Yap Kongsi (Choo Chay Keong), Penang槟城杨公司植德堂

Type

Overseas Daoist Temples

Location

Malaysia · Penang (state) · George Town · 71 Armenian Street

First built

1924 · The Yap ancestral hall building was completed in 1924; the adjoining Choo Chay Keong shrine dates from an earlier period

Heritage status

Within the Core Zone of George Town, UNESCO World Heritage Site: Melaka and George Town, Historic Cities of the Straits of Malacca (2008)

Overview

Chap Teik Tong Yap Kongsi is the ancestral hall of the Yap lineage in Penang; the building standing today was completed in 1924 and stands on Armenian Street, in the same area as the Kian Tek Tong Tua Pek Kong Temple and the Khoo Kongsi's Leong San Tong. Its most distinctive feature is its Straits Eclectic style, combining Southern Fujian cut-porcelain work roof ridges with European Baroque plasterwork and colored ceramic tiles, making it a representative example of the localization of Southeast Asian Chinese architecture in the early twentieth century. Adjoining the ancestral hall is Choo Chay Keong, a shrine to deities venerated by the Yap lineage that predates the main hall building. It lies within the core zone of the George Town UNESCO World Heritage Site. Functionally it is a blood-lineage ancestral hall combined with a small temple, and not a Daoist monastery.

Highlights

• A Straits Eclectic-style building completed in 1924
• Combines Southern Fujian cut-porcelain work roof ridges with European plasterwork and colored ceramic tiles
• Adjoins Choo Chay Keong, a shrine to deities of the Yap lineage
• Located within the core zone of the George Town UNESCO World Heritage Site