KUCHING: The wealth of history, costumes and artifacts on display at the Borneo Cultures Museum here took their breath way.
The group of 13 Japanese students from the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies were visiting the museum on the third day of their stay here.
Eager as they were the students were clearly amazed by all that they learnt about the different indigenous groups, of the ancestors and their tribal rituals and practices.
The ‘Anak Samurai’ took it all in as they explored the second largest museum in Southeast Asia and Malaysia’s largest to date.
They gained insights on world history, got to know the cultural aspects of Sarawak and its relations to countries nearby such as Brunei, Indonesia and Thailand to understand the unique cultural inheritance of Borneo.
Nonoka Nakazawa, 20, said she loved the vases at the museum and was happy to see vases from Japan which showed the cultural links of two countries.
Another student, Reon Shimizu, 20, said he was amazed by the similarities in history between Brunei and Japan and that he gained much insight on world history.
Wakana Murayama, 20, said she learned a lot about the different paraphernalia used by the different tribes and also a little rattled when she read about the heads kept in a bakul by the headhunters long ago as a sign of power.
The students later continued their visit to the Heritage Central Gallery to look at the Songket and Keringkam.
They were greeted by the staff of CENTEXT Commercial and were introduced to the history, woven techniques and business industry of the Songket and Keringkam.
The students are in Kuching under the ‘Program Kembara Ilmu Inap Desa TUFS 2022’. They leave on Monday (Sept 5).
