Brunei: The Abode of Peace
continued
Jame 'Asr Bolkiah Mosque'
From there I went to the Brunei National Museum. There are some moderately interesting exhibits on Brunei's history. There is also a gallery dedicated to a shipwreck discovered off the coast of Brunei two years ago. The ship sank in the 15th century and had thousands of porcelain pieces from Thailand, China, and Viet Nam. All of that pales in comparison to the Islamic Art Gallery that is renowned as one of the world's greatest collections of Islamic art. Most pieces are from Iran, Turkey, and Egypt, but some are from as far away as Alhambra, Spain. They also have amazingly intricate pieces of metalwork inlayed with mother of pearl and other jewels, ceramics, rugs, calligraphy, jewelry, illuminated manuscripts, and other items. Some of the illuminated manuscripts, most of which are from Iran, are positively radiant, even in the low light. One illuminated Qur'an is just larger than a thimble and was probably made to show off the calligrapher's skill.
Nearby is the "Malay Technology Museum," which sounded less than exciting. It was, in fact, very interesting. The oil wealth has assured full employment, which may be why there were four ticket sellers that day despite the fact that I didn't see another tourist around. The museum is in a modern building, but the inside is made to look like a traditional Malay Kampung (village). Mannequins in traditional garb illustrate traditional crafts such as goldsmithing, kite making, as well as Malay ceremonies and aspects of daily village life. The Malays seem to be a lot like the Iranians in their love for eloquence and poetry. One part of the exhibit showed a ceremony that takes place seven days after the birth of a baby. In that ceremony the father takes a gold ring and dips it in a mixture of honey and date juice, then dabs the baby's tongue with it. This is supposed to ensure that the child will have a "honey tongue," the gift of eloquence, when he or she grows up. There was a huge section dedicated to Malay weddings. Need I point out that they are very colorful affairs?
Malay Technology Museum
With some time to kill I took another stroll along Kampung Ayer. At one typically colorful house, a family sitting out on the veranda invited me to sit down with them. When I told them I was from California, one of the teenage sons told me he had always wanted to go there. He had seen a lot of California on TV and in the movies and it must be a wonderful place. So I wondered, what does a person in Brunei know about California when the only exposure he has had to it has been television and the movies? So I asked.
California is filled with rich people. Californians live in big houses on hills. Californian women are mostly blond and all are beautiful. Everyone in California spends their days on the beach. California has a stunning river, called Ta... Teh... After a few minutes I discovered he was thinking of Lake Tahoe. Many of us who live in the west get our information about other parts of the world from the news, movies, and television. The television tells us that Asians are greedy, the Middle East is populated with terrorists, Africa is a non-stop battlefield, South Americans grow nothing but cocaine, etc. If television is supposed to be a window on the world, then it needs cleaning because it distorts most of the world. Thus there are people in the United States who live in crime-infested cities that never travel outside the US because they think the whole rest of the world is too dangerous. So it was interesting to see how the same medium distorts other people's view of the US.
Needless to say, California is not all the paradise he described, and that fact came as a great surprise to him. But what really surprised me was that the concept of homelessness was as alien to him as life over a lagoon was to me. When I told him that there are homeless people in California, he said, "What? They don't have any home? At all? Anywhere? What about their families?" In a Malay Kampung, everyone ensures that their family members have someplace to live, even those who are old, sick, crippled, or insane.
When my time in Brunei came to an end, I took a flight back to Kuching on Royal Brunei Airlines, which begins the flight with an Islamic prayer. Back in Malaysia people told me that they had heard that Brunei was a boring place. Indeed, it has no nightlife, many restrictions on daily life in accordance with a strict interpretation of Islamic law, and little in the way of entertainment as we think of it. But its name says it best: the full name of the country is Negara Brunei Darussalam, or "Brunei, the abode of peace." It may be too peaceful for some, and many of the people of Brunei are eager to jump across the border to Malaysia on weekends to escape the peace for awhile. But for outsiders, it's nice that we have Brunei to escape to for a little while.
Robert Wilson is an English teacher in northern Thailand. Pictures of his travels can be seen at photos.yahoo.com/robert_92122.
Other stories in this series:
A Glimpse of "Last Time" in Borneo
Finding Religions—Plenty of Them—in Kuala Lumpur
Luang Phabang: The Lao Fairy-tale City
From Monkey to Monk
Along Cambodia's Backroads
Listening to the Rice Grow: A Journey Up the Nam Ou River in Laos (Part 1 and
Part 2)
Don't miss future articles from Robert in our continuing series, Window on Southeast Asia.
