the remains, but nothing was relocated
from this portion except for some carvings and a pair of doors.
Restoration and Reconstruction
 Wherever
possible, old timber was used in the restoration. The floor timbers are
from other houses demolished in Perak (note the saw milling marks), but
the new belian roof shingles had to be brought from Sarawak.
The present layout follows the original with these modifications:
· The main entrance was moved to the opposite side to suit the new site.
The porch roof, which was added later to the original was roofed in belian.
· The ceiling shape was changed to follow the roof line, originally it
didn't do so and possibly concealed a hiding place.
· The window shutters were reversed to display the single sided decoration
on the outside while they are open during the day, and on the inside at
night.
· The selang sloped down to the back, leading to a large room and a roofed
dapur, or kitchen. In the present house, the selang is flat (the dining
room) and leads to the new kitchen, a staircase, and a back bedroom.
· The roofless veranda was originally another room, but the house was
already big enough for Rimbun Dahan's purposes. The verandah's footprint
does, however, record the size and the floor level of the original.
· A pair of doors on the original selang walls led to a lost staircase/ladder,
so the doors have been reused at the ground level entrance.
· A new toilet and shower were added below the new kitchen.
The modern kitchen retains the open roofed shelves typical of the period.
Unlike the original, the new house has water and electricity. The light
fittings in the main room are from the '30s and were bought in Malacca,
as was the furniture. The light switches are Australian, manufactured
for restoration of Federation houses. (Coincidentally, Federation was
also in 1901). Two items were found in the derelict house and restored:
the tall room divider with drawers and open shelves, and the desk in the
smallest room off the rumah ibu, where prints of Birch's death and the
manhunt (Illustrated London News of the 1870s) are displayed.
 Details
The internal carvings did not need repainted and they remain an important
example of the quality of the original decoration. The external carvings
had lost almost all traces of colour, but enough remained to guide the
restoration. The external blue could only be matched by using laundry
blueing bags (nila), the traditional colour source. The same blue was
used on many old buildings in Penang such as the Cheong Fatt Sze Mansion.
Helen
Crawford, the Australian resident artist at Rimbun Dahan during the restoration,
designed the new carved panels outside the selang to reflect the house's
new purpose. The motifs are Australian and contemporary: the sulphur crested
cockatoo and Sturt's Desert Pea are well known examples of Australian
fauna and flora; the biawak, or monitor lizard, is a current resident
of the garden, and grape vines and vegetables acknowledge the present
use as a dining room.
The
house is used as accommodation for the Rimbun Dahan residency programme
for artists and writers. As a guest house for people working in the arts,
architecture, sustainable development and conservation, it will be experienced
by many people in the century to come.
Interiors
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