I looked up the "Eastern Archipelago" which i could not place on a map... it includes KuaL.. right, thats much clearer... we recently had another visitor to the site from a lodge in KL.... Many lodges in the city ?
Hi Brother,
In Malaysia, we have many lodges and all of them are either governed by the Grand Lodge of England, Grand Lodge of Scotland or Grand Lodge of Ireland, and all of the lodges are considered as District Lodges.
In
English Constitution, the districts are called the
District Grand Lodge of Eastern Archipelago (Governed by the Grand Lodge of England)
Meanwhile, in the
Scottish Constitution, the districts are called the
District Grand Lodge of the Middle East (Governed by the Grand Lodge of Scotland), while the
Irish Constitution are called the
Provincial Grand Lodge of South East Asia (Governed by the Grand Lodge of Irish).
To summarised the hierarchy:
1. English Lodges (Blue Lodge) -> District Grand Lodge of Eastern Archipelago -> Grand Lodge of England
2. Scottish Lodges -> District Grand Lodge of Middle East -> Grand Lodge of Scotland
3. Irish Lodges -> Provincial Grand Lodge of South East Asia -> Grand Lodge of Ireland
**Grand Lodge of England + Grand Lodge of Scotland + Grand Lodge of Ireland = United Grand Lodge of England. (Three of us were established together on the year of 1717 and we have just celebrated our tercentenary 300 years celebration this month)
Also, the District of the said Grand Lodges govern each of the districts (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand). Malaysia been the largest in the district, having the most lodges too.
You may ask why dont we called the District of South East Asia like the irish do, because in those day, the name "Southeast Asia" were not formed just yet, and this particular province were then called "Eastern Archipelago" by the English and "Middle East" by the Scottish.
Hope it clears you up.