ISTANA SRI MENANTI

Most important history and architecture in malaysia..Sri menanti palace located at Negeri Sembilan..Seri Menanti is known as the Royal Town of Negeri Sembilan. It is located about 40 km from the town of Seremban and 14 km from Kuala Pilah town. Seri Menanti sits in a lush and beautiful valley surrounded by mountains. Just being there gives you a sense of peace and tranquillity.
Before the arrival of the Minangkabau people from Sumatra, Negri Sembilan was a large piece of virgin rainforest with only a few areas inhabited by tribes although many of the areas were already in the possession of Malay chiefs. The original people of Negri Sembilan were made up of three indigenous tribes, that is; the Biduanda, the Bersisi and the Jakun. These indigenous tribes practised the age-old methods of slash-and-burn cultivation.

Then came the Minangkabau people from Sumatra. They settled into villages and began farming and tilling the large tracks of land, which they had bought from the local chiefs with as little as token gifts. When an ancestor of the Negri Sembilan royal family came over from Sumatra, he was awed by the endless fields of golden paddy waiting to be harvested and thus named the area Sri Menanti (glorious waiting).



The minangkabau houses stand proud of their heritage in Bukit Tinggi, Sumatra. Rumah Gading refers to the family home run by the women in the family and passed down generations through their lineage - A matriachal society

Following the assassination of Sultan Mahmud of Johor, Johor had fallen into disarray and many factions were fighting for the rights to the throne. The Minangkabau people were left without an overlord and the Johore sultanate was too weak to defend them. The Minangkabau eventually asked permission to appoint their own ruler and the Sultan of Johore relented. A Sumatran prince by the name of Raja Melewar was sent over and was made the first Yang Di-Pertuan Besar of Negri Sembilan. Raja Melewar set up his royal capital at Sri Menanti in the Kuala Pilah district. He was accorded the ceremonial privileges of Malay rulers but he had no real power. He had no authority to raise taxes and had to rely on mas manah, or gifts from his influential subjects for the upkeep of his courts. The rulers of the various districts held power and decisions to the governing of the state and poor Raja Melewar position was reduced to the lord of Sri Menanti. However, to his subjects and the Sultans of other States, Raja Melewar was deceptively the Yamtuan or ruler of Negri Sembilan.

His installation was dated 1773 but there are references that state that Raja Melewar arrived in Negri Sembilan earlier. The British destroyed his first palace in 1875 and another was constructed later.

The 'replaced' palace or istana of Sri Menanti is one of the few last remaining timber palaces in Malaysia and was built between 1902 and 1908 for Tuanku Muhammad Shah, the 7th Ruler or Yang Di-Pertuan Besar of Negri Sembilan. It was designed by two local Malay carpenters; and the detailed drawings were provided by Mr. M.Woodford who was the head draughtsman at the Public Works Department.



The four-storey palace was constructed without nails , pieced together with hardwood dowels and rivets. 99 posts were used in the construction and the entire structure was raised on timber posts made of penak (cengal) wood, transported 64km from a forest in Bukit Perigi, Jelebu. Each post represents famous warriors from various groups. The four main posts at the centre of the palace rise 20metres(60feet) from the ground to the central tower (the highest floor) and each post is made from a single cengal tree trunk.

The first floor consists of reception rooms and a long veranda where the Yang Di-Pertuan Besar granted audiences to his people. The courtiers would first have to assemble at a tiny room representing the waiting room at the entrance to the palace, before taking their places on the veranda. The ruler sat at one end of the veranda on a raised platform and on the other end sat the local chiefs. The courtiers were seated on both sides, lining the length of the veranda. The interior is sparsely decorated as it was tradition for the royal family and their subjects and guests to sit on the floor. The only bit of ostentation would be the elaborate carvings on the timber posts. On normal occassions, the members of the royal family retired to their respective bedrooms on the second floor. However, much of the original furniture is no longer there. In the state bedroom lies a large gilded bed raised on a platform. The level above was the Yang Di-Pertuan Besar's private apartments and the highest level through a set of steep steps takes you to the prayer room and royal archives. The top level also served as the lookout post and was known as Tingkat Gunung (mountain level). However, the top floor is out of bounds to visitors.

Finials decorating the roof of the central tower represent a pair of locked buffalo horns and are regarded as a protective symbol for Minangkabau houses. The roof tiles or genting, are made from ironwood (kayu belian), a hardwood species that is extremely rare now. These were imported from Sarawak. Istana Sri Menanti was the official residence of the royal family until 1931 and was turned into a Royal Museum in 1992.

Set snugly in a valley surrounded by lush forests and tiny villages, one can almost imagine the days when the palace was the heart of Negri Sembilan. Then excitement and life filled every corner of the woodwork. Now, only the spirits of the past rule the majestic structure and yet Istana Menanti seemed unfazed by the solitude and the obscurity of once a most important venue. But it is for us to realise its importance, for us to cherish our past to proceed with the future. For us, not to forget the foundations of our forefathers. These historical milestones have fortunately withstood the test of time and with care, hopefully this superb architecture may survive for generations after..

architecture of indonesia

The early classical(600-900 AD)
SRIVIJAYA
This is the way Chau Ju Kua describes the position of the ruler in Sriwijaya, the most important ancient kingdom in Sumatra, of which the capital was probably located near present-day Palembang, although Jambi also might have been capital of this kingdom for a period. In a mixture of fantasy and fact he gives more details about the power which Sriwijaya exercised over foreign shipping.he capital of Sriwijaya was not just a capital and commercial city, it also functioned as a cultural centre. In AD 671 there were already more than a thousand Buddhist monks there.Unfortunately very little is known about the morphological structure of Sriwijaya. The reason for this is that most of the buildings were made of perishable materials, little of which has survived. The city, most probably the palace area, was surrounded by a brick wall.

The ordinary population lived either outside the confines of the wall, or on rafts moored to the banks of the river. The hinterland of the city was sparsely populated and was scarcely cultivated.

Sriwijaya probably evolved in the seventh century. At the end of the thirteenth century war broke out with Majapahit in East Java and Sriwijaya was forced to surrender some of its power. In the fourteenth century it even became a Javanese vassal. In the wake of an insurrection, it was punished by a Javanese fleet but, for the most part, the Javanese left the kingdom to its fate. Burger thinks that the Chinese then assumed power. A Chinese leader, who had roamed the seas for years, seized power and around 1400 the petty state was little more than a pirates' lair, with a capital called Kien-Kiang.

The decline of Sriwijaya can be largely attributed to its pursuance of exclusive trade policy. This engendered rivalry and conflict. The advent of Islam caused the final eclipse of this Hindu kingdom. Many left the capital and very few traders still came there.

After this, Palembang fell under the sphere of influence of Banten and for a very long while little is known about it.

PALEMBANG
The city was not planned, for town planning was only introduced by foreigners later. The city was not built arbitrary, however. Its morphological structure was mainly determined by the cosmic and dualistic tradition, stressing the directions of the compass, the contradistinction between the western royal and eastern princely kraton relating to each other as sun and moon, the contradistinction between religious and profane authority and so on. The social structure and religious ideas became clear within the lay-out of the city.

Majapahit was located at some distance from the river Brantas. Its port on this river was called Bubat, which was inhabited by foreign traders from e.g. India and China, probably living in separate wards. Other ports which were part of the state were Surabaya, Gresik and Tuban. Smaller settlements were Singasari, Bayalanges, Patukangan, Sadeng, Keta, Pajarakan and Gending. The state territory of Majapahit was divided into two parts, Janggala downstream and Kadiri upstream. These parts were associated respectively with rural communities and aristocratic domains.

Transport in Majapahit was mainly carried out by water: sea and river. The river Brantas which was particularly important for the transportation of goods to Bubat from the sea, must have been much larger in those days than it is now. Because of deforestation the flow of water has certainly decreased. Transport over land mostly took place by ox-cart, which covered long distances in numerous caravans. Persons and goods were transported, as well as rice, spices, meat, fish and valuables. Toll-money was levied on roads and waterways.

According to Burger, Majapahit has to be considered both a land and a maritime power. Its influence covered almost the total area of Indonesia to-day with in addition parts of the Malay Peninsula with the exception of West Java, the southern part of Central Java and North Sulawesi. Subordination meant that a tribute had to be paid, but the areas located at a great distance were merely spheres of influence. Majapahit had a strong fleet to conquer other territories and send out punitive expeditions. It was a mercantile imperium incorporating coastal cities with a transit function. This went together with a strong agrarian basis of sawah and ladang cultivation. So Legge states that Majapahit combined in its political aspect the characteristics of a mercantile empire and an agrarian state. However, the aristocrats of Majapahit were not traders. Royalty and trade were considered incompatible. Primarily they relied on agriculture.

Pigeaud discusses four ranks, namely the aristocracy, clergy, peasants and bond-slaves. Foreigners and outcasts were not included in these categories, while craftsmen and artists were not considered a separate group. The social structure in the country was more diverse than is generally assumed. Isolated tribes existed, beside communities of craftsmen and traders, and industrial (salt, sugar) and agrarian villages. Moreover, the royal domains and the estates of the aristocracy and clergy have to be taken into account.

The political organisation was quite centralized. All the members of the royal family, as well as the most important functionaries, the vizir and the higher clergy lived in the capital. The state was divided into provinces, the most important being Janggala and Kadiri. Outside the capital authority was vested in the hands of local governors and vizirs for worldly matters, and judges and their assistants for spiritual-legal matters, who in their turn most probably had their own clerks. At the court spiritual and worldly matters were clearly separated and moreover were graded.

The expenditure of the court with its luxurious feasts and abundance of functionaries, soldiers and servants might have been a heavy burden for the peasants who had to produce the surplus. However, the royal and princely activities benefited the countryside also because of the protection given and the incentive for economic development they supplied. In principle the royal family was a unity with at its head the king. Internal disputes formed a threat to this unity and to the survival of Majapahit. After the death of King Hayam Wuruk the factions tried to gain advantage for themselves at the cost of the others and the prosperity of this state and its capital came to an end.

architecture of angkor wat

Angkor Wat is the prime example of the classical style of Khmer architecture—the Angkor Wat style—to which it has given its name. By the 12th century Khmer architects had become more skilled and confident than before in the use of sandstone (rather than brick or laterite) as the main building material. The Angkor Wat style was followed by that of the Bayon period, in which quality was often sacrificed to quantity.Other temples in the style are Banteay Samré, Thommanon, Chao Say Tevoda and the early temples of Preah Pithu at Angkor; outside Angkor, Beng Mealea and parts of Phanom Rung and Phimai.

Angkor Wat has drawn praise above all for the harmony of its design, which has been compared to the architecture of ancient Greece or Rome. According to Maurice Glaize, a mid-20th-century conservator of Angkor, the temple "attains a classic perfection by the restrained monumentality of its finely balanced elements and the precise arrangement of its proportions. It is a work of power, unity and style.

Architecturally, the elements characteristic of the style include: the ogival, redented towers shaped like lotus buds; half-galleries to broaden passageways; axial galleries connecting enclosures; and the cruciform terraces which appear along the main axis of the temple. Most of the visible areas are of sandstone blocks, while laterite was used for the outer wall and for hidden structural parts. The binding agent used to join the blocks is yet to be identified, although natural resins or slaked lime have been suggested.Other elements of the design have been destroyed by looting and the passage of time, including gilded stucco on the towers, gilding on some figures on the bas-reliefs, and wooden ceiling panels and doors.[15] Typical decorative elements are devatas (or apsaras), bas-reliefs, and on pediments extensive garlands and narrative scenes. Statuary is conservative, being more static and less graceful than earlier work.
Angkor Wat is the largest religious building in the world, taking up over 500 acres, and has more stone than the Great Pyramid of Egypt. The outer wall has a diameter of over 3 1/2 miles. A bridge crosses the moat and leads to a gateway, the interior of which is carved with over 500 apsaras (angels or supernatural female spirits of the clouds and waters in Hindu and Buddhist mythology). The inside of the stone gateway is rather dark, making the first sighting of Angkor Wat even more impressive. There are actually five towers, four in a square and one in the middle, but from this point to the entrance of the temple there appear to be three towers, the middle one taller than the other two. The highest tower reaches 213 feet above the ground and is made to look like lotus buds about to open
Angkor Wat was a Hindu temple. It is unusual in that it faces west (all other temples face east, toward the sunrise). For many years it was thought to be a tomb as it faced west, but it has since come to light that it was dedicated to Vishnu, not Shiva, and the west is sacred to Vishnu. It was built by King Suryavarman II around the year 1150, when the kingdom of Angkor, ancient Cambodia, was at its peak and stretched from northern Thailand to southern Vietnam.Like many of the other temples, Angkor Wat is intended to represent Mt. Meru, the axis of the world in Hindu belief. At the very start is the huge moat, almost 700 feet wide, representing the cosmic ocean that existed before creation. There is also a representation of the cosmic ocean at the central sanctuary, suggesting one is traveling through time from the cosmic ocean that covered the earth before creation to the cosmic ocean that will again cover the earth at the end of the world.

There are three levels to Angkor Wat. From the walkway a set of stairs leads to the first level. It is rectangular and stretches around the other two levels. The inside has a remarkably high vaulted roof, which gives it the feel of a cathedral. Sanskrit inscriptions record the glorious deeds of the kings. On the outside is the gallery of bas reliefs, stone murals that cover over 800 meters of the outer wall.

Malay Where it come from?

Hasil awal yang diperolehi mencadangkan suku Melayu Kelantan adalah suku Melayu yang masih tulen. Ini kerana Melayu Kelantan masih memelihara keturunan mereka tanpa banyak berlaku perkahwinan campur. Selain itu, suku Melayu Kelantan juga dikatakan suku pertama yang membuat petempatan di Semenanjung.

Kajian mereka mendapati wujudnya kepelbagaian corak DNA yang terdapat dalam Masyarakat Melayu moden hari ini yang mungkin berlaku kerana percampuran dengan orang Arab, Cina, India dan Thai. Ini menyokong fakta sejarah yang pernah menyebut Kerajaan Melayu Melaka satu ketika dulu adalah kerajaan yang gemilang dan kedatangan pedagang dari China, India dan Arab menyebabkan berlakunya perkahwinan campur.

Budaya melayu juga dikatakan ada persamaan dengan suku Naga yang menetap di perbatasan Myanmar/India. Malah melalui ujian DNA, dikatakan ada satu penanda didalamnya yang hanya biasa ditemukan dalam populasi di India.

Dikatakan terdapat 14 sub etnik Melayu yang mendiami Semenanjung iaitu:

1 . Melayu Kelantan (Melayu yang masih asli) di Kelantan

2. Melayu Yunan di Terengganu

3. Melayu Minang di Negeri Sembilan

4. Melayu Aceh di Perak

5. Melayu Mandailing di Perak

6. Melayu Rawa di Perak

7. Melayu Riau di Johor

8. Melayu Bugis di Johor

9. Melayu Kerinci di Selangor

10. Melayu Champa di Perak, Kedah dan Kelantan

11. Melayu Jawa di Johor dan Selangor

12. Melayu Jambi di Johor, Selangor dan Perak

13. Melayu Batak di Perak dan Pulau Pinang

14. Melayu Banjar di Johor, Selangor dan Perak

Lebih menarik, kajian ini membuktikan Orang Asli di Semenanjung bukan tergolong dalam satu keluarga Austronesia dengan orang Melayu. Sebaliknya mereka menyatakan Orang Asli di Semenanjung berasal dari Afrika yang berhijrah sejak 40 ribu tahun dahulu ke Semenanjung dan seterusnya ke Papua New Guinea (pulau-pulau Polynesia) dan Australia. Bagi saya, dakwaan ini ada benarnya kerana Orang Asli di Semenanjung berambut kerinting dan berkulit gelap persis orang Negro. Bezanya rambut mereka lebih lebat.

Part of Materials

The old Bubungan Tinggi House, estimated to have existed for tens year.........
Materials and Labors
a. The materials needed to build Bubungan Tinggi House are:
• Galam wood and Kapur Naga wood. These two kinds of wood are usually used for a house foundation. The foundation is the vital part in Bubungan Tinggi House construction. Bubungan Tinggi House is usually built in marshy and muddy area, so this foundation must be strong and sturdy to avoid getting rotten when it is buried inside the marsh or mud. Therefore, they use Galam or Kapur Naga wood. These two kinds of wood have uniqueness. They can resist until 70 years if they are buried in marshy area, and 60 years in dry area.
• Ulin wood. This wood is known to be durable, water resistance, and heat resistance. Ulin wood is usually used as pillars, sticks, gelagar (bamboo split used as the base of a seat), pegs, floors, watun barasuk, doors and window frames, and rafters of a roof.
• Lanan wood. This wood is usually used to build wall.
• White resin wood. This wood is usually used for gelagar, turus tawing, balabat, titian tikus, bujuran sampaian, and riing.
• Metroxylon sagus leaves. They are used for roof.
• Paring (bamboo). It is used to build palupuh halayung wall and hanau. Besides, Paring is also used to build floor on padu or pambayuan.
b. Labors
The construction of Bubungan Tinggi House needs expert labors who must have not only skills to build a strong and durable house but also spiritual skills so the built house can give peacefulness for the owners. In Bubungan Tinggi House, the expert labors are helped by ordinary labors/servants to work together, such as soil digging for the foundation and the assembly of the roof.

more to bubungan tinggi house

(Bubungan Tinggi is the Kings’ room
Palimasan is the jewelry room
Balai Laki is the aristocrats’ room
Balai Bini is the princesses’ room
Gajah Manyusu is the princes’ room)
Thus, it is clear that Bubungan Tinggi House is the Kings’ residence. Later on, Bubungan Tinggi House is not only possessed by Sultans but also people who are quite wealth, such as the merchants. In this case, there is a change in socio-economic layer. The socio-economic layer was once determined by descendant, nowadays it is determined by wealth. The more wealthy the owner is, the more glorious house he builds.
The wisdom of Banjar society in facing the natural condition can also be seen on the construction of Bubungan Tinggi House. The marshy condition on the river side ,which became the first place where Banjar traditional house appeared, forces the builders to overcome all the natural condition. Through a very long empiric experience, the architecture of Bubungan Tinggi House finally finds the solution. They adapted with such situation by forming foundation, pillars, and sticks that fit the situation. Beside those elements, the selection of the building materials (wood) also showed how Banjar society could handle those geographical problems, such as the use of Kapur Naga or Galam wood as the foundation. Although it is buried inside the mud, Kapur Naga or Galam wood can resist until 70 years.

Banjar House

Before this i already tell about banjar house and others in this issue i prefer to focus on bubungan tinggi house 1 of the famous type in banjar house..Like i have already tell before this bubungan tinggi is constitutes as palace also..Previously this house has rectangle-shape construction which stretched to the front.Further the stretching rectangle shaped got additional building left and right sides..the additional buildings seemed to stick on the original buildings pisang sasikat and protruded to the outside. Besides, additional room was also built at the back of the house which also had the same measurement (disumbi).

In the further development, there are more buildings built not only around the sultanate but also in other areas which imitated the form of Bubungan Tinggi House. Since the architecture of this house has been adopted by all people in Banjarmasin, Bubungan Tinggi House does not become the special characteristic of sultanate (palace), but it has become special characteristic of Banjar society’s house.

The existence of Bubungan Tinggi House in South Kalimantan is not only as the identity of traditional building, but also as a reflection from the social-economic layer of the society and the implementation of Banjar people’s intelligence in facing the nature where they live. As the reflection of social layer, the existence of Bubungan Tinggi House can be seen on Banjar proverb below.

Bubungan Tinggi wadah Raja-raja

Palimasan wadah Emas Perak

Balai Laki wadah Penggawa Mantri

Balai Bini wadah Putri Gusti-Gusti

Gajah Manyusu wadah Nanang-Nanangan,

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURRE

"Banjar" in formal word is banjarese i think this word is already familiar especially with malay civilization..This in 1 of etnic in south kalimantan indonesia..Then in malaysia there part of our country have banjar ethnic sabak bernam at selangot,trluk intan in perak and batu pahat johor.. This things happen because a few hundreds ago a lot of them travelled to many places in malay archipelago...
So what they have in architecture??
In this case i would like tell more about rumah banjar sometime it also known as "rumah bubungan tinggi or rumah ba'anjung"the most famous house in south kalimantan..a few years ago this house is basic for palace in old kingdom
Hence, there are houses with this type of architecture all over South Kalimantan, and even crossing the borders of Central Kalimantan and East Kalimantan. This type of house, of course, took more money than the usual house, so it was naturally the house of the rich....Nowadays people more interest to build bumbungan tinggi although it takes a lot of money to build whose love to culture value sometime like my lecterer ask sometimes we need look back a few year ago nowadays its hard to have it..

penuh dengan semangat.huhu

Dari part 2 beliau kita ke part 3...Macam byk memberi semangat plak..huhu...come on guys u can do it for our first design 1..hehe

ayuh umat islam bantu mereka!!

apa yag kita boleh buat...selain dari menderma kita boleh boikot barangan dari israel..ada yg menyatakan setiap rm1 yang d keluar kan kita utk barangan mereka ibarat 1 peluru untuk membunuh saudara kita,...dikata kod yang bermula seperti gambar ini drpd israel...dikatakan mereka sanggup memalsu kn demi penjual produk tersebut...
1. Beverages, Drinks
- Coca-cola
- Dr. Pepper
- Fanta
- Sprite
- Schweppes
- Lilt
- Fruitopia
- Sunkist
- Kia Ora Fruit Squashes

2. Food, Snacks
- Buitoni
- Danone
- Perrier
- Libby's
- Maggi
- Nestlé
- Shreddies cereal
- Nestlé KitKat
- Vittel

3. Consumer Products (Tissue, Diapers)
- Kimberly-Clark
- Kotex
- Huggies
- Kleenex

4. Cosmetics, Body Care
- Biotherm
- Sanex
- Garnier
- Clinique
- Helena Rubinstein (HR)
- L'oréal Paris
- Origins Natural Resources
- Maybelline
- La Roche-Posay
- Redken 5th Avenue NYC
- Vichy
- Johnson & Johnson
- Revlon
- Brylcreem

5. Perfumes, Fashion, Cosmetics
- Boss (Hugo Boss)
- Calvin Klein
- Lancôme Paris
- Giorgio Armani
- Estée Lauder
- Tommy Hilfiger
- Donna Karan New York (DKNY)
- Ralph Lauren

6. Fashion, Clothing
- Aramis
- Prescriptives
- La Mer
- Bumble and Bumble
- Jo Malone
- Kate Spade
- River Island
- GAP
- JC Penney
- Timberland
- J. Crew

7. Sportswear
- Champion
- Outer Banks

8. Home Products
- Ambi Pur
- Kiwi (shoe care)
- Sara Lee

9. Coffee, Coffee Systems, Tea
- Douwe Egberts
- Maison Café
- Superior Coffee
- Pickwick
- Piláo Café
- Starbucks Coffee

10. Technologies
- ICQ
- AOL
- Nokia
- IBM
- Intel

11. News Corporation, Publications
- Sky TV Network
- 20th Century FOX
- Star TV Network
- National Geographic Channel
- The Weekly Standard
- New York Post
- News of the World (UK)
- The Sun (UK)
- The Times (UK)
- The Daily Telegraph (Australia)
- Harper Collins
- Nursery World
- Disney
- TIME Magazine
- CNN

12. Clothing (Socks, Babywear, Intimate Apparel)
- DIM
- Victoria's Secret
- Banana Republic
- Structure
- Pryca
- Lindex
- Playtex
- Auchan
- Just My Size
- Hema
- Wonderbra
- Bali
- Hanes
- L'eggs
- Lovable
- Nur Die
- Gossard

13. Retailers, Stores, Shopping Complex
- Carrefour
- Tschibo
- Marks & Spencer
- Selfridges & Co.
- The White Barn Candle Co.
- Mast Industries Inc.
- Express
- Structure
- Henri Bendel
- Intimate Brands Inc.
- The Limited
- New York & Company
- Lerner New York

14. Home Depot
- Expo Design Centers
- Georgia Lighting
- Villager's Hardware
- Maintenance Warehouse
- The Home Depot
- Apex Supply Company

peperangan ini tidak akan tamat????

Gaza diserang lagi!!!!!dan pda pndapat aku peperangan ini x kan tamat selagi ada nya baitulmaqdis.. adakah tamadun yg masyarakat nya palestinian ingin di hapus kn.. sehingga kn sekolah2 d bom oleh pesawat F16 rejim zionis...Mengambil tanah rakyat nya dan mengaku sebagai hak nya..aksi jahat zionis pengalian dan pembinaan terowong di bawah al aqsa agar runtuh nya tempat suci umat islam itu..pengeboman yang di lakukan dan dgn mudah pemimpin tertinggi nya meminta maaf sdang kn penduduk nya dlm keadaan trauma....tetapi knapa masyarakat dan tempat suci ini di uji dgn dahsyat sebegini???hmm??