Sarawak Museum
This Kuching landmark is the finest museum in Southeast Asia. For
over a century, a succession of conscientious curators have collected
and catalogued the single most extensive archive and exhibit of Bornean
history, art and ethnography anywhere in the world.
As the most prominent repository of Bornean culture, the Sarawak
Museum is also an active patron of wide-ranging academic research.
The excavations at Niah Caves, which unearthed the oldest known
evidence of human settlement in Borneo, were conducted under the
auspices of the Sarawak Museum. A reconstruction of the prehistoric
settlement at Niah Cave is on permanent display. Other notable exhibits
include the history of Sarawak, a reconstruction of native longhouses,
tribal art, Malay and Chinese artifacts, and local flora and fauna.
Behind the Sarawak Museum there is an aquarium, and a picturesque
landscaped garden.
There is a curious story behind the design of the Museum. It was
commissioned by the second White Rajah, Charles Brooke, and resembles
a Normandy town house. The Rajah, however, distrusted architects.
The Museum was eventually designed by the Rajah's butler - a native
of Normandy!
Completed in 1891, the Museum was extended in 1911. But the number
of exhibits continued to grow. Another extension, across the road
from the original museum site and connected by a footbridge, was
built in the 1970s.
After visiting the new wing across the road, wander around the
museum grounds and proceed to the Sarawak Islamic Museum.
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