From disinterest to devotion, son revives family's tombstone craft

IPOH - Amir Idrossaidi, 30, continues his family legacy by becoming a third-generation tombstone maker.

He said that at first, he helped his father on a part-time basis, but over time he became more interested in the business.

"After SPM, I really had no interest in this business, I even looked down on it, but in 2011, the interest slowly grew and I went for courses and classes to know how to grow the business," he told Bernama recently.

The father of one is now the owner of the Batu Nisan Chepor business in Kanthan here, which is a family business that was started by his grandfather in 1964 in Batu Kurau, Taiping before being continued by his father Idrossaidi Zakaria, 60.

The nearly 30-year-old business also began to expand when his mother Rohana Mahmod Zahidin, 60, came up with the idea of opening a branch in Chepor here in 2010.

Amir added that the tombstones produced by his family's company received demand from as far as Sabah and Sarawak.

"Actually, you can get good return from this business, we get orders every month and usually increase during Ramadan and Aidilfitri," he said, adding that they also received orders from mufti and local artistes.

The eldest of three siblings said his sister Aina, 29, is the designer and his brother Faiz, 25, looks after their business in Chepor.

Amir said the tombstones are made of river stone, terrazzo, marble and granite and sold at a price of between RM300 and RM500 while ‘kepok’ set ranges from RM800 to RM5,000.

"The raw material used is only white cement with chipping stones. We will also follow the guidelines set by the state Islamic religious department as well as the Islamic law," he said, adding that the design for Chepor tombstones is based on padi flowers. - BERNAMA