Kota Salor

We didn't have time to piece up story and history when we met the last time. There are too many introductions and stories to be told. I like to hear more about your story and history about your mother and your father and story about the place you grew up. May be we could piece up stories and histories so we could have grand narratives to leave to our young generation.

There must be important places in Kelantan(the state where I spent most of my life, at least 17 years of my life), especially in Pasir Mas. Though I grew up in Kedai Salor(also known as Pasir Mas Salor). Pasir Mas salor is actually in Kota Bharu district, while Pasir Mas or bandar Pasir Mas is in Pasir Mas district. My father told me that he has to move my school from Sekolah Kebangsaan Salor to Sultan Ibrahim Primary School in Pasir Mas town because there are too many Zulkifli Mohamad in the same school and they always get mixed up with my marks, especially when they were sons of teachers, and my father was just a rubber tapper, rice farmer and kedai kopi owner at the same time. I know he was a math teacher during the Japanese occupation, boat and sand contractor during British time, but he and my late mother bought two pre-war wooden shop lot after merdeka.

Once a upon a time Kedai Salor was a pekan with a weekly market before they had Jambatan Sultan Yahya. Kedai meant market, now I realised that there are many kedais in Kelantan, such as Kedai Mulong, Kedai Lalat. Perhaps it is worth looking into these "kedai" as early pekan development in kelantan. I am not sure how much record we have in British records.

In fact there was a Kota Salor, not far from Kedai Salor, closer to a place called Gertak Lembu, refering to a bridge, must have been used for cow crossing. this actually referred to a place how one bring their cows from Pasir Mas disctrict across the river to Pasir Mas Salor and then cross this little bridge to bandar Kota Bharu. They used to bring cows to be slaughtered in Gertak Lembu, then the meat will be taken to Kedai Salor market to be sold. By early 1970s, the market is already dead. Only few shops survived. My parents' coffee shop became grocery shop selling rice and sugar from Thailand. My parents too stopped working in the rice fields and rubber orchard when I was in secondary school.

I was told that there is a place called Bawah Lembah, where there was a chandi(wat), or we called it Ketek Siam in Kelantan, when I was small, I was taken there to watch Manora once. Later they moved the chandi to another place further away. I have also read about how Kota Raja Salor was attacked by Siam, and they throw away all the golds and silvers into the weld. Once I read about it in majalah Dian(published by Pustaka Antara in Kota Bharu) about Persatuan Sejarah Kelantan looking for something, but nothing ever come out of that. When I asked my father he just said, that there was a Raja Salor near Gertak Lembu, not far from Bawah Lembah. Later I found out that Salor actually means saloran connecting Sungai Kelantan with the rice plateau, and it is an old saloran or channel. It is very important facility for the rice plantation in the area. In fact the area, Salor-Dewan Beta-Kemubu was an important rice planting area, and Gertak Lembu has the biggest Kilang Padi where they process the padi to become white rice. Because of that saloran, the rice plateau became a sea of water every monsoon season at the end of the year. That's when we take our boat and rain coat out to play in the sea of fresh water, at least two meters above the rice field. And that's how we practised our skill in boating, or more like sampan-ing. Later our wooden boat turned into fiberglass boat.

So if I was to write about the history of Salor, it has to be connected with Salor, the water channel, Kedai Salor market, the hidden Kota Raja Salor, the chandi Siam and the Manora performance.