Brunei
The small, oil-rich Islamic sultanate on the coast of Borneo, the Abode of Peace, a devout Malay Muslim monarchy of grand mosques and a famous water village, ruled by one of the world's longest-reigning kings. The complete guide.
Brunei, in full Brunei Darussalam, the Abode of Peace, is a very small but very wealthy nation on the northern coast of the great island of Borneo in Southeast Asia, surrounded on its land sides by Malaysia, home to only about four hundred and fifty thousand people. To understand it, begin with the national philosophy that shapes everything, the Malay Islamic Monarchy, which binds together Malay culture, the Islamic faith, and loyalty to the sultan; with the sultan himself, one of the longest-reigning and wealthiest monarchs in the world, who is head of state, head of government, and head of the faith; with the deep and devout Islam that orders daily life; with the great oil and gas wealth that has made this a rich and comfortable land; and with the traditional Malay culture of courtesy, modesty, family, and respect. From these flow the food, the customs, and the festivals. This guide walks through each in turn.
Overview
Brunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, is a small sovereign nation on the northwest coast of the island of Borneo in Maritime Southeast Asia, with a short shore on the South China Sea and surrounded on every land side by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, which splits Brunei into two separate parts. It is a small country, about four hundred and fifty thousand people, much of the land covered in dense tropical rainforest, with the capital and largest city at Bandar Seri Begawan in the larger western part. Brunei is one of the wealthiest nations in Asia, its riches drawn from large reserves of oil and natural gas beneath its land and sea.
Brunei is an Islamic sultanate, an absolute monarchy in which all ultimate authority rests with the sultan, who is at once the head of state, the head of government, and the head of the Islamic faith. The reigning sultan, Hassanal Bolkiah, came to the throne in 1967 and is among the longest-reigning and wealthiest monarchs in the world, the latest of a royal line reaching back more than six centuries. The nation, once a British protectorate, won full independence in 1984. The official religion is Islam, of the Sunni Shafii school; the official language is Malay, with English widely used; and the people are mostly ethnic Malay, with significant Chinese and indigenous Bornean communities.
A few deep forces shape life in Brunei. There is the national philosophy of the Malay Islamic Monarchy and the central place of the sultan. There is the deep and devout Islam that orders daily life. There is the great oil and gas wealth that has made the nation rich and comfortable. And there is the traditional Malay culture of courtesy, modesty, family, and respect. The sections that follow trace these and walk through the food, the customs, and the festivals.
The Malay Islamic Monarchy
To understand Brunei, one must understand the national philosophy that shapes the whole of its life, known as Melayu Islam Beraja, the Malay Islamic Monarchy, the guiding idea of the nation since independence. It weaves together three threads into a single cloth: the traditional culture and language of the Malay people; the religion of Islam, the heart of the nation; and the institution of the monarchy, with deep loyalty and respect owed to the sultan. This philosophy is taught in the schools, enshrined in the life of the state, and held to be the foundation of Bruneian identity, unity, and stability.
At the centre of it all stands the sultan, an exceptionally revered figure who is far more than a head of state, for he is the ruler, the head of the government, the defender and head of the Islamic faith, and the guardian of Malay custom and tradition, a king of a royal line that has reigned over Brunei for some six hundred years, one of the oldest continuous monarchies in the world. The sultan is held in deep respect and affection, and the monarchy is a source of national pride and identity. Criticism of the king and the royal house is not tolerated, and a visitor should speak of the monarchy only with respect.
The wealth and the role of the monarchy are made visible in the grandeur of Brunei: the magnificent royal mosques with their golden domes, the vast and splendid royal palace, the largest residential palace in the world, and the rich royal regalia and ceremony of the sultanate. The Malay Islamic Monarchy gives Brunei a strong and distinctive sense of identity, blending the Malay heritage, the Islamic faith, and devotion to the crown into the philosophy of the nation.
A devout but tolerant Islam
Islam is the heart of Brunei, the official religion and the foundation of its law, its values, and its daily life, and Brunei is a devoutly Muslim nation, more so than many of its neighbours, where the faith shapes the rhythm of the day, the calendar, the customs, and the very identity of the people. The great majority of Bruneians are Sunni Muslims of the Shafii school, the call to prayer sounds across the land, Friday is the holy day of congregational prayer, and the magnificent mosques, above all the great Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque in the capital, are the glory and the gathering places of the nation.
The faith runs deep through Bruneian life. The sultan is the head of the religion, the state actively upholds and promotes Islam, and the nation follows Islamic law alongside its civil law, having adopted a fuller application of Islamic criminal law in recent years, a matter that drew attention abroad. The values of the faith, modesty, prayer, charity, family, and submission to God, are woven through everyday life; the food is halal; pork is forbidden; and, distinctively, the sale and public consumption of alcohol are banned across the nation, so that Brunei is a dry country.
For all its devoutness, Brunei describes its Islam as tolerant, and the constitution and custom allow the practice of other religions in peace, so that the Chinese and indigenous communities keep their Buddhist, Christian, and other faiths, with their own temples and churches, within certain limits. The faith of the majority, however, sets the tone of public life, and visitors are expected to show respect for Islam and its customs: to dress modestly, to be sensitive during the fasting month of Ramadan, and to honour the religious feeling of the nation.
The water village on the river
One of the most famous and distinctive sights of Brunei is its great water village, the Kampong Ayer, the cluster of traditional villages built entirely on stilts over the river in the heart of the capital, where homes, mosques, shops, schools, and walkways stand above the water, linked by wooden bridges and reached by water taxi, a way of life on the river that reaches back many centuries. Once the whole of old Brunei lived on the water, and the water village, though much changed and modernised, remains a living community and a cherished symbol of the nation's heritage, sometimes called the Venice of the East.
Around the water village spreads Bandar Seri Begawan, the small, clean, and orderly capital, with its golden-domed mosques, its royal buildings, its museums of the rich Bruneian heritage, and its markets, a quiet and prosperous city that is the heart of the nation. Beyond the towns, much of Brunei is covered in dense and ancient tropical rainforest, among the best preserved in all of Borneo, a green wealth of wildlife that the oil-rich nation has been able to protect, with a large part of the country kept as untouched forest, the home of the hornbill, the proboscis monkey, and countless more.
The land and the river shape the life and the heritage of Brunei. From the river and the coast came the old Bruneian world of fishing, trade, and the water village; from the forest came the traditional crafts and the old ways of the indigenous peoples of the interior. Brunei keeps its rich traditional culture with pride, in its crafts, the silverwork, brass, weaving, and boat-building of the Malay artisans, in its traditional music and the art of self-defence called silat, and in the heritage preserved in its fine museums.
Ambuyat and the Bruneian table
Bruneian food belongs to the wider world of Malay cooking, close kin to the food of Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia, built on rice, fish, and the fragrant spices, herbs, and coconut of Southeast Asia, and shaped throughout by the rules of the Islamic faith, so that all the food is halal, pork is absent, and no alcohol is served. Rice is the staple of nearly every meal, served with fish from the rivers and the sea, with chicken and beef, with vegetables, and with the spicy sambal relish of chilli that accompanies so much of the cooking.
The most distinctive of all Bruneian dishes is ambuyat, regarded as a national dish, a thick, sticky, almost glue-like paste made from the starch of the sago palm, which has little taste of its own and is eaten in a particular way: a portion is twirled around a two-pronged bamboo fork, dipped into a tangy, sour, and spicy sauce, and swallowed without chewing, a dish that is both a food and a small ritual, often shared among family and friends. Another beloved everyday food is nasi katok, the simple, cheap, and popular meal of plain rice, fried chicken, and spicy sambal, traditionally wrapped in paper.
The Malay table of Brunei holds the rich array of Southeast Asian dishes, the curries, grilled meats and fish, noodles, and rice dishes, and the markets and night markets, above all the famous Gadong Night Market of the capital, are full of the colour, scent, and abundance of Bruneian street food. Common drinks include coconut milk, fruit juices, tea, and coffee, in a land without alcohol. The meal is a warm and social occasion, central to family life and hospitality, eaten often with the right hand or with fork and spoon.
The respect owed to age
The family lies at the very heart of Bruneian society, and the bonds of family are deep, wide, and strong, for the Bruneian family is the extended family, reaching far beyond parents and children to include grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and close friends, all bound by ties of loyalty and mutual obligation. The family is the first source of identity, support, and belonging, and its needs come before those of the individual, so that from a young age children are taught to set aside their own wishes for the good of the family and to keep its harmony and good name.
Bruneian society places great weight on age, position, and rank, and respect for elders is a deep and governing value, taught from childhood and shown in every part of life. The young defer to the old, the wishes of elders carry great weight, and a careful courtesy and deference are owed to those who are older or of higher standing, expressed in forms of address, in seating, in the order of greeting and serving, and in manner. In a gathering or a meal, the eldest or most senior person is greeted, seated, and served first, and their place of honour respected.
This deep respect for age and rank runs alongside the loyalty owed to the sultan and the reverence owed to the faith, giving Bruneian society its orderly, courteous, and hierarchical character, in which everyone knows their place in a web of respect and obligation. The values of family, respect, modesty, and harmony, shaped by Malay custom and the Islamic faith, are conservative and deeply held. For a visitor, the keys are to show clear respect to elders and to those of higher standing, to greet the eldest first, and to behave with courtesy, modesty, and restraint.
The Baju Melayu and the courtesies
Bruneians dress with modesty and often in the traditional Malay garments that are a proud mark of identity, worn for daily life, for the mosque, and above all for festivals and grand occasions. The men wear the Baju Melayu, the elegant traditional outfit of matching shirt and trousers, often with a wrapped cloth at the waist and the songkok, the brimless cap, while the women wear the graceful Baju Kurung or Baju Kebaya, the long, loose, modest dress, very often with the headscarf, in keeping with the Islamic faith. Modesty is the governing value in dress, especially for women, who cover the body, and revealing clothing is out of place.
Bruneian manners are gentle, formal, and full of courtesy, shaped by Malay refinement and Islamic custom, and a visitor does well to learn a few of the customs. Greetings are warm but reserved: a soft handshake among those of the same sex, often followed by touching the hand to the heart, but men and women do not generally touch in greeting, and a man should wait to see whether a woman offers her hand. The right hand is used for eating, giving, and receiving, for the left is considered unclean; shoes are removed before entering a home or a mosque; and one should never touch another person, especially a child, on the head, which is held to be sacred.
Other courtesies matter too: gifts are offered with the right hand or both hands and not usually opened in front of the giver; one does not eat or drink while walking; pointing with the finger is avoided; and a quiet, modest, and respectful manner is valued over loudness or display. Bruneians are warm, polite, and hospitable, and the visitor who shows respect for these customs, dresses modestly, and behaves with courtesy and restraint will be warmly received.
The two Eids and the open house
The festivals of Brunei are above all the festivals of Islam, observed with deep devotion across the nation. The greatest is Hari Raya Aidilfitri, the Eid that marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, a joyful celebration of prayer, feasting, new clothes, family gathering, and the asking of forgiveness, the high point of the Bruneian year. The other great festival is Hari Raya Aidiladha, the Eid of the sacrifice, in the season of the pilgrimage to Mecca. The Islamic calendar also brings the celebration of the Prophet's birthday, with grand processions led by the sultan, and the Islamic New Year, and through Ramadan the nation fasts and gathers each evening to break the fast.
A cherished feature of the Bruneian Eid is the open house, the beloved tradition by which families open their homes to a stream of guests, relatives, friends, neighbours, and even strangers, who are welcomed in and feasted in a great round of visiting, hospitality, and goodwill. Most remarkable of all, the sultan himself holds a grand open house at the royal palace during Hari Raya, opening the doors of the great palace to his people, who come in their thousands to greet their king and royal family and to be received and fed, a striking expression of the bond between the ruler and the nation.
Beside the religious festivals stands the great national celebration, National Day on the twenty-third of February, marking Brunei's full independence in 1984, observed with grand parades, ceremonies, and patriotic display, along with the much-celebrated birthday of the sultan in July, and the days that honour the royal armed forces and the nation. Through the festivals, religious and national alike, run the threads of faith, family, hospitality, and devotion to the monarchy that define Bruneian life.
The nation today
Brunei today is a small, stable, and very wealthy Islamic sultanate of about four hundred and fifty thousand people, an absolute monarchy ruled by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, who is head of state, head of government, and head of the faith, the latest of a royal line of some six centuries. The nation's great wealth flows from its large reserves of oil and natural gas, which have given Bruneians one of the highest incomes in Asia, a comfortable and well-provided life with free education and health care, no income tax, and a generous state, in a quiet and orderly land that has earned its name as the Abode of Peace.
The nation faces real questions for its future. Its wealth rests heavily on oil and gas, which will not last for ever, so that Brunei works to broaden its economy beyond them, a central national task. It balances its devout and traditional Islamic identity, lately strengthened, with its place in a connected modern world, a balance that has at times drawn attention and concern abroad. And it guards its small population, its rainforest, and its distinctive way of life. These are the concerns of a small, rich, conservative nation charting its course with care.
Through it all, Brunei holds firmly to the identity that defines it. The Malay Islamic Monarchy still binds Malay culture, the Islamic faith, and devotion to the sultan into the philosophy of the nation; the deep and devout Islam still orders daily life; the grand mosques and the water village still stand as symbols of the nation; the extended family and the respect for age still order society; and the festivals, the open house, and the courtesies still express the Bruneian spirit.