Everyday Migrant Architecture and Socio-Spatial Practices: Bawean Langkher in the Singapore Ponthuk

Abstract

This article examines how migrants from the island of Bawean in the Indonesian Archipelago architecturally responded to the urban environment upon migrating to Singapore in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Baweanese migrants translated architectural traditions and everyday life routines by adjusting the layouts of existing urban forms to facilitate their socio-religious needs. The continuity of the Bawean langkher (prayer hall) was formed by dynamic links between the community and their changing circumstances, motivations for Baweanese migration, and spontaneous acts of agency and resistance to colonial intervention in and away from the homeland. I explore how the Singapore ponthuk (migrant house) continued to perpetuate the socio-religious norms, mores, taboos, and laws of the Baweanese in the first half of the twentieth century. Within the hinterland, this led to a religious identity that was distinct from that of the larger Malay community. I argue that these continuities can be brought to light through a consideration of the memory of socio-spatial practices in everyday settings. I further suggest that the case of the Bawean langkher in the ponthuks of Singapore expands upon the notion of invisible geographies in the field of Islamic architecture.