Hand-made Capal for Eid Ul Fitr

This year I decided to bring in a little more tradition into my Hari Raya Aidil-Fitri (that's what most call Eid-ul-Fitr over here in Malaysia) footwear. A pair of traditional hand made capal.

The Capal or Chapal as some spell it has its origins in the Indian sub-continent and was believed to be first brought to these parts by traders to Malacca in the 15th century and was assumed to be widely used by those of the Malacca Sultanate. The Indian origin chapal was then made and adapted by local Malays into what we see today - a thong slipper made out of leather. The 'Y' shaped strap is made from soft cow leather and a tougher buffalo hide is used to make the top part of the sole. It has a rubber sole with a 1-1.5inch heel instead of being flat like a pair of flip flops. 


These days it is actually used during Hari Raya celebrations and sometimes, at a Malay wedding ceremony where the groom decides to be in full 'Baju Melayu' or Malay traditional (formal) outfit for men. Of course, these days it is purely ceremonial as if you wear the required black Baju Melayu to a properly formal function (like at the Sultan's Palace), you should come in a pair of proper black lace-ups.

As the chapal isn't flip-floppery like a normal flip flop and its sole isn't spongy but quite hard, a chapal user may not suffer from something called over-pronation - where the foot rolls further inwards than normal when it hits the ground and may cause tendonitis. However, it does not help its users from ankle sprains as like flip flops, it does not hold on or support the ankle if you twist or slip off a curb or a slight incline and one may have injured toes from accidently kicking something.  At least the harder sole allows its users to walk in pebbly areas without any trouble whatsoever.

I bought the pair seen above from the Handicraft Center at Jalan Conlay during a 'Hari Raya' product exhibition and originates from Muar, Johor (which was quite a coincidence since I was planning to spend some time at the missus' hometown of Muar). It is marked as 'Aril's', and has most of the defining Malay Capal trademarks - the single buckle holding the Y strap together,  the hand worked pattern on the insole and the use of a large steel tack for the front of the Y strap. These pair slightly differs from most other Capals as it does not have the steel tack holding on the sides of the Y strap and that the stitching isn't done all the way round like most traditional capals but used to hold the strap in place at the sides instead of using the steel tacks. However, I have to add that even in the traditional capals the stitching done of the insole is mainly decorative. It also uses a better quality 'danite'-like rubber sole instead of cheaper rubber soles.

Quite unique I might add and it does bring back from tradition as most do not even bother wearing them these days. I however didn't go the whole hog this Hari Raya when it came to dressing up as it was quite humid on the first day of Raya in Kuala Lumpur and then over at Muar, Johor it was hotter!

Ergo I decided to wear the capals with a linen hand-printed batik ('batik lukis Malaysia') short sleeved shirt (quite traditional and considered as semi-formal in the Malaysian sense) and a pair of cream coloured slim-fit chino-jeans. I didn't want to wear the Baju Melayu this time as I wanted to remain cool throughout the pretty hot weather during Raya time. (I do have two pairs of Baju Melayu in linen which is actually quite cooling but if you added the required samping to the picture, it still gets a little hot)

A mix and match of traditional and modern is required in order to fully combat the hot and humid weather where I was at during the Eid-ul-Fitr.