SPATIAL DIFFERENTIATIONS IN THE KAMPAR METHODIST CHURCHES : LANGUAGE AND ETHNICITY IN A MALAYSIAN TOWN, 1903-2010

Abstract

Methodism was first introduced into Malaysia in the 1890s, affecting the development of the nation in various aspects, especially in these two areas: the religion of Christianity, and the early English-language schools education. This is particularly so in places where the local population consisted of predominantly Chinese or Indian people. Kampar was one of these places: it was one of the first few places to have constructed a Methodist church and an English-language school in the early 1900s. However, from that starting point, the architecture of the Kampar Methodist Churches had a very specific evolutionary process in terms of both form and function, which is heavily related to the following social factors: language and ethnicity. At present, the Kampar Methodist community has separated into four distinctive congregations, namely the Kampar Chinese Methodist Church, the Kampar Wesley Methodist Church, the Kampar Tamil Methodist Church, and the Kampar Sengoi Workers Training Center. Inherently, the building of a Chinese church and an English school had already encompassed the factors of language and ethnicity from the very beginning. This dissertation studies the extent to which such linguistic and ethnic influences affect the transformation of the architecture of the Kampar Methodist Churches from its beginning to the present (1903 - 2010). Intersecting with other factors such as the local developments (the tin-mining industry; emergence of the Chinese-language schools; the recent completion of the University Tunku Abdul Rahman etc.) and the national historical events (Independence from the British government; Malaysia religious policy; the formation of an autonomous Malaysia Methodist Church etc.), language and ethnicity divided the church and defined their subsequent architectures.