Trip to National Museum of Malaysia

Museum is a place used for storing and displaying different objects, illustrating different cultures, natural history, art and craft. It aims to bringing before public mind new things discovered and new researches made. National Museum is one of the great museums of Malaysia. It is located on Jalan Damansara in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The museum is situated in close proximity to the Perdana Lake Gardens. The national museum was opened on 31 August 1963, and it serves as a depository of Malaysia’s rich cultural and historical heritage. It was built by the British and Selangor governments in 1898. During the end of World War II, the right wing of the museum was bombed and destroyed by the Allied Forces. The government decided to build the national museum at the old place of Selangor Museum. Construction began in 1959 and was complete in 1963. The National Museum was officially opened on August 31, 1963.

Another part of this museum exhibiting coffin exhibition. The outward appearance of the museum building presents a grand and outstanding sight as it is a massive and superior. The National Museum the surrounding parks and gardens also present a glorious demonstration. It looked as beautiful and grand inside as from outside. The internal beauty of the museum was rather improved by the materials which were gracefully arranged in the hall. The thing that interested me most was the dress gallery .There were a displayed a variety of people in their local dresses. There were also shown the dress of ancient people.

The next thing that arrested my attention was the display of arms. Both ancient and modern. There were many types of bows, arrows, armours, shields, guns, cannons, helmets, pistols and many other kinds of ancient disgusting weapons. In the coins sections coins and medals of different periods are kept. We saw coins of different time periods silver coins of Melaka 16th century were also there.

Close to these were arranged musical instruments bearing strange and uncommon names. They gave an account of the glories of classical music and the Museumheights of excellence it had attained in the days of years. Arts and crafts gallery was also very interesting. There were drawing and painting of all times and of all ages hanging side by side. In a single gallery one could see the best models of different style paintings. Gave me a very good treat. Sometimes I was lost in appreciation for the superb beauty that the artist had represented in these paintings.

Carpets, pottery, jewellery, textiles, transportation mask, photographs, wooden tools, metal tools, musical instrument, and Other Collections prepared by various artists. The agricultural products of different places were also arranged there.

Museums have an importance of their own, especially in a country like Malaysia. Here the best tradition of our past stands shoulder to shoulder modern productions of arts and industry. With one careful look we are able to find the artistic continuity through distances in time and space. Thus, by just visiting a good museum we learnt what cannot be learnt from whole library of books. Here we see life, not in part, but in whole.