Digging Up Facts

As I got back, I thought about the day and that church. I couldn't understand why the dude couldn't mention one paragraph about the church. That was true with my cousins. They talked about mosques and Hindu churches and some Christian churches. Shanti mentioned about going to Catholic school in high school but I think it was in India and Bala talked about going to a Christian school during his younger days in Kuala Lumpur called St. Mary's Cathedral, an Anglican church. I'm not sure if Raja and Sheela went there but the conversation never veered toward Christianity concerning Indians especially Tamils. I did mention one who converted from Hinduism to Catholicism but that got shot down really quick.

One fact that I did uncover about Tamil Methodist Church in Malacca. The entrance that I went was not an entrance to the church but an office or storage place. It looked nice with a small, triangular arch roof with tiles in the middle for support and a carport on the side. Only when we left, I realized where the main building was which was few yards adjacent from the building that I went which the gates were locked. The main building had that triangular roofing that hovered the building with glass doors. If I just taken a few more steps, I would have seen it and found out truth myself.

As it was, I'm looking up the Internet for the facts. The church did start in 1908 but it involved four groups with Chinese (Perkanan and Mandarin), Indian (Tamils), and Malays. It was called the Kubu Methodist Church. These groups became Methodists due to missionaries who came to Malacca around the late 19th century. From private homes of donors, these missionaries disciple leaders from each group to be lead pastors. An English pastor translated the Bible into the Malay language and formed a Tamil congregation. He tried to make the sermon an English one to maintain unity. However, this proved to be unsuccessful as eventually the Chinese and Malays each built their own churches with the Tamil group keeping the historic building in 1965 and changing the name. This isn't the only Tamil Methodist church in Malacca but there are others in Kuala Lumpur, Penang, and etc.

I'm not a Christian but I'm Tamil. I find it interesting that there would be a Christian Congregation of Tamil people. In Malaysia, the population is about 28.5 million and 2.5 million of those are Christians. The total population of Indians are 2.5 million. There are 192,000 Indian Christians from all denominations but 7,800 of them are Tamil Methodists. Seventy percent of Indians in Malaysia are Tamils. Also, 500,000 Tamils are Muslim in Malaysia. In historical perspective, Tamil Muslims are responsible for bringing Islam to Malaysia during the 6th century. These Tamils were converted to Islam by Arab traders who came to south India in the 5th century.

These numbers really don't mean much but it does show that Tamils don't follow one religious category. Tamils have a historical lineage to their respective religion. Its funny how that no mentions this fact because it is supposed to be assumed that Tamils are all Hindus who are influenced by Islam and Christianity through schools and culture. Yet, historically, they had their own deity and were converts to Hinduism. Likewise, they were converts to Buddhism and Jainism during the Pallavas,Chola, and Pandyan periods. In short, everyone is a convert no matter how long or short their history. Next time, the guide should talk about that church as well.