Sarawak Cultural Village –KAMPUNG BUDAYA

Any visitor to Kuching, Sarawak should not skip this attraction, the Sarawak Cultural Village.

As a Malaysian or a former Malaysian I had no idea of the diversity of the peoples of of East Malaysia: Sarawak and Sabah.

There are 40 recognized ethnic groups in Sarawak, each with its own culture, language and traditions while its neighboring state has 33.

Those numbers are staggering compared to the 12 remaining states in West Malaysia. (Malaysia has 13 states and 3 federal territories)

Kampung Budaya is a theme park but without rides just a beautiful place to see how the peoples of Sarawak used to live in the past and even today.

Entry fee for this tourist attraction is RM105 for citizens and RM155 for foreigners.

Within the village are replicas of ethnic houses from several of these ethnic tribes of groups like a typical Chinese farmhouse, a Malay house, the Iban long house, Orang Ulu Long house, Bidayuh long house, Melanau Tall house

Every one of them has something different and unique. All of them are of wood construction but their geographic location determine the shape of these dwellings.

Some are about 10 feet off the ground. Others like the Ulu man’s longhouse is an impressive 20feet high and flush against a slanted slope on the adjacent side.

The most impressive one is the Melanau Tall house. The floor of this house is about 30 feet high above the ground.

CulturAL Show

This hour long show features dancers from the various tribes.

There was impressive choreography and even live musicians on some numbers using native instruments.

The amiable & charismatic master of ceremony spoke excellent English so everyone in attendance had no trouble understanding as he explained every aspect of the dancers’ performances.

They even invited the audience to participate on stage for a joget, a Malay dance.

In attendance during my visit were students from a nearby school from Santubong who were on a field trip.

One of them, a young lady, was invited on stage to try her hand at using a real life blowdart.

A student from Sekolah Seni Malaysia Sarawak (Art School of Malaysia), she rose to the challenge to the delight of her schoolmates.

She actually held her own despite the Iban Warrior’s attempts to embarrass her first by reminding her to remove her shoes and socks before taking the stage.

Her quick-thinking response by gestures to his suggestion that she remove her pants as well drew a lots of laughter.

On top of all that, she made his blow dart demonstration look easy so much so he teasingly gestured with his thumb and pinky finger held up to his ear suggesting she call him afterwards drawing cheers and laughter from everyone.