Batu Kawan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Batu Kawan is an island with a small town in the area of Penang, Malaysia. The island is situated off Seberang Perai, which is on the mainland. One of the ends of the future Penang Second Bridge is in Batu Kawan. The Batu Kawan Stadium (Penang's state stadium) is also located there.
Batu Kawan was long considered a quiet backwater, noted for sugar-cane, coconut and rubber plantations in the 1800s. It was among the oldest towns in Penang. Since the government chose Batu Kawan as the mainland site for the Penang Second Bridge, its development and progress have come under intense scrutiny.
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[edit] Local History
The tiny island has many hidden historical gems, dating back to the days of the British colonial masters.
[edit] Tangga Seribu
Locals in Batu Kawan would have heard about Tangga Seribu (a thousand steps) which charted a path up Bukit Batu Kawan but few outsiders have knowledge about it.
The steps continued to the top of the hill and down the other side. They were believed to have been built by a rich quarry owner about 200 years ago. At the summit of the 776ft-highhill there once sat a village, for whose villagers the steps had been built. The waterfall near the summit has dried up since the plantation of rubber trees.
The ruins of the steps are now covered by forest vegetation and soil, and there remain only some stone structures to indicate the position of the old pathway, which ends at the beach near Batu Musang jetty.
[edit] Batu Musang Jetty
The Batu Musang jetty was once used by tongkang (junks) to transport quarry stones from nearby hills to build George Town.
[edit] Club Beach
The short strip of beach at Batu Kawan was once popularly known as the Club beach. There was a clubhouse frequented by Europeans who worked and lived on the island, where they danced and dined at night. The clubhouse is long gone, and locals refer to it as Batu Musang beach. the only structure in the vicinity of this secluded beach is the newly built Batu Musang jetty.
[edit] Batu Kawan Kampung
Around the kampung (village), there are several age-old bullock-powered stone grinders that were used in the past to crush sugar cane to extract the juice. Though the stone grinders were missing, the granite base of the contraptions was still intact.
[edit] References
- Tiny island of historical gems, The Star, December 12, 2006.
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