The most famous Freemason in the Eastern Archipelago
A change in traffic regulations at Armenian Street offers
“ARMENIAN Street has been shortened recently and a section of it is now permanently closed to vehicular traffic for good. You have to alight here at Coleman Street and make your way to True Blue Cuisine on foot,” quips the cab driver as he carefully brings his vehicle to a stop by the kerb.
“Turn into the minor road at the T-junction just a little further up and the restaurant is less than 100 metres away,” he adds helpfully before driving off in the direction of the Registry of Marriages at Canning Rise to look for more passengers.
Although I’ve been to this part of Singapore several times before, covering the final stretch to what’s probably the best Peranakan restaurant in the city on foot is a first. Almost immediately, the surrounding buildings start to take centre stage; the very ones that, in the past, merely formed faceless protrusions in the landscape each time the taxi I was in zipped past Coleman Street.
Among the many historic buildings I stop to admire, an imposing double storey structure with a grand facade proves to be the most intriguing. During the sumptuous Straits Chinese-inspired lunch of ayam buah keluak, kerabu jantung pisang, ngor hiang and udang kuah nenas, images of what appear to be architect tools on the walls of the building continue to occupy my mind. to many Masonic Halls all over the world survived the ravages of conflict.
Reading the stories written in these journals is like taking a guided tour through time. Almost immediately, I find myself transported back to the days when Freemasonry first gained a foothold in this region with the arrival of the British East Indian Company (BEIC).
Bencoolen (now Bengkulu), on the west coast of Sumatra, became home to the first Masonic Lodge in the Eastern Archipelago when the BEIC established a settlement there in 1765. Since then, the number of Lodges began to increase in tandem with the spread of British influence in this region.
Not much is known about these early Lodges as their membership was made up almost entirely of the small number of BEIC employees. Gatherings were frequently cancelled or cut short as it was difficult to obtain the attendance of more than seven or eight members at each meeting. Furthermore, the life span of these Lodges were generally short and uneventful due to the transitory nature of the BEIC employees.