The Ingenieur Vol 59 July-Sept 2014 The Ingenieur Vo. 59, July-Sept 2014 | Page 79

ENGINEERING NOSTALGIA

Tales behind old colonial
buildings – Sungai Buloh
Leprosy Centre
Submitted by Ms Foo Mee Sim

Aerial view of the centre in the 1930s. The clinical section
and staff quarters were distinctly separated from the inmates’
quarters and farms where inmates planted vegetables for their
consumption and for sale. The self-contained settlement was
surrounded by forest then and the place was considered remote.
The Sungai Buloh leprosarium
was built in 1926 on a 562
acre site. It was then one of
the biggest leprosy settlements
in the British Empire, and the
second biggest in the world.
The 1926 Leprosy Act of
the British Empire prohibited
leprosy patients from using
public transport or staying in
hotels as leprosy was viewed
as an incurable disease. The
British Government imposed
strict segregation policies for
leper patients and quarantined
them in leprosaria all over

country such as the one at
Pulau Jerejak Penang 1871,
Pulau Serimbun Melaka 1860,
Setapak Kuala Lumpur 1893,
Pulau Pangkor 1903, Tampoi
Johor 1927, Sungai Buloh 1930
etc. Lepers were generally
shunned by the community
and even relatives distanced
themselves from them to avoid
being associated with the lower
social stigma group.
The idea of creating a selfcontained community where
patients could live in humane
surroundings
while
under

medical supervision was mooted
by a British doctor, Ernest
Travers. He proposed the plan
in 1923, after seeing at first
hand the dispiriting conditions
at existing facilities. Sir George
Maxwell, as Chief Secretary of
the Federated Malay States,
made the scheme a reality.
Construction began in 1926,
and finished ten years later.
Maxwell called it the “Valley of
Hope” to bring cheer and hope
to the distressed inmates.
The centre had 2,000
patients at its height. The
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