Database of Southeast Asian Sociocultural Information

Malaysia houses around 59 museums located in 13 different states. The displaying purposes serving a glimpse of artifacts and people’s ways of lives are varied in each area. Museum State, for example, in Negeri Sembilan exhibits handcrafts and ways of lives of Negeri Sembilan people in the past (ศุภลักษณ์ สนธิชัย, 2547:123). Museum of History and Ethnography of Malacca displays history of Malacca and ways of lives of the indigenous people, Portuguese, Dutch, British, Chinese, Japanese and Indian travelling here for trades (วิชญดา ทองแดง, 2553:28).

Another famous historical museum in Malaysia is National Museum or Muzium Negara founded in 1963 placing at the heart of Kuala Lumper. It once had been Selangor Museum but was badly damaged during the Second World War before the Nation Museum was built. The displays illustrate history and culture of Malaysia featuring approximately 300,000 artifacts including antiques and ethnography. There are four galleries there, A, B, C and D (Marilyn Seow and Laura Jeanne Gobal,Editors, 2004:70). 

Gallery A exhibits cultures and artifacts ranging from Stone Age to emergence of Buddhism and Hindu featuring the stone inscription of Gupta-influenced Buddhism, one of the oldest stone inscriptions in Southeast Asia. Gallery B exhibits the Islamic invasion, ancient Malay State and sultans ruling states. Gallery C features colonial periods starting from the invasion of Portugal, Holland, Britain and Japan. It explains how those colonizers exploited tin mining and rubber plantations in Malaysia. Lastly, Gallery D displays Malay modern history starting from achieving Independence to 21^st century and the Umno government’s vision.