PAPAN

PAPAN

My visit to Papan, if I can recalled is only 'twice', mainly for covering travel stories, here.

Papan town was once a bustling town in the late 1800s.

Today, it has become a sleepy hollow. Many of the old buildings have been abandoned and are slowly taken over by wild vegetation. There is very little economic activity and investment here, and younger generation have moved to town.

It is believed the Chinese had named it “ka-pan” which means wooden plank. In the past, the cengal hardwood harvested from neighbouring jungles, were brought to Papan to be sawn into planks.

Papan is located 17 km from Ipoh, off the Ipoh Lumut highway.

RAJA BILLAH MANSION

There are three main tourism attractions here – Sybil Kathigasu Museum and Raja Billah Palace and the Papan Mosque.

Sybil Kathigasu Museum is located at 74 Main Road, a prominent landmark which once housed the clinic of Sybil, the Malayan – Eurasian nurse who worked with her doctor husband to support the resistance during the Japanese Occupation.

The Raja Billah Palace is the stately mansion was also the town's largest building in its heyday. The mansion belonged to Raja Billlah, a Mendailing nobleman from West Sumatera who settled in Papan with his family in the late 1800s. A merchant and tin miner, Raja Billah was also the headman for Papan at that time. The palace was also selected as a location for filming of the movice Anna and the King. However, it was neglected in recent years, turning the mansion into a redundant site – where parts of the wooden panelings and tiles have been stolen or vandalised.

Nearby, there is the Papan Mosque which was completed in 1888, the mosque sits on land donated by Raja Billah. The structure is made of local hardwood such as cengal, merbau and damar laut. It was designed with one pyramid shaped zinc sheet roof sitting on top of another, separated by air vents.