Introduction to Balai

Balai is a Malay word for Hall. In the days of yore balai was constructed to use as a place for dignitaries to dine during a kenduri (translated: feast). It is a elaborated construction made a few days before the auspicious day. However, if you talk about the royal palaces then, there is a Balai within the confines of the palaces where the sultans recieved the rakyat to listen to their greviences and also ambassadors from neighbouring sultanates and distant lands. This balai is called the Balai Rong Seri.

When I decided on finally building my house I have decided to call it Balai Dukun. Balai meaning hall while Dukun means the Healer. Thus Balai Dukun would mean The Hall of the Healer. This is because essentially I am a healer and I have aimed to make my house into a healers domain. I will have plant of different kind,all with known medicinal values, planted around the house so that one day I would be able to just go out in my garden and pick a few leaves here, dig out some roots there, pluck a few flower buds and place them in the hands of the ailing individual for him to take home to boil and drink with the words "AFIAT BI IZNILLAH" (May you be heald by the grace of Allah).