A Day Out with Tripovo and National Museum

Wonder where I have been during this long weekend? Instead staying at home, I joined Tripovo for a half day outing last Saturday. Since 1997, Malaysia has been celebrating International Museum Day, a day to raise awareness of the importance of museums in shaping society.Tripovo together with Muzium Negara has organised a media event entitled “Discovering Malaysia’s Painted Heritage” in the celebration of International Museum Day (IMD) happening on May 18.
 

For this year, the theme Museums and Cultural Landscapes was chosen by the Conseil International des Musées (ICOM) as it sees the innate responsibility of museums to bring the needed knowledge and skills on the landscapes where they are located.

To show that Muzium Negara is keeping up with the times, majority of the media invited are bloggers and social media influencers, locals and expats. This is a first for the museum to tap into digital influencers to spread awareness of the said event.

“We are so excited as it is something new for us, we are more than happy to collaborate should it be for the benefit of the museum,” said National Museum’s Deputy Director Miss Darniza Daut.

    

I'm one of the invited bloggers for the said event. It is such an honour as this is the first ever event for Tripovo and National Museum to invite bloggers and social media influencers. Participants of the event started with an English guided tour of the museum’s four exhibits pertaining to different eras of Malaysia - Early history, Malay Kingdoms, Colonial Period and Malaysia today.

We are guided by Mr Yee, volunteer of the museum who is very knowledgeable about all the history and everything about Malaysia.

One of the precious heritages of the past is the cave painting. The valuable drawings document their daily activities, experiences and ceremony they had. The earliest cave painting found in Tambun Cave, Perak (Peninsular Malaysia) and Kain Hitam Cave, Niah, Sarawak (East Malaysia) was drawn with hematite / kawl stone. At Tambun Cave, most of the painting are related with their hunting animals. Whereas at Kain Hitam Cave, the paintings mostly consist of ships which symbolize their burial practice that insert the corpse into a ship that placed at the floor cave.

The wisdom of our ancestors of using the natural resources like hematite for painting or documentation of their daily lives has impressed me.

Perak man is considered to be the most significant discovery of remains of a modern man ever discovered in Malaysia, both because of its antiquity of over 10,000 years and also because of its most complete anatomical state. Perak Man was found in 1991 at Gua Gunung Runtuh, a cave of his final resting place situated in Bukit Kepala Gajah or Elephant’s Head Hill in the Lenggong Valley of Ulu Perak (If you on your way to Royal Belum, you will pass by Lenggong). He was buried in a crouched position along with several funerary goods which included some stone tools and food such as shells and meats of a variety of animals.

Perak man is a male born with a congenital birth defect identified as Brachymesophalangia Type A2. He is believed to be buried with full customary honours as if he was an esteemed member of his community. He was between 40-45 years old when he died.

Perak man has been classfied as predecessor to the Australo-Melanesoid race found around the Pacific Islands and Australia. In sum, the discovery of Perak man is not only significant in tracing the human proliferation of Southeast Asia and Pacific but also in tracing the origins of man in Malaysia, especially in relation to the ancestors of Orang Asli in Peninsular Malaysia.

Wooden soled shoe that not seen anybody wearing nowadays. It does not look comfortable to wear but it certainly a previous artwork with its beautifully crafted pattern and shapes on the shoe.

Can you guess what is this? This is a tobacco box decorated in gold. It is divided into 2, one part to hold the tobacco, the other lime paste. The two sections are connected by a chain. Circa 1800.

In ancient time, Malaysia is not known as Malaya but Malacca as you can see clearly from the map. Why this happened? Malacca is well known as a trading port during that time and people only recognized that place.

The battle of Tanjung Tuan was one of the great sea battles in the archipelago, which ended with defeat with the enormous explosion on the Dutch ship Nassau. The Bellarmine (Rhenish Bartman Krug) jars recovered from the Nassau shipwreck during an underwater archaeological excavation off Bambeek Shoal, Straits of Malacca in 1993.

The chair is Dutch heritage in Malacca.

I saw something under the floor at one part of the museum but unfortunately no explanation is given on that.

The National Museum is divided into 4 different parts and therefore 4 different exhibition halls. Two at the ground while another two at upper floor.

I always see Malay men wearing this so called Tanjak during official occasions but little did I know that there are different ways of folding it and it represents different state as well.

Thereafter, a batik painting class led by Ms Rosida Abdullah from Textile Museum where all the participants was taught skills of batik painting. It was also the show time for our creativity on a small piece of cloth using traditional method of batik making.

 

This was not my first time attending batik workshop. But it is my first time waxing the drawing before the painting. Unexpectedly, I met a blogger at the event that I knew during a media trip last time.

Our lunch that day was sponsored by Huios, a healthy meal server. Thanks for the meal but frankly speaking I don't eat the chicken and I was hungry back home. LOL.

Group photo of bloggers and social media influencer together with Tripovo management and Ms Rosida. On May 18, officers of National Museum encourage everyone to visit the 22 museums under Jabatan Muzium Malaysia as entrance is free. Last but not least, thank you for Tripovo, Natioanl Museum and other sponsors for the educational trip.

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