Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...

No search results found for
“”

Make sure words are spelled correctly.

Try searching for a travel destination.

Places near me Random place

Popular Destinations

  • Paris
  • London
  • New York
  • Berlin
  • Rome
  • Los Angeles
Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Sign In Join
Places near me Random place
All Malaysia Kuching Sarawak Museum

Sarawak Museum

The oldest museum in Borneo is a cornucopia of rare taxidermy and human skulls.

Kuching, Malaysia

Added By
Andrea Tan
Email
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list
CAPTION
Face-to-face with a skull.   andrealism / Atlas Obscura User
Sarawak Museum (Old Building) in Kuching, the capital city of the East Malaysian state of Sarawak.   andrealism / Atlas Obscura User
A circle of human skulls as part of the exhibit in a longhouse model within the Sarawak Museum.   andrealism / Atlas Obscura User
Forever watchful big-eyed tarsier and loris.   andrealism / Atlas Obscura User
Another long-time exhibit, a fang-baring primate taxidermy.   andrealism / Atlas Obscura User
Taxidermied Orang Utan, one of the two on display at the Sarawak Museum since the Brooke Era.   andrealism / Atlas Obscura User
Proboscis taxidermy frozen in mid-action.   andrealism / Atlas Obscura User
Wooden ceremonial masks from various ethnic groups.   andrealism / Atlas Obscura User
Masks of the Orang Ulu (left) and the Iban (right), which has a “beard” made from human hair.   andrealism / Atlas Obscura User
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list

About

Contained in Borneo's oldest museum is not only some rare historical taxidermy, but also an exhibit that remembers the historic (if barbaric) culture of headhunting. 

In 1891, the second White Rajah of Sarawak, Charles Brooke began construction works on what would be the oldest museum in Borneo. This plan came after some nudging from his friend and famous British naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, who had been exploring the Malay Archipelago, collecting specimens for study at the time.

The Victorian period architecture, designed after a Normandy town hall, survived through the Japanese Occupation in Malaya (1941 – 1945) during World War II. It had the good fortune to fall under the protection of a Japanese officer, which is why the museum suffered very little damage and looting. A lucky thing too because the natural history collection housed in this museum is regarded as one of the finest in Southeast Asia, which dates back to the dynastic English monarchy of the Brooke family (1841 – 1946).

On the ground floor of the Sarawak Museum, you’ll find taxidermied exhibits frozen in time in their wood and glass display case, ever watchful of the many visitors who had walked through the Natural History gallery for decades. They had seen the world changed, although the exhibits themselves remained the same, if not somewhat disintegrating a little as time goes by.

A great deal of the collection comes from the Brooke Era, where the taxidermy procedures had been done not in Sarawak, but all the way in Britain. This preservation took place in the 1800s, so delivery by sea took about three months each way yet the fragile shipments remarkably managed to arrive at their destinations without harm.

Case in point would be the Orangutan exhibit. As the story goes, the first Rajah of Sarawak, James Brooke, shot two Orangutans during a hunt. He had both packed in ice, shipped to Britain to be taxidermied and mounted, and later shipped back to the Sarawak Museum. Today, this exhibit, along with others from that era have remained as they were in the Natural History gallery. This gallery is home to various taxidermied specimens including primates, avians, felines, and rodents found in Borneo.

The natural history collection is not the sole appeal of the Sarawak Museum however. The first floor features ethnographical artifacts of indigenous peoples of Sarawak, including a wide collection of traditional ceremonial masks from different tribal groups. Among the local culture, carved wooden masks are worn by the spirit doctors of a tribe and different masks serve different ritualistic purposes. They can be used to celebrate a good harvest or for spiritual ceremonies like exorcising evil spirits from a victim’s body. The museum’s collection contains mainly masks from the Iban, a tribal subgroup of the Dayak people of Sarawak. Ceremonial masks come with varied expressions, and some are even implanted with actual human hair as facial hair.

Also on the first floor is a model longhouse built to depict the traditional living spaces of the historic Dayak people. In previous eras, the Dayaks practiced headhunting, and human skulls would be preserved and installed in longhouses, believing that the trophies would bring a good harvest and fertility to the community. The replica community hut is adorned with its own human skulls. Of course, the practice of headhunting has long been eradicated since the days of the White Rajahs. No need to lose your head worrying over it when visiting Sarawak today.

However, maintenance of the heads is not to be taken lightly, even to this day, for as long as human skulls are present in a longhouse there are rules and rituals to follow. The heads need regular food offerings and a constant fire lit beneath them. Failure to do so would anger the spirits of the heads, and this only spells bad omens to the inhabitants of the longhouse. Just to be safe, don’t mess with the heads.

Update as of February 2020: The museum is closed for renovations, but there are plans for it to reopen sometime in 2020.

Related Tags

Museums And Collections Museums Taxidermy
Atlas Obscura Adventures

Wild Borneo: Secrets of an Ancient Rainforest

Orangutans, fishing villages & untouched beauty in the Borneo Rainforest.

Book Now

Community Contributors

Added By

andrealism

Edited By

leiris, jongrantham

  • leiris
  • jongrantham

Published

June 9, 2013

Edit this listing

Make an Edit
Add Photos
Sources
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarawak_State_Museum
Sarawak Museum
Pengarah Jabatan Muzium Negeri Sarawak
Kuching, 93000
Malaysia
1.554818, 110.343309
Get Directions

Nearby Places

Kuching Cat Museum

Kuching, Malaysia

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Kuching

Kuching

Malaysia

Places 2

Nearby Places

Kuching Cat Museum

Kuching, Malaysia

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Kuching

Kuching

Malaysia

Places 2

Related Places

  • New Orleans, Louisiana

    The Great American Alligator Museum

    Come for the 14-foot-long taxidermy alligator. Stay for the mini costumed gators shooting pool.

  • The collection includes eight intact human skeletons.

    Brooklyn, New York

    The Bone Museum

    This museum dedicated to the history of the medical bone trade and human osteology.

  • Duncan, British Columbia

    Hand of Man Museum

    A former elementary school houses one man's extensive collection of art, artifacts, and taxidermy.

  • A strange octopus specimen

    Norwich, England

    Norwich Castle Museum

    This medieval castle is filled with an eccentric collection that ranges from ancient Egyptian artifacts to taxidermy to a mummified hand that was cut off during a duel.

  • Peter the dog.

    Brisbane, Australia

    Queensland Police Museum

    It's home to the taxidermy remains of Peter, the dog who helped convict a murderer.

  • Closeup of the elephant herd.

    New York, New York

    African Elephants Diorama

    This magnificent herd of stampeding elephants has been frozen in time for over a century.

  • A taxidermy hippo.

    Tervuren, Belgium

    Royal Museum for Central Africa Natural History Collections

    A fascinating and enormous collection of natural history exhibits stained by a dark colonial legacy.

  • The flute-playing rat.

    Deal, England

    Deal Maritime and Local History Museum

    A jumble of treasures in a small space, this old-fashioned local museum is full of surprises.

Aerial image of Vietnam, displaying the picturesque rice terraces, characterized by their layered, verdant fields.
Atlas Obscura Membership

Become an Atlas Obscura Member


Join our community of curious explorers.

Become a Member

Get Our Email Newsletter

Follow Us

Facebook YouTube TikTok Instagram Pinterest RSS Feed

Get the app

Download the App
Download on the Apple App Store Get it on Google Play
  • All Places
  • Latest Places
  • Most Popular
  • Places to Eat
  • Random
  • Nearby
  • Add a Place
  • Stories
  • Food & Drink
  • Itineraries
  • Lists
  • Video
  • Podcast
  • Newsletters
  • All Trips
  • Family Trip
  • Food & Drink
  • History & Culture
  • Wildlife & Nature
  • FAQ
  • Membership
  • Feedback & Ideas
  • Community Guidelines
  • Product Blog
  • Unique Gifts
  • Work With Us
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Advertise With Us
  • Advertising Guidelines
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms of Use
Atlas Obscura

© 2025 Atlas Obscura. All Rights Reserved.