Walk the two hundred metres of Jalan Tokong where three religions share a street
Three faiths, two hundred metres
A single street one block north of Jonker, running as Jalan Tokong, Jalan Tukang Emas and Jalan Tukang Besi, holding a Chinese temple of 1645, a mosque of 1748 and a Hindu temple of 1781, with working goldsmiths and blacksmiths in the shophouses between them.
Why it's unique
Malaysia's oldest functioning Chinese temple, Cheng Hoon Teng of 1645, Malaysia's oldest functioning Hindu temple, Sri Poyyatha Vinayagar Moorthi of 1781, and an eighteenth-century mosque with a pagoda minaret, Kampung Kling of 1748, stand within a few doors of each other on one street and have done for centuries. It is Jalan Tokong at one end and Jalan Tukang Emas at the other, and everyone calls the whole thing Harmony Street.
Three faiths on one street is not unique by itself. Three that are each the oldest surviving example of their kind in the country, on the same two hundred metres, is. Walking it takes an afternoon rather than a photograph, because the shophouses between the temples are still the goldsmith and blacksmith quarter and the borrowing between the three buildings only becomes obvious when you see them one after another.
Before you go
Do it in the order the street was built, Chinese temple then mosque then Hindu temple, and the architectural borrowing becomes obvious. The mosque has Corinthian columns, English and Portuguese glazed tiles, a Victorian chandelier and a pulpit carved with Hindu and Chinese motifs, none of which is what a visitor expects a mosque to contain.
Cover shoulders and knees; robes are lent at the mosque. All three are free with donations expected. Avoid Friday midday at the mosque.