CHAPTER 1.1: The Origins

As mentioned on the previous post, this is the real beginning of our first chapter, the origins of Dusun Tua and bits and pieces of how traditional Malay houses gain roots in Malaysia.

Row, row, row your boat~

According to En. Ghazali, Dusun Tua is a settlement that was establish for over a hundred years or so by Indonesian immigrants. We presume they came by boat, either that or they flew or swam over, which sounds kind of far-fetched but who knows.

Argh, where's my food?

Seeing that Malaysia was not yet as developed (or exploited) as many other rising Asian countries, the immigrants probably sought after better resources and lifestyle in a new land.

Woohoo! New place, new life

So travelling across the Straits of Malacca, they came over and scattered all over the new lands and started new settlements and traditions. And one of the settlement would be Dusun Tua.

New life, new style, definitely.

Those scattered group paired with differing conditions produced different styles of construction due to materials available and personal beliefs and that is how we have all these mixture of houses with similar yet different outlooks.

True origins: Indonesian? Aboriginals?

Dusun Tua now has a mixture of traditional houses (there were many different types, not only one specific type) and modern brick houses due to eventual development. 

All in all, Dusun Tua is a kampung of a mixture of traditional (kampungs - generally recognized as the traditional housing area where people build their own houses on their respective lands ) and modern (tamans - centralized and commercialize development of a housing area) elements with around 3000 to 4000 on the population count, in which the traditional roots had beginnings from Indonesia and a small group of local indigenous people. 

Nevertheless, we're all now called Malaysians regardless and see you guys soon with the next part on how Dusun Tua was and what it became today. Bye!