Pair of Malaysian Chinese (Ampang) Temple Lamps

This pair of lamps comprises turned brass upper components each with two pans, a long stem, and a wide foot, and a pair of well-carved wooden hexagonal bases painted in red, black and gold.

Inside each of the bases of the brass lamp sections is a label handwritten using a fountain pen which says ‘Chinese Temple /Ampang Road / KL’. The labels appear to date to the 1950s or earlier.

There are several Chinese temples along Kuala Lumpur’s Ampang Road and it is not clear which temple is being referred to.

Malays, who are Muslims, form the majority of Malaysia’s population. Malaysian Chinese comprise the largest minority with almost 30% of the country’s population. Chinese have long had an association with Ampang. Chinese migrants from China (probably mostly Hakka Chinese) arrived in the (then) rural jungle area of what became known as Ampang in 1857 to prospect for tin. Many died from Malaria, but more arrived and in 1859, the area began to produce and export tin.

Dams are integral to tin mining – water from dams is channelled through pipes to flush out tin deposits. It was the dams that gave the area its name – ‘ampang’ in Malay means ‘dam’.

Ampang Road is one of Kuala Lumpur’s more important and longest roads. It connects central Kuala Lumpur with what was then the tin mining village of Ampang.

Both lamps and bases are in fine condition with obvious age. Each retains the original collector’s labels. The wooden bases are particularly attractive.