GEORGE TOWN – The iconic Thai Pak Koong (Ng Suk) Temple and its Fu De Ci restoration project received a merit award during the 2021 Unesco Asia Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation at noon yesterday, following an announcement by the Unesco Bangkok Office.
The award makes the temple one out of nine projects from six countries to receive the honour.
The temple restoration project located at King Street here is being recognised for its excellence in three main areas, namely understanding of the place, technical accomplishments, and sustainability and impact.
Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow commended the committee members for the exemplary restoration project and for winning the award.
He also paid tribute to the late Tan Yeow Wooi, who died three days ago on Monday.
He was the architect consultant and heritage conservator for the project.
Restoration committee chairman and temple vice-president Datuk Lio Chee Yeong said receiving the award ignited bittersweet emotions as they were not able to celebrate the win with Tan, who steered the whole restoration project from 2015 to its completion in December 2019.
“His contribution to our temple was not just about the restoration. He did the research on its history, architectural style, and even the type of materials used.
“He wanted it to achieve the highest standard in heritage conservation. That is why we dedicate this award to him.
“Because of him, we managed to restore the temple according to the Unesco Conservation guidelines, similar to the building style from 100 years ago.
“We employed contractors, bought materials, and hired designers from China who knew how to replicate the details and restore the temple to its former glory.
“We couldn’t have done it without the late Tan,” he said during an online press conference.
The temple was founded in 1810 and had undergone an expansion project from 1865 onwards. Therefore, the restoration project involved a lot of the materials that were similarly used in the 1900s when the temple was at its prime.
Lio said several restoration projects had been conducted before, but restoration had to be redone because they were not aligned to the conservation of the building.
He said they had to remove the cement roof, which was built to address water leakage issues, and restore the roof to exactly what it was like in the 1900s.
He said the cost of restoration ran over the initial budget by approximately RM1 million, bringing the initial cost of RM2 million to RM3 million.
“We want to thank the state government for providing RM400,000 for this project. However, we are still short of RM600,000.
“We dared to start this project with only RM500,000 and I would like to thank our gracious donors for contributing to the restoration of this temple,” Lio said.
He said they had aimed to get an award either at the national, or Unesco level when they started in 2015.
Lio believes that Chinese temples are part of the rich heritage of multicultural Malaysia, and wants the temple to be recognised as a national heritage.
However, it took almost two years for all the needed documents to be approved before restoration work could proceed at the temple. It also took 32 months for the physical restoration to complete.
George Town World Heritage Inc, the site manager and custodian of heritage projects, was also a contributor to the temple’s award success. – The Vibes, December 2, 2021
