The theme of the herd boy and the water buffalo is popular in Chinese folklore and art since the Song-Yuan period of China. During Malayan Independence days before the onset of automaton, the buffaloes diligently worked with Man to plough the padi-fields, and the trinity of Man-Animal-Land is like a pastoral song. The theme also abounds in the batik-art of Dato' Chuah Thean Teng, who was one most attuned to the rural community and Nature and had lived during the time of the bullock carts. Here, Teng experiments with the graceful forms of three water buffaloes, suggesting volume through fluid and salient lines using a harmonious palette of yellow and lavender hues. As acknowledged by Professor Michael Sullivan, Dato' Chuah Thean Teng was hailed as the ‘Father of Batik Painting' (Chinese Art in the 20th Century, 1959), the only Malaysian to have started a world art genre, Batik Painting. He was among the world's art elite in the Commonwealth Artists of Fame exhibition, to mark Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee in 1977. The National Art Gallery Malaysia accorded him an early Retrospective in 1965 and a Tribute in 2008, while Penang's Retrospective came in 1994. Penang also awarded him with the Dato' title in 1998 and the Living Heritage status in 2005. He established Yahong Art Gallery, first at Leith Street (1953) and then Batu Ferringhi, which functions as his veritable museum which includes batik works of his three sons and two grandchildren. He also held solos in the United States and London (Commonwealth Institute). His batik mural commissions included the Malayan Embassy in Canberra, Australia (1959), Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur (1960), Malayan Tobacco Company, Kuala Lumpur (1960), and Bank Negara's branch in Penang (1974).