PRINCE CHARLES VISITS PLACES OF WORSHIP
Royal couple’s thoughts are with flood victims
PRINCE Charles, the Prince of Wales, and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, began their visit to Penang by visiting places of worship in George Town, a Unesco World Heritage site.
The British royal couple were on a one-day visit to Penang, which was originally named Prince of Wales Island, with their first stopover at St George’s Church, the oldest Anglican church in Southeast Asia, built in 1818.
Upon arrival at the church at 10.05am, the royal entourage was greeted by Bishop Charles Samuel. They spent 20 minutes admiring the new pipe organ at the church, which was declared a national heritage in 2007.
Prince Charles and Camilla were presented with an oil painting in conjunction with the church’s bicentenary celebration, before they proceeded to visit Kapitan Keling Mosque.
Built in 1801 by Penang’s first Indian Muslim settlers, Kapitan Keling Mosque, located at the junction of Lebuh Buckingham and Lebuh Pitt, is one of the largest mosques in Penang island, built according to IndoMoorish structure.
Earlier, hundreds of people, holding Malaysian and United Kingdom flags, had gathered along the streets under tight security to catch a glimpse of the British royal couple. Some were lucky enough to shake Prince Charles’s hand.
At the mosque, the royal couple were welcomed by a kompang troupe, before being greeted by mosque chairman, Datuk Meera Mydin Mastan, who accompanied the visitors in a tree-planting event to commemorate their visit.
After spending 15 minutes at the mosque, they signed the guest book before leaving on foot to the Han Jiang Ancestral Temple, 100m away.
The temple, previously known as Teochew Kongsi, in Chulia Street was built in 1890 by Teochew migrants from Chaozhou prefecture, on the eastern part of Guangdong province in China.
The Prince and Duchess spent 15 minutes enjoying a lion dance before strolling across the street to visit the Sri Mahamariamman Temple.
They were accompanied by Minister-in-Attendance Datuk Seri S.K. Devamany, who is deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department.
The temple is the oldest temple here, built in 1833 and extensively renovated in 1933, with a prominent dome and entrance tower.
The royal couple then proceeded to visit the Seven Terraces, a contiguous row of Anglo-Chinese terrace houses behind the Goddess of Mercy Temple in Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling.
The visit of Prince Charles and Camilla to Malaysia is part of an 11-day tour of Singapore, Malaysia and India from Oct 30 to Nov 9.
The plight of Penangites did not escape the royal couple.
“Their thoughts are with those affected by the flooding,” said a tweet from Clarence House, the official residence of the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall.