Oldest Mosque in Brunei

Pg Runa commented yesterday about the SOAS Mosque "in all the fuzz and glorification of SOAS Mosque 50th anniversaries I couldn't resist myself into thinking this mosque is perhaps the oldest in Brunei. If this is true then, this mosque should pointed out as the 'most barakah' mosque in Brunei!" I certainly wished the SOAS Mosque is the oldest, but it is not.

There were many mosques built in Brunei throughout the years. Most of the surviving wooden ones were built in the 1920s and 1930s. However none of these mosques as far as I can tell are being used currently. Some you can still see standing next to the modern counterparts but no longer being used. Some have been demolished and you only have the site of where the mosques used to be. Most of the new mosques built to replace the older ones were built in the 1980s and 1990s.

That would make the oldest mosque still currently being used is the Masjid Seria. It beat the SOAS Mosque by about 4 years. The first Seria Mosque was built in 1938 by the Muslim residents and the Muslim Workers of the then British Malayan Petroleum Company. That was replaced by the current mosque when it was built in 1953 at a cost of a quarter million dollars. It was completed on 19th September 1954 and His Majesty Sultan Haji Omar Ali came to officially opene the mosque. This mosque was enlarged in 1984. This is what the mosque looked like when it was first built in 1954.

Comments

Pg Runa said…
Exactly my point sir...many of these so called 'old mosques' are being dismantle or diused to give way for the new mosque to be erected and used. When I was in Cairo there were many beautiful old and antics mosques with history way back to 100 even 200 years ago which is still being due to its futuristic design when it was first built. No wonder Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin is known as the Architect of Modern Brunei. Reflected from the futuristic design of SOAS mosque which will certainly out lasted our lifetime and more!!! Asalamualaikum sir..i hope to see you in Jerudong Garden golf course again.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008 8:52:00 AM
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