The Oldest Rubber Trees, Kuala Kangsar, Perak Malaysia

Just outside the gates of the Sultan Azlan Shah Museum is a lonely tree. Not a big 'WOW' but a significant tree that changed the course of Malaysia's economy in the early 1900's. This is a rubber tree and one of two of the oldest rubber trees in Peninsula that have survived the years. Sir Hugh Low, the British Resident of Perak of that time, encouraged the growth of rubber trees as the car industry expanded rapidly in the west. Soon jungles were converted into plantations, and many areas that were once virgin forests were open for commercial use. Hugh Low planted a number of rubber trees in his garden in Kuala Kangsar. Another old rubber tree from those experimental days stands by the district office in town at the intersection of Jalan Raja Chulan and Jalan Tun Abdul Razak. However, the trees don't look too well, perhaps having been hemmed in by the expansion of roads and tarring of the ground around it.