Tan Sri Dato’ Dr Mubin Sheppard: pioneer in the conservation of historical buildings in Malaysia, 1959-1994
Zuraini Md Ali’s 2010 article in the Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (Vol. 83, Part 2) reconstructs the career of Tan Sri Dato’ Dr Mubin Sheppard (1905–1994) as the central figure in Malaysia’s architectural conservation movement from 1950 to 1994. Set against the backdrop of post-war Malaya, the Emergency, independence, and the rapid urbanisation of the 1970s–80s, the article argues that conservation efforts in Malaysia significantly predate the commonly cited mid-1970s watershed and were driven primarily by one individual’s sustained, multi-decade commitment.
Summary
The article challenges the prevailing narrative that building conservation in Malaysia began with Hajeedar Abdul Malek’s 1976 articles in Majalah Akitek. Ali demonstrates that institutional and practical conservation work was already underway in the early 1950s, catalysed by Sheppard’s dual roles as British Adviser to Negeri Sembilan and, after independence, as the first Director-General of the National Museum. The narrative is organised around Sheppard’s major interventions: the rescue and re-erection of the Ampang Tinggi Palace (1952–54), the saving of the Kampong Laut Mosque in Kelantan (1968–70), the preservation of Tengku Nik Palace in Terengganu (1966–70), and the restoration of Gedung Raja Abdullah in Klang (1980–92). Each project is examined in detail, drawing on Sheppard’s personal correspondence, MHS meeting minutes, and archival letters held in the Malaysia National Archives to reveal the practical difficulties—funding shortfalls, bureaucratic delays, community opposition, and the scarcity of skilled traditional carpenters—that shaped each outcome.
A second thread runs through the article’s treatment of the institutions Sheppard founded or helped establish: the Arts Council, Federation of Malaya (1952), the Malayan Historical Society (1953), the National Museum (1958–63), and finally Badan Warisan Malaysia (1983). Ali positions these not merely as administrative bodies but as the structural infrastructure that made sustained conservation possible, with the MHS serving as the operational vehicle for the mosque and palace rescues. The article also highlights the tension between top-down government action and grassroots community sentiment, most visibly in the Kampung Laut villagers’ protest against relocating their mosque away from the original site—a dimension that Sheppard’s own publications omitted.
Ali’s use of primary sources is extensive and granular. Sheppard’s handwritten minutes, letters to contractors, newspaper appeals, and the EMMCO legal correspondence are quoted at length to reconstruct the decision-making processes behind each project. The article also incorporates oral testimony from Sheppard’s daughter Lavender Buckland, his biographer John Gullick, and BWM founder Waveney Jenkins, providing personal context for Sheppard’s motivations and working style.
Key Findings
- The Ampang Tinggi Palace, built in 1865 of chengal timber without metal nails, was dismantled in January 1953 and re-erected at Seremban by March 1954; General Templer officially opened it as the Negeri Sembilan State Museum on 20 May 1954 (pp. 53–55).
- The Kampong Laut Mosque, a timber post-and-beam structure approximately 16 m × 16 m, was dismantled on 3 November 1968 and re-erected at Nilam Puri; only 20 per cent of the original materials could be reused, and the project cost an estimated RM16,500, funded largely by MHS members rather than government allocation (pp. 58–64).
- Tengku Nik Palace (Rumah Tele), built in 1888 following the 1882 fire that destroyed over 1,600 houses in Kuala Terengganu, was purchased for RM7,000 and re-erected on 29 March 1970 at a total additional cost of RM8,000, funded entirely by Eastern Mining & Metals Co. Ltd; it was gazetted as a monument under the Antiquities and Treasure Trove Ordinance 1957 on 29 May 1971 (pp. 65–78).
- The National Museum building, designed by architect Ho Kok Hoe with Sheppard’s conceptual input drawing on the Sejarah Melayu description of Sultan Mansur Shah’s Malacca Palace, was officially opened on 31 August 1963 by the Yang Dipertuan Agong (pp. 57–60).
- Badan Warisan Malaysia was incorporated as a company on 14 January 1983, with Sheppard as honorary secretary; the subsequent restoration of Gedung Raja Abdullah (built 1863) in Klang was completed on 27 January 1992 (pp. 80–82).
- Sheppard’s 1981 paper ‘Persatuan Warisan Perlu diadakan di Malaysia’, presented at the national seminar ‘Towards National Identity in Architecture’, explicitly called for the establishment of a non-governmental Heritage Society of Malaysia and cited Istana Tengku Long (c. 1850) and Gedung Raja Abdullah as buildings under immediate threat (pp. 79–80; Appendix B, p. 86).
Conclusion
Ali’s definitive takeaway is that Sheppard single-handedly created the intellectual, institutional, and practical foundations for architectural conservation in Malaysia, working across four decades and multiple administrative regimes. His legacy is not merely the physical survival of specific buildings but the establishment of a collaborative model—government, non-governmental organisations, private sector, and community—without which the field would have remained fragmented and reactive.
Context
- The study draws primarily on the Malaysia National Archives (Sheppard’s personal files, MHS minutes, EMMCO correspondence, and government letters), supplemented by oral interviews conducted by the author between 2006 and 2009.
- Historiographically, the article fills a gap identified by earlier scholars (Chen Voon Fee, Amer Hamzah) who had treated Malaysian conservation history as beginning in the 1970s; Ali’s reconstruction pushes the effective starting point back to the early 1950s and centres an individual biography as the organising framework for what had previously been treated as a purely technical or policy-driven narrative.