10. Kampong Kepayang … Where It All Began

Chew Boon Juan stayed at this corner shop lot. No 73 Main Road, Kg Kepayang

When Chew Bon Juan came to Kg Kepayang in 1892 he stayed at the home of Chew Si Phan. That home was a corner shop lot, No 73 Main Road, Kg Kepayang. 

The home was also a business premises called Ban Chin Hoe Tin Ore Shop. It was one unit of two rows of shop houses of this three-quarter kilometer long one street township.

To the north of No 73 is the abandoned Post Office and further on the derelict mansion belonging to the descendant of Datok Domba which from its grand facade had seen better days.

North of No 73 the derelict mansion of  a descendant of Datok Domba. Inset: an earlier photo 

No 73 and the abandoned Post Office (extreme right)

 Immediately south of the village is Sungai Raia a tributary of Sungai Kinta. On the west bank on the river is Kampong Kepayang and the mosque built in 1905. 

 

Fading slowly .... Kampong Kepayang ....

..the Mosque built in 1905 ... with Gunong Lanno at the back 

Sungai Raia and to the east is Gunong Lanno. Inset:is Kong Fook Ngam cave temple 1884  

On the east bank lies Mount Lanno where Chew Boon Juan derived his fortune early in the 20th century. The Kong Fook Ngam cave temple, started since 1884 lies within it.

Kampong Kepayang during the third quarter of the 19th century was an urban Malay settlement. The main commercial activity then was tin mining.   

Mining activities was what attracted the influx of migrants, the Mandailing, Rawa and the Chinese "encouraged by its enterprising Penghulu Toh Domba bin Toh Tua”. 

Chew Si Phan was the initial Chew clansman that came here. Later he sent for his nephew Chew Boon Juan to come to assist him. 

In 1898 after Chew Boon Juan took over the business from his uncle Si Phan he brought his eldest brother Boon Seong to help him with the business which later included tin mining.

Little did Chew Boon Juan realise it but that was the start of their Chew dynasty in Malaya.

Goh Lean Kee and Chew Boon Juan

In the year 1900 Chew Boon Juan married Goh Lean Kee. Goh was one of three sisters that were brought up in Taiping. Boon Juan brought her to Kampong Kepayang after their marriage.

Chew Gaik Tuan was the first child of Boon Juan born in 1901 followed by Gaik Hoon. Chew Chooon Siew, born 1905 was the first male born to Boon Juan and Goh Lean Kee.

In 1904 after the death of their mother the third brother, Chew Boon San arrived in Kg Kepayang. Unlike his brothers before him he arrived with his wife Toh Bok Wai and three children Gaik Khim, Choo Beng and Choo Peng.

Chew Boon Hong the fourth brother arrived in Kg Kepayang in 1909 after the death of Boon Seong  

Cousins Ignatius Chew with Chew Yew Kong at No 73.. beneath the signboard 'Ban Chin Hoe Siew Kee'

 "I love my brothers.Whatever I have, I also want my brothers to have"..Chew Boon Juan 

All the Chew brothers had lived at No 73 initially upon their arrival at Kg Kepayang. 

No 73 was in fact two shop lot units with No 75 immediately next door. Each unit measured  20 × 80 feet and was connected by adjoining doors both upstairs and down stairs.

Chew Boon Juan owned nine shop lots including no 73 an 75 on the main road of Kg Kepayang. Four of the shop lots units were located diagonally opposite from No 73 and 75. 

No 73 and 75 and the 4 shop lots diagonally opposite were owned by Chew Boon Juan  

...it was connected by adjoining doors upstairs ...

...and downstairs 

The  living arrangement would have been more than sufficient for all the brothers and their families. 

By the time Chew Boon Juan moved out of Kg Kepayang to his seaside home at 4 North Bridge Road, Penang in 1912 (later named Gurney Drive) there would have existed a small Kampong made up of Chew’s.

Additionally Boon Juan's cousin,  Chew Boon Pit, had married his sister in law and settled in Kg Kepayang.

Over the years the families gradually left Kampong Kepayang for other growing towns of  Simpang Pulai, Gopeng and  Ipoh. 

Ignatius Chew in 2014 made a report ....

...and had the units demolished

The house No 73/75 was demolished by Ignatius Chew in 2014. 

Scavengers had removed all the wood beams illegally. Fearing that the house would collapse and injure school children from a nearby school Ignatius made a police report before proceeding to demolish the property.

With the house demolished the only link to the town of Kampong Kepayang and Chew Boon Juan had been erased. Now all that remains is Gunong Lanno in the distance but that too will one day be erased due to ongoing quarrying.

Kg Kepayang is decaying similarly like the descendants mansion of  Datok Domba..it has a heritage background but in no time all will be a memory .

Within seconds all manner of traffic pass by the remains of Kampong Kepayang  

End.