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Guardian |
A testimony to the fact that the House was mainly built by Indian convicts is a Guardian wooden statue about one and half feet high. It was placed at the entrance of the House in the early days. It is believed that when the convicts were building this residence, they made this statue worshipping it as the "Guardian" of the House.
When President Ong Teng Cheong assumed office in 1993, the Guardian had been kept away in store for several decades. It was no longer called the "Guardian" but "Mandor" (foreman). So it was with some difficulty and after several months of searching before the "Guardian" or "Mandor" was found in one of the Istana's store rooms. It depicts a Malay man wearing a songkot. During the restoration of the statue, a second lower layer of paint work was discovered. The original paint work revealed an Indian man with moustache and beard. It should be so, as the convicts who made it were themselves Indian. Apparently, the domestic staff in the Istana who were mostly Malays in the 1900s had given the statue a Malay look. It was then called the "Mandor". The "Guardian" was therefore restored to its original "Indian" look. |
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