GEORGE TOWN, April 28 — More than 220 years in the past, Armenian merchants and retailers landed in Penang, making a buying and selling link between India, Singapore and Penang.
One of the earliest data of the Armenians settling down in Penang is a home title deed dated 1801 with the title “The Armenian House” referring to a home at the junction of Beach Street and Armenian Street.
This piece of info will be discovered in a e book titled The Armenians of Penang by Nadia Wright.
It is believed the street the place the home was positioned was subsequently named Armenian Lane, as famous in an previous map dated 1807.
According to Wright, most of the Armenians in Penang got here from Persia as early as 1800 with others from India, proper after the British “acquired” Penang.
Though the Armenians had been a minority at the time, with lower than 180 in quantity over a 150-year interval, they performed a major function in Penang’s financial and civil life.
Among the well-known Armenian personalities at the moment was the doyen of the Armenian neighborhood, Catchatoor Galastaun, who funded the Armenian Church; the Sarkies brothers who established the E&O Hotel, the Anthony household who had been the founders of stockbroking agency, A.A. Anthony & Co; Dr Thaddeus Avetoom of the Georgetown Dispensary; the Ipekdjians who had been jewellers and the Gregorys.
Three of the Sarkies brothers, Arshak (prime), Aviet (left) and Tigran (proper). — From Twentieth Century Impressions of British Malaya
The Armenian neighborhood in Penang dwindled ultimately as they left for Singapore and different nations.
E&O Hotel and A.A. Anthony & Co remained as reminders of their presence right here, together with the few graves of Armenian personalities in Western Road Cemetery and the Northam Road Old Protestant Cemetery.
The stays of 20 Armenian retailers, together with six from the Anthony household, had been buried in a mixed plot at the Western Road Cemetery however on account of years of neglect, the grave website is overgrown with vegetation and the headstones lined in mould.
Wright, in her e book, famous the deplorable situations of the grave website and appealed for an Armenian benefactor to revive and keep the website as a reminder of the Armenians link to Penang.
Cleaning works at the Armenians’ mixed plot at Western Road Cemetery. — Picture courtesy of Marcus Langdon
This caught the consideration of Mrs Kohar Khatchadourian and the Kohar Ensemble which then led to a five-year effort to revive the grave website ranging from 2019.
The Kohar Ensemble, a symphony and orchestra in Armenia, contacted Penang-based historian Marcus Langdon and he grew to become the co-ordinator for the restoration efforts.
The headstones at the communal plot had been cleaned and a few of the names had been painted at the begin of the restoration efforts in 2019 however all the pieces got here to a halt throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
Repainting the wordings on the Armenian headstones at the mixed plot in Western Road Cemetery. — Picture courtesy of Marcus Langdon
Finally, early this month, the Kohar Ensemble despatched an worker, Serena Vartabedian, to Penang to oversee restoration efforts for the grave website that has 12 headstones.
Vartabedian mentioned the grave website was in unhealthy situation once more after greater than 4 years since they began restoration works, with most of the wordings on the headstones pale away.
“I’ve to be right here to hint out the carved phrases to make out the names that had been written in Armenian,” she mentioned.
It took about two weeks to scrub up the grave website and headstones and repaint the names.
A brand new grave stone was made at Arshak Sarkies’ grave at the Western Road Cemetery. — Picture by Opalyn Mok
Arshak Sarkies’ grave, which is close by, was additionally cleaned and a brand new headstone made.
Arshak Sarkies was one of the Sarkies brothers who established E&O Hotel. The youngest of the 4 Sarkies brothers, he managed the E&O Hotel for nearly 4 many years earlier than he died in 1931.
As for the mixed gravesite, although the stays of 20 Armenians had been interred there, solely 12 headstones survived whereas there are not any traces of the identities of the remaining eight Armenians.
The 20 Armenians had been initially buried in the church graveyard or the church aisle of the Armenian Apostolic Church of St Gregory the Illuminator on Bishop Street.
The church was consecrated in 1824 however a portion of it collapsed in February 1909 earlier than it was ultimately demolished in the identical yr.
According to Wright, Joseph Anthony and Arshak Sarkies commissioned Henry Neubronner to design a monument to commemorate the church.
The Armenian Monument circa 1910. — Postcard picture courtesy of Marcus Langdon
The monument was constructed at the nook of Bishop and King Streets however as the Armenian neighborhood dwindled, the monument fell into disrepair and it was demolished in the Thirties.
The stays of the 20 Armenians together with the 12 surviving headstones had been then reinterred in the Western Road Cemetery in August 1937.
Vartabedian mentioned the Armenians reinterred in the mixed plot had been principally from well-known Armenian households.
Most notably, three generations of the Anthony household are buried there. This consists of the patriarch Arratoon Anthony, his spouse Vartkhatoon Anthony, son Anthony Arratoon Anthony and grandchildren, Sophia, Hyrapiet and Alexander.
Arratoon and Vartkhatoon Anthony arrived in Penang with their three sons, Anthony, Satoor and Johannes in 1819.
The newly cleaned mixed grave website of the Armenians at the Western Road Cemetery with Arratoon Anthony’s gravestone at the entrance. — Picture by Opalyn Mok
They lived in Clove Hall. Incidentally, Arratoon Road, which is subsequent to Clove Hall Road, was named after Arratoon Anthony.
Anthony, Satoor and Johannes arrange companies of their very own in Penang between the 1860s and 1870s however Anthony outshone his brothers when he arrange A.A. Anthony & Co in 1840 as an importer and exporter.
A.A. Anthony & Co stays in existence until at the moment as a stockbroking agency though it’s now not owned by the Anthony household.
A.A. Anthony died in 1873 and was buried in one of the aisles of St Gregory’s Church earlier than his stays, alongside together with his three kids and fogeys, had been reinterred in Western Road Cemetery.
The spouse of Catchatoor Galastaun, Varterny (spelled as Vardiny on the gravestone), was additionally amongst the 20 Armenians buried in the mixed plot.
Catchatoor Galastaun was a outstanding Armenian businessman who funded the building of St Gregory’s Church and married Varterny Carapiet in the church proper after it was consecrated in 1824.
The remaining Armenians in the mixed plot are Markar Carapiet; Joseph Gregory Lucas; Tateos Haroutyounian; Kavork Arratoon; Mackertich Kohanness Carapiet; Catherine, the spouse of Stuart Herriot, and Hyrapiet Ter Garbirel.
Khatchadourian and the Kohar Ensemble sponsored the full restoration and cleansing of the mixed grave website and Arshak Sarkies’ grave.
Vartabedian mentioned Khatchadourian and Kohar Ensemble have additionally engaged a neighborhood contractor to conduct common upkeep and cleansing of the gravesite twice a yr. —
