200,000! And What I did on Sunday


After slightly more than a year on blogspot.com, I started on 11th March 2006 here, sometime today, the counter should read the above. There is not much for me to say but to thank everyone again for making the Daily BR your daily reading and hope that you all enjoyed the little snippets about Brunei. It's the little things that make us Bruneians Bruneians, you know what I mean.



Yesterday, I took a trip to the Brunei Museum, my second in about a month. I have not appreciated the Brunei Museum that much before and despite my rants about it as needing an update, the current displays despite a bit aged, still provided interesting information. The only downside is that everyone had to hand over his camera, so there no phototaking at the museum. At least not of the bigger camera kind.

I also visited the nearby Sultan Sharif Ali's masoleum. Sultan Sharif was the third Brunei Sultan. He married the daughter of Sultan Ahmad, the second Sultan. There used to be a debate in the historical community as to whether Sultan Ahmad was Pateh Berbai (brother to Awang Alak Betatar who became Sultan Muhammad, the first Sultan) and married to a Chinese Princess (Puteri Kinabatangan) or is he a Chinese Prince (said to be Ong Sum Ping) and married to the daughter of Sultan Muhammad.


Whatever it is, we will never know. All we do know is that the third Sultan is probably the first or the second non-Royals to become Sultan. Sultan Sharif Ali also known as Sultan Berkat or the Blessed Sultan ruled from 1425-1432. Sultan Sharif Ali was an Arab and a descendant of Prophet Muhammad. He was the first to build a mosque and reinforce the Islamic faith in Brunei. A model of the mosque during those days are modelled below.


It was also said that Sultan Sharif Ali also built the stone fort at Kota Batu and introduced the sword of Bongkok and flags of Brunei. All the information is available in an information booth which you will reach first if you visit the masoleum.

Comments

Anonymous said…
congrats..
Mrs. Addie said…
My last visit to the museum was 15 yrs ago, and it was a school trip. I barely remember what they have inside, maybe I should go there once in a while. Nice!
Anonymous said…
The grave of hadrat Sharif 'Ali rahimahullah was rediscovered either back in the early 80s or late 70s by an aulia from a neighbouring country. Ever since then the place has been taken care of not only by the government but also by some individuals who frequent the mausoleum.
Anonymous said…
I recall quite sometime ago there was a discovery of the grave of Puteri Ruqayyah binti Sultan Abdul Majid Hassan ibnu Sultan Muhammad Shah. May I know how and where does he fit in the history of Brunei?

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