coloured tiles

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

The tiles were added as decorative elements to the tiered roofs of mosques in Melaka during the 18th and 19th centuries. The text specifies these as indicative of borrowings from Chinese prototypes, reflecting the large Chinese presence within the local population (p. 341).

Evidence

"In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as exemplified by a cluster of mosques at Melaka, to the tiered roof was added an elaborate finial, coloured tiles and an upward sweep to the roofs"

Remarks

The addition of coloured tiles and elaborate finials to the traditional Javanese square-plan mosque structure (with its four main columns) in Melaka demonstrates the syncretistic nature of mosque architecture in the Nusantara (p. 340-341). This style reflects complex cross-cultural interactions between Indian, Chinese, and indigenous Islamic traditions (p. 341).