One day, I was driving, on the way to Beach Street from Prangin Mall, then I simply turned into a street, no idea where it was, some where on Beach Street I guess, then I looked around and accidentally found the Tan Clan House & Temple also known as Tan Kongsi to the local.
Alright, Tan is a Chinese surname, Tan is known to Hokkien people and my surname Chan is known to Cantonese people and we share the same ancestor thousands of years ago I believe. Tan, Chan, Chen, it’s all the same.
Found a parking space and parked the car. Then I went down to look around for fun because I’ve never been there before and it’s my first time knowing this place. The temple was close and I guess I may find names of my ancestor who first came to Penang many many years back.
This place is small compare to Khoo Kongsi, this can said that the Khoo has more families. This kongsi-kongsi was where all the people of the same surname live together when they first arrive in Penang island. Later then when the island is modernized, everyone spreaded out.
Pretty cool. Gonna go here again when it’s open.
1 Comment
poisonkagero
June 8, 2010 at 5:45 pmAh cool! My surname is Lim and I heard there's a Lim Kongsi too but am not sure where it is. Hope to check it out when I come back from studies in December!