Kampuang Cino(Pondok): One of the Oldest View in Padang

MEDIAXINEWS-On the 3rd of February, 2011 in all around the world, Chinese people are celebrating the Chinese New Year (Chinese lunar new year). In Padang, there is also a China town, local people call it "Kampuang Cino"(minang language). The China town in Padang already has a hundreds of years of history, and it located in the old center of Padang city with its beautiful buildings and Chinese-charactered business. For the past couple of hundreds of years, China town has witnessed the development and changing of Padang city and Padang people. In this article, MediaXi makes a special report about one of the famous view point in Padang--SEE HIN KONG PADANG (Tempat Ibadat Tri Dharma)---the essence and land-mark of China town.

SEE HIN KIONG is located in the old center of Padang city, about 90% of residences here are originally Chinese, though most of cannot speak mandarin anymore, but they still kept some of the Chinese tradition when their ancestors immigrated to Padang hundreds of years ago.

The dean of SEE HIN KIONG told us that a long time ago, Padang do not have greeting place, and at that time, Tjoan tjioe, from china, came to Padang to do business. With the agreement from Ham hong taun sien yu, it was Tjoan tjioe that first built the kuam im teng in 1861. However, The kwan im teng was made from wood, and it was ruined by a fire accident later. And after that, mayer Lie goan hoat with Letenan liem soen mo, and letenan lie bian ek, discussed to build a new one in the same place, this greeting place is now called SEE HIEN KIONG.

In Chinese, SEE HIEN KIONG means the place that can make people calm down and forget about the worry of life. Apart from that, its also a place where sick people go and make a wish of health. For businessmen, they go to SEE HIEN KIONG to prey for a good luck in business, and for local citizens, they go to there to prey for happiness. A warning stone can be found inside the SEE HIEN KIONG, it was built by Kapiten lie goan. This stone recorded the introduction and history of SEE HIEN KIONG, so all people can have a trace of the development and meaning of SEE HIEN KIONG.
The complex of SEE HIN KIONG contains two temples, and beside the front temple, there is a beautiful wall with colourful sculptures and paintings of gods from the mystery of China. According to the dean of SEE HIN KIONG, all the building materials of SEE HIN KIONG are made in Fujia provence in China-the most famous place for its wood crave and sculpture-and then shipped to Padang about 150 years ago.

The temple we see today is actually not the original one, in fact, the old SEE HIN KIONG was instructed in a fire accident in 1861, and people rebuild a new one in the same place. The temple is mainly for people to worship, and in the Chinese new year, dragon shows and other celebration activities are played in front of SEE HIN KIONG.

Unfortunately, the SEE HIEN KIONG was hit again because of the earthquake in 2009. Though the main building was still kept without big damage, the earthquake can broken the building but not the heart of wishing of people. Now some local people and the administer of SEE HIEN KIONG are planing to rebuild it in the near future.