Padang Rengas to Parit Buntar mosques & church

Driving north from Padang Rengas to Parit Buntar in Perak we used the old trunk road. We passed a couple of interesting mosques, a church and a colubarium.

The first mosque is the Ihsaniah Iskandariah Mosque at Padang Rengas. It was built in 1936 and funded by the late 30th Sultan of Perak. The opening ceremony was in Feb 1938 [1356].

The design and ornamentation were based on the architecture of the istana at Bukit Chandan.

There are bamboo strip woven panels in a diamond motif. Every wood joint of the walls are decorated with a carved motif of a flower. The walls are painted in the colours of the Perak state flag.

The mosque has 20 windows, those on the ground floor are higher to provide privacy. Each window is carved with a shark gill's motif, bean shoots and a crescent and 5 pointed star. So many windows provide lighting and ventilation.

The mosque has not been used since 1976 and has since been conserved by the Dept of National Heritage. This is the mosque used today -

The next mosque we photographed is Masjid Al-Ridzuan at Telok Medan, between Simpang Empat Semanggol and Bagan Serai in Kerian district.

 Next was the Masjid Al-Athar at Kampung Masjid Tinggi, Bagan Serai

 Across the road is the old mosque -

 the cemetery is right next to the mosque

 Just before Bagan Serai town is a new colubarium

North of Bagan Serai is St Joseph's Church. It was first set up in an abandoned hut in 1882 for some Tamil Catholics who had come from Penang (history) -

Next to it is the parish house

and a grotto to Our Lady

There is also a shrine to St Joseph

nice tree

 The gardeners were busy in the grounds but one of them picked some flowers for us

our route

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission