The
Mandailings in Peninsular Malaysia
The
Penghulu Papers
The Rumah Besar is a repository of family documents
going back to the 1870's, photographs, furnitures, memorabilia,
weapons from the war of the 19th century, etc. The family documents
are now a subject of a research grant (1997-1999) from The Toyota
Foundation. The Toyota Foundation has also given a publication
grant for 2000 to publish the Tarikh Raja Asal (1933) and Peringatan
Tarikh Perjalanan Raja Shahabuddin dan Rahman Pergi ke Makkah
(1940).
In the words of Annabel the Gallop, Curator,
Oriental and India Collections, The British Library: "It
is rare to find such a cohesive collection of Malay manuscripts
documents, covering the activities of three generations of a family
of Penghulus, still intact in private hands. I have been able
to personally inspect copies of the approximately 150 documents
which have been translated into Romanized Malay, and can confirm
the importance of the contents. To the best of my knowledge, no
comparable collection of Malay manuscripts of this nature is held
outside Malaysia, although there may be smaller numbers of similar
documents in the National Archives of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur".
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