Sarawak Cultural Village, Kuching

We spent hours here and loved it. The setting is stunning - a lake in the centre, mountains all round. The village has lots of houses in different cultural styles. You can visit them all. Some tribes put on dance shows: others demonstrate traditional crafts, such as making blow pipes; others sell traditional snacks. It's very interesting to have a look at. The different styles of houses are interesting, too. Plus you get to examine the interior at your leisure. The day ends with a dance show demonstrating traditional tribal dances. When we visited the performances were linked together to tell a long traditional story. The show ended with members of the audience, including me, being dragged up to dance. My husband was able to torture me with a video of me getting all the dance steps wrong for months after our visit.

A lovely day out. Open from 9am to 5.15pm; entry was around RM45.

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The Cultural Village is located on a 17acre site, approx 40mins from Kuching, near the Holiday Inn Resorts.
Over the large area are seven different ethnic villages. You will see their style of home and get to learn about the different ethnic groups in Sarawak.
Go inside and have a look, in one, we were able to taste what they were cooking.

When enough people are there, they will put on a small dance performance for you.

The seven different Ethnic groups represented here are:
Bidayuh Longhouse....Iban Longhouse... Penan Hut.............Orang Ulu Longhouse........Melanau Rumah Tingii.......Malay house....... Chinese house.

OPEN from 9 - 5.15pm daily

ADMISSION IN 2009 ......Adults 60rm Children 30rm
6 years and under are FREE

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit here. It gave us knowledge on the Ethnic groups and we enjoyed this experience.

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The Sarawak Cultural Village brings together on a 17 acre site the cultural diversity of the 7 ethnic groups who are the traditional peoples of Sarawak.

Buildings and Long Houses are on display and open to the public to walk inside and take photos. Local people are inside their respective house and will display various activities. Some houses have people cooking traditional foods and sweets and you are able to purchase samples to taste.

There are traditional houses for the following people:

Bidayuh
Melanau
Iban
Malays
Penan
Chinese
Orang Ulu



We took approximately 1.5 hours to view the houses and some people may like to stay longer, however we were running out of time and wanted to make the Cultural Show with plenty of singing and dancing.

Admission: Adults RM 60.00 Child RM 30.00, which is approx: $20 per adult.

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Not a bad way to spend the day, but be warned it appears to have been made for the tourists and has all the things you would expect to find in a 'tourist hot spot' over priced shopping, food and drinks.

Several of the houses have craftspeople demonstrating their handcraft as well as selling. After several hours of walking around you can enjoy a snack or full meal at the restaurant, then enjoy the show at then end of the day.

While I perfer the nature and wildlife, this was also a nice place to visit.

Besides the large Christian Chinese immigrants of Fuzhou in Sibu, there is a large immigrant group of Hakka Chinese (Kejiaren) in Kuching and Sarawak in general.

You can still hear Hakka dialect being spoken.

The Hakka village was of significant interest for me as a Hakka. The floor is pounded earth and there is stone grinder by rotating to turned rice into fine "flour-like" as shown in the picture.

One of the highlights of my visit to the Sarawak Cultural Village is the Cultural Dance Performance.

You can see the dances of the various ethnic groups like Iban/Bidayuh, Melanau, Orang Ulu and Penan and many other groups. Many of the dances mimic animals like the hornbill and there is skilful display of using the teeth to carry heavy object as well accuracy of shooting darts with long traditional blowpipes.

Guests are invited to join in the dance. Do not be shy as it is wonderful to have photos of your performing an ethnic Sarawakian dance.

The current Chief Minister of Sarawak is a Melanau.

Melanaus are similar to Malays and in the past were fishermen and traders as well as sago planters along and at the mouth of Rajang River.

Melanaus have been known in the past as fiercesome warriors and pirates. Today, most Melanaus are Muslims.

The Orang Ulu looks a bit like Chinese.

The traditional homeland of Orang Ulu is in the central of Sarawak in the upper river reaches at Kapit and beyond. They live in long houses and have shifting cultivation, fishing and hunting as livelihood.

When I visited there, I was surprised to ask if I am an Orang Ulu. Surprise to know that most of Orang Ulu are converted Christians.