Jinrikishaw @ The Lanca

Ipoh Echo July 1st-15th, 2008
http://www.ipohecho.com.my/ (issue 53)

When I was a little boy I had the choice of staying between the two of my beloved grand-parents. One was at Talang, a small home village just about three miles north of the town of Kuala Kangsar. The other was at Padang Rengas which was the home of my other grand-parents on my father's side. At times I used to be chided by one family or the other if I should overstay myself in one home especially during the festivals like Hari Rayas or during the long school terminal holidays. The discrimination, I thought, was logical to me. Kuala Kangsar was a coming-up town. It had already some big buildings like the Malay College, the Clifford School and of course the Istana Iskandariah at Bukit Chandan albeit its old version. Of course, there was already the Mesjid Ubudiah and others. One building of only wood and of zinc roofing I remember well to this days was the Empire Theater so much patronized by many of us kids for a "Tarzan" or "Laurel & Hardy" slap-stick comedian movies at 30 cents back seat, 20 cents middle area and 10 cents at the very front seats per one show!

Padang Rengas at that time was a very rural quiet kampong. The only consolation was that it was the home of the Tohmaharaja Indera's clans and siblings. Tohmaharaja Indera was my grandfather. At Talang it was always almost interesting especially at the prospect of going to town with Nek (Nenek - my great grandmother) to shop for Hari Raya or for other visits. In those days it was almost impossible to find plying taxis as we do today but we were very happy that the LANCAs were plying around in the town.

As the history went, the Jinriksha or Lanca as we mostly called them in due course started in China or Japan. If I remember my Japanese well when I was in the Nihon-Go Gakko the lanca used to be called by the Westerners as the Jinrikshaw. In the Kanji characters Jin signifies man; riki means strength while sha is a vehicle or cart thus the "man labour cart" - so the Lanca! The Lanca was a very unique man-made innovation. It has a seat for two on a shaft attached to two huge wheels on both sides. The wheels may be four to five meters high each. The seat had a collapsible canvass cover in cases of inclemental weather. The cart had also a front cover. The front cover was very popular with the young Muslim maidens on a shopping out by themselves or with friends and generally to keep themselves off from the prying male human eyes! The cart had a foot rest floor; a small area to keep one's small shopping items. I enjoyed accompanying Nek to the town for her marketing but more specially for Nek's preparations for Hari Raya. For this purpose Nek would require the services of two of our regular lanca men "Panjang" and "Pendek" as we called them referring to their statures but Nek, always courteous, would at times address them as Taukeh, may be to the chagrin of our two friends! Of course, Nek did not know the real concept and significance if a Chinese man is addressed as Taukeh when he is doing only manual jobs. While riding on the lanca with Nek she would always warn me not to be too restless while the cart was being pulled because that would inbalance our lanca-men in doing the tasks! Nek would generally take half a day for our shopping and marketing for our Hari Raya. It was unlike today when one could find all kinds of goods under one roof as in a supermarket. Nek had to go to as many shops to pick the best prices despite the fact that she too had her regular shops but then Hari Raya was always different! When we returned home the two lancas were laden with our purchases with bagfuls of rice and flour, sugar, milk, coffee, and cooking oil and kerosene and all the barang-barang dapor needful for Hari Raya for which Nek only paid a total amount of about $10.00 to $12.00! Our lanca trips to and from Talang and Kuala Kangsar did not cost Nek more than a dollar. One way trip by the lancas would take them between 45 minutes to a little more depending on the weight carried by them. Some of the items purchased could at least last three weeks or the full month before Nek and the others would go for another round of one month's ration. Nyang Abas, Nek's spouse (my great grandfather) was a retired Penghulu and in time I got to know that our Nyang Abas's pension was only THIRTY TWO dollars per mensem! Over the many years I was in and out, as it were, of Talang, the lanca people and their riskshas seemed to have decreased in number. On a number of times accompanying Nek going avisiting to our relatives in Kota Lama Kiri, 3 miles south of Kuala Kangsar I remembered noticing an almost dilapidated shack with a big number of some rickshaw pullers gathering among themselves smoking away with their weird looking pipes and I used to see also a number of the rickshaws going under repair or just going to dust! For a long time these people were very needful to a number of people wanting their services. As a people they were very hardy and really hardworking although they would only keep to themselves! Maybe now they knew their days were numbered. The memory of the rickshaws or lancas was very nostalgic to me to this day. To this day we wondered where these people came from and from what provinces in China; their clans; their dialects they spoke or why they immigrated themselves here to this country.... It would be good to know the history of our past heritage. When I was later a young teenager I used to follow my Tok (my Padang Rengas grandfather) to Ipoh. Ipoh then was already a thriving town being in the midst of the richest mining field in the world and my grandfather was buying for himself a new Morris Eight after disposing off his old Morris Cowley and my grandfather paid only Eight Hundred Dollars for his new car at the Ipoh Motors which still stands to-day, I understand! But it was then some sixty years ago. It was intriguing to observe the number of motor vehicles in Ipoh already at that time. There were all sorts of cars plying over the whole town and some of them running as taxis but I could not see any sight of the Lancas anymore except for some stray remnants! Trying to improve myself of the various brands or makes of the many cars around there, there were of course the Morris Minor and Morris Eight imported from England and there were the Austin Seven and Austin Eight also from the U.K. Then we had the Overland Whippet exported from the USA and we also had a Fiat Orlando from Italy! The Japanese and Korean cars only came into the pictures almost half a century later!

In my later days I overheard the yarn about some of the modern millionnaires dealing in the motor businesses today who could be the descendants of some of the earlier immigrant people who eked themselves out for a living pulling the Jinkishas. Millioniare Boon Siew started his life and beginning as a small bicycle repairer! Today Boon Siew is well known name all over this region who owns the Honda Empire.