Renovations Completed

31 May 2015, 9.00am, was an auspicious occasion for Shuntak Association Taiping for it marks the end of our renovation project to restore the old ancestral hall at 36 Jalan Kota, Taiping.  The grand building was restored to its former glorious self from floor to roof.  Almost 90% of the original materials were restored and reused.  Minimum changes were made and that too, when it was absolutely necessary to do so.  With the newly tiled roof and a new coat of paint, it has a refreshing look and the building stands out proudly in the midst of its dull-coloured neighbours.   

   The new-look Shuntak Association Hall of Taiping

At 9.00am sharp, a simple ceremony was carried in front of the Bat Deity's altar inside the building, to pay homage to the Lord of the Land on which the building stood.  The ceremony was conducted by a feng shui master together with some committee members of the Shuntak Association, Taiping. 

Offerings placed at the altar during the ceremony

Committee members of Shuntak Association Taiping paying homage to the deity

Finally, joss papers were burnt to the deity and it is our hope that the building and our association will be blessed with good tidings, success and happiness through the years.    

Welcoming the Year of The Goat

Members of Shuntak Association of Taiping celebrated Chinese New Year on 21 February 2015. This year, the celebration was held at the heritage Shuntak Association Hall for the first time after an interval of a great many years.   Renovation works on the Hall is still on-going but, still the Shuntak clan members have decided that it was most appropriate to have the celebration there, on the third day of Chinese New Year, so that the younger family members who have returned from near and far, could have a look at the work being done to restore an important part of their social history.    

As could be seen from the photo above, the response from members was very good.  Posing with pride at the doorway of the great Hall, everyone hoped that such a memorable event would be repeated there year after year with more and more members attending.   

As a normal practice, education awards were given out to members' children who have done well in public examinations.  These young members have done us proud and it is hoped that one day, this younger generation would take over the leadership of this association and lead it to greater heights.  

Paying homage to our patron deity Kuan Ti. 

On the whole. the celebration was a successful one. Thanks to the hard-work done by the members especially the committee members, to arrange for setting up the venue and for the food served.  With co-operative effort, one could move mountains.  

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE !     KONG HEI FATT CHOY !!

Visitor to our Heritage Building

On 11th Dec, 2014, a surprise visit to the STA Heritage Building was made by a DR Paul Recher. Fortunately, our Restoration Chairman, Tung Lay Chun, was there too.  She took a picture of him (below), and they had a lengthy discussion. In short, he is concerned with heritage issues in Taiping since he has made Taiping his second home.  He was impressed with our progress.  One, of course, would like to know more about this distinguished visitor.  Well, below is a brief introduction based on an email sent to Tung Lay Chun from Dr Paul Recher himself. 

 Bio data of Dr Paul Recher:

 Dr. Paul Recher aged 67, ethno-botanist, horticulturist, farmer & heritage lover emigrated from New York to subtropical, wet east coast of NSW where he single-handedly transformed a run down dairy farm into a verdant 32 ha. /80 acre jungle botanical garden & wildlife refuge comprising more than 2000 plant species, 14 species snake, 9 spp. lizards, 11 spp. frogs, 80 spp birds plus bats, koala, platypus, kangaroos, sugar gliders and invertebrates galore e.g. every subgroup of spider and the fascinating land lobster Eustachus sp. For 2 years Paul a a presenter on an ABC TV national gardening show, and for seven years wrote a weekly column covering politics and human behaviour for the regional newspaper circulation 22,000.

Welcome to Taiping Dr Paul Recher and thank you for your support towards our restoration project.