MangoVine - Kuching Part 3 - The Sarawak Museum

18 September, 2009
Friday

We had high expectations for the Sarawak Museum in Kuching. We'd read that it's regarded as one of the best museums in the whole of Asia, and there are amazing competitors for that title elsewhere.

Sarawak-Museum-Main-Exterior

Sadly, we should have disregarded that description and just gone with an open mind. As it happened, we were distracted by the aged presentation of the first building we explored, which might otherwise have been interpreted as "charming".

Sarawak-Museum-Animals

The Sarawak Museum was made up of two sites in Kuching split by the Jln Tun Haji Openg but connected with a footbridge.

Sarawak-Museum-Fish

Founded in 1891, the old building we first entered, was constructed especially to house native arts and crafts. It was extended 20 years later, so that the ground floor now contains the natural history collection and specimens of Sarawak's fauna, with the west wing containing the Shell exhibition, concentrating on the region's oil industry.

Sarawak-Museum-Oil-Samples

Upstairs are the anthropological collections, showing the ethnography of the region, with artefacts and models of traditional long houses and boats.

Sarawak-Museum-Interior-Bowls

The newer museum over the footbridge (Tun Abdul Razak Hall), featured a more modern approach to the subject matter. The ground floor was devoted to a photographic exhibition and paintings illustrative of Sarawak's history, while upstairs, there were archaeological treasures from the region.

Sarawak-Museum-Exterior

I particularly enjoyed the retro objects towards the more recent history on display.

Sarawak-Museum-Bike

This entry posted in : Attractions. Malaysian Borneo.

If you found this post interesting, connect with us on Twitter and Facebook!

Kuching Part 3 - The Sarawak Museum

Comments