Perhaps the most important and enthralling building for the visitor is the marvelous Sarawak Museum, set in its grounds between Jalan McDougall and Jalan Tun Haji Openg. The naturalist and co-founder of the theory of evolution along with Charles Darwin, Alfred Russell Wallace, spent many years in Borneo, and became a particular friend of Rajah Charles Brooke. With Wallace’s encouragement, Brooke built the Sarawak Museum to house a permanent exhibition of native arts and crafts, as well as specimens from Wallace’s extensive collection, many of which Wallace shot and preserved himself while he was exploring the jingle.
The facade of the building, however, betrays another influence. Its architecture was inspired by Rajah’s French valet after a house in Normandy. The interior of the building is dedicated to the soul of Borneo, and its exhibits take one far beyond the paved streets of Kuching into the land’s heart.
The facade of the building, however, betrays another influence. Its architecture was inspired by Rajah’s French valet after a house in Normandy. The interior of the building is dedicated to the soul of Borneo, and its exhibits take one far beyond the paved streets of Kuching into the land’s heart.
The Brookes were steadfast in their sense of justice. They suppressed crime and established peace in the state. But they wisely refrained from imposing any “civilized” versus “primitive” comparisons upon the native cultures. The Rajahs insists upon capable curators, whose Western expertise was to serve only to illuminate the ethnological richness of Borneo and the vivid expressions of the societies it nourished.
One display case in the Sarawak Museum is devoted to the bead-conscious Kelabit people, who have names for 60 varieties of ancient glass beads, each one with a special price. Another case houses figurines carved 2,000 years ago by the now-extinct Sru Dayaks.
An entire corner of the Sarawak Museum has been transformed into a walk-in replica of an Iban Longhouse, with simulated fires burning, genuine human-skulls hanging from the rafters, as well as a warrior’s elaborate headdress and finely shaped weaponry resting near his bedside. The exhibit is designed to make one almost the battle cry. Smaller models of other styles of longhouses are also found here.
One display case in the Sarawak Museum is devoted to the bead-conscious Kelabit people, who have names for 60 varieties of ancient glass beads, each one with a special price. Another case houses figurines carved 2,000 years ago by the now-extinct Sru Dayaks.
An entire corner of the Sarawak Museum has been transformed into a walk-in replica of an Iban Longhouse, with simulated fires burning, genuine human-skulls hanging from the rafters, as well as a warrior’s elaborate headdress and finely shaped weaponry resting near his bedside. The exhibit is designed to make one almost the battle cry. Smaller models of other styles of longhouses are also found here.
The Sarawak tribes-people's great love of adornment is reflected in the high walls of the interior painted with flowing designs. A Sarawak Museum employee found one end of a Kenyah Longhouse at Long Nawang completely covered with a majestic mural celebrating “The Tree of Life” and he returned to Kuching and commissioned painters to reproduce such a tree inside the Sarawak Museum.
Past rituals that lent a somewhat brutal aspect to tribal societies remain here on record. Giant hand-carved burial poles with ashes of the dead enshrined in lofty niches were carried from upriver graveyards and placed impressively on the front lawn of the new Museum Annexe. In days gone by, slaves were sometimes crushed to death at the foot of these poles, if the family found itself in dire need of human sacrifice to appease the deceased.
The old part of the Sarawak Museum has an eclectic character that recalls a succession of spirited curators, as well as the great diversity of Sarawak. There is a human dental plate on display that was found in the stomach of a 6 meter crocodile. A rhinoceros horn cup that can detect poison is another item. If the drink was contaminated, the liquid bubbled up to the top, and since princes were always trying to poison one another, rhinoceros horn was high demand during the days of the dynasties.
Over in the Invertebrate Gallery, visitors can discover that the Damsel fly has been on earth for 300 million years, that the long-horned beetle was Wallace’s favorite insect, and that the flea is the world’s strongest jumper, leaping as much as 200 times the length of its body, which is roughly equivalent to a midget jumping 300 meters.
If the Sarawak Museum is the storage of a wealthy heritage, it is also a living museum. The old museum is joined by a footbridge over the road to the new Museum Annexe completed in 1983. Here, besides more galleries devoted to the ways of life and industries of the various tribes, Chinese porcelain, and a reconstruction of the Niah caves where man lived 40,000 years ago, there are contemporary exhibitions and films, videos and slide-shows in various rooms. These are on such Sarawak topics as the great golden hornbill (Sarawak is often known as the land of hornbill), the orangutan, life in the jungle, and popular tribal dances.
Past rituals that lent a somewhat brutal aspect to tribal societies remain here on record. Giant hand-carved burial poles with ashes of the dead enshrined in lofty niches were carried from upriver graveyards and placed impressively on the front lawn of the new Museum Annexe. In days gone by, slaves were sometimes crushed to death at the foot of these poles, if the family found itself in dire need of human sacrifice to appease the deceased.
The old part of the Sarawak Museum has an eclectic character that recalls a succession of spirited curators, as well as the great diversity of Sarawak. There is a human dental plate on display that was found in the stomach of a 6 meter crocodile. A rhinoceros horn cup that can detect poison is another item. If the drink was contaminated, the liquid bubbled up to the top, and since princes were always trying to poison one another, rhinoceros horn was high demand during the days of the dynasties.
Over in the Invertebrate Gallery, visitors can discover that the Damsel fly has been on earth for 300 million years, that the long-horned beetle was Wallace’s favorite insect, and that the flea is the world’s strongest jumper, leaping as much as 200 times the length of its body, which is roughly equivalent to a midget jumping 300 meters.
If the Sarawak Museum is the storage of a wealthy heritage, it is also a living museum. The old museum is joined by a footbridge over the road to the new Museum Annexe completed in 1983. Here, besides more galleries devoted to the ways of life and industries of the various tribes, Chinese porcelain, and a reconstruction of the Niah caves where man lived 40,000 years ago, there are contemporary exhibitions and films, videos and slide-shows in various rooms. These are on such Sarawak topics as the great golden hornbill (Sarawak is often known as the land of hornbill), the orangutan, life in the jungle, and popular tribal dances.
Schoolchildren are driven round the Sarawak Museum in well-ordered droves, and at weekends many families come here for a cultural half hour.
Outside the Sarawak Museum is a pleasant garden with an outdoor aquarium and a small tea-shop run by two elderly Chinese ladies. The Annexes also has a good shop which is non-profit making and aims to help encourage local craftsmen. Although some of the exhibits you fell in love with back in the Iban or Kenyah sections might not be for sale here, there is still a good selection of handicrafts produced far away on the veranda of a longhouse.
Outside the Sarawak Museum is a pleasant garden with an outdoor aquarium and a small tea-shop run by two elderly Chinese ladies. The Annexes also has a good shop which is non-profit making and aims to help encourage local craftsmen. Although some of the exhibits you fell in love with back in the Iban or Kenyah sections might not be for sale here, there is still a good selection of handicrafts produced far away on the veranda of a longhouse.