Kuching Divisional Mosque (Masjid Bahagian
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You may download a copy of the brochure in pdf format 1. Kuching Divisional Mosque (Masjid Bahagian Kuching) 2. Old Fire Station 3. Sikh Temple (Gurdwara Sahib Kuching) 4. The Sarawak Islamic Museum 5. Old Government Printing Office 6. Masjid Bandar Kuching (Masjid India) 7. Central Police Station 8. The Astana 3 8 9. The Square Tower 4 10. Rajah Charles Brooke Memorial 11. Old Court House 12. The Japanese Building 13. The Round Tower Sikh Temple (Gurdwara Sahib Kuching) 7 14. The Pavilion (Textile Museum) A wooden Sikh Temple existed on this 15. Sarawak State Legislative Assembly site since 1912, catering to Sikh families The Sarawak Islamic Museum Building (Bangunan Dewan Undangan living in the Police Barracks nearby. It The Sarawak Islamic Museum is housed in Negeri (DUN) Sarawak) was demolished to make way for the new the Maderasah Melayu Building, built by 16. Sarawak Steamship Building golden-domed temple which was opened the Brooke Government in 1930 as a boy’s Central Police Station The Astana 17. General Post Office in 1982. It is one of the city’s most notable secondary school to educate Malay students. The Central Police Station was built to 18. St. Thomas’ Cathedral landmarks and is the religious and cultural The Astana, across river from the The school was closed in 1964 and the building replace the old police station formerly 19. The Sarawak Museum centre of Kuching’s Sikh community. When taken over by the Education Department. It Kuching Waterfront, was built in 1870 by located on the site of the General Post Charles Brooke as a bridal gift to his wife 20. viewed from the Padang Merdeka end of was extensively renovated and opened as the Hiang Tiang Siang Ti Temple Office. It opened in 1931 and has retained its Margaret. Laid out in the style of an 21. Hong San Si Temple Jalan Masjid it forms a stunning panorama Islamic Museum in 1992. It presents a clear together with the Kuching City Mosque, original function and façade to the present English manor house, it is the third and 22. Fort Margherita picture of the rich historical heritage and day. It stands out prominently among a visual testament to Sarawak’s racial and special culture of the Muslim community in last residence built by the Brooke Rajahs 23. Chinese History Museum the buildings lining the Padang Merdeka religious harmony. Sarawak and throughout the Malay-Indonesian and was occupied by the reigning Rajah 24. Tua Pek Kong Temple thanks to its blue and white colour scheme, archipelago, and traces connections with the until the Japanese Occupation in 1941. common to all police stations in Malaysia. (Siew San Teng Temple) development of Islam in the rest of the World. Now the Official Residence of the Yang di-Pertua Negeri Sarawak (Governor of 25. Reservoir Park It consists of 7 galleries set around a central Sarawak), the Astana has occupied a courtyard garden, each with a different theme. significant place in the history of Sarawak; it was the venue for the various meetings of the General Council from 1873 to 1937. 1 5 6 2 Kuching Divisional Mosque (Masjid Bahagian Kuching) The imposing Old Kuching State Mosque Old Fire Station Old Government Printing Office 9 was built in 1968 on the site of an older The old Government Printing Office was The Old Fire Station was constructed to wooden mosque, the Masjid Besar, dating built in 1908 at the junction of Khoo Hun house the first coal-powered fire engine Masjid Bandar Kuching (Masjid India) from the 1840s. It served as the Sarawak Yeang Street and Barrack Road, on the to be delivered from the UK in 1917. It was State Mosque until the current State Mosque former site of the first Ladies’ Club. When The Masjid Bandar Kuching (Masjid India) is later demolished when the new Fire Station was constructed across river in Petra Jaya in the Printing Office moved out in 1951, accessible via a narrow lane from India Street The Square Tower at Jalan Padungan was completed, but the 1990. It is enclosed by an old and delightfully the building was extensively renovated or through its main entrance on Gambier Drying Tower survives as a notable local Built in 1879, the Square Tower is situated tranquil Muslim cemetery that is well worth to house the newly-formed Kuching Road. It is the oldest intact mosque in the landmark. An alfresco food court sprang up at Pangkalan Batu on the south bank of the a visit in its own right. Its gilded cupolas Municipal Council, later Kuching City South State, built in 1876 on the site of an old around the Drying Tower, and even though Sarawak River at the eastern end of Kuching make it one of the city’s most striking Council. When the council moved to its wooden surau (prayer room). Prominent it is now roofed-over, locals still fondly refer Waterfront. Originally intended as a fort and landmarks, particularly at sunset. new premises in Jalan Padungan, the members of the Indian Muslim community to the location as the ‘open-air market’. jailhouse, with its stout walls and massive gun building served as the Kuching Resident’s constructed the shophouses that surrounded emplacements, it fortunately never fired a 22 Office until 2014. It is now occupied by the mosque in the early 20th Century and shot in anger, unlike its wooden predecessor the Sarawak Museum Department. donated them to the mosque as a revenue which was burnt down in the 1857 gold miners’ source. Inside the mosque is a huge drum or rebellion. It has served as a jail, administrative bedok, which accompanies the call to prayer. office and even a dance hall, and is currently used as a fine-dining restaurant. 25 Fort Margherita Fort Margherita was built in 1879 to guard 17 Kuching’s river 21 18 Reservoir Park approaches from pirates. Named 14 Kuching’s Reservoir Park is a green lung in after Charles the heart of the old city, centered around Brooke’s wife, two small lakes that were dug in 1895 to Ranee Margaret, Hong San Si Temple St. Thomas’ Cathedral serve as reservoirs for Kuching’s piped it was never put to the water supply. By the 1930s, the reservoirs use for which it had been originally The Taoist Hong San Ti Temple is one of the The current St. Thomas’ Anglican fell into disuse, replaced by a much larger General Post Office intended; only attack on the fort, though most ornately decorated houses of worship Cathedral was completed in 1956, exactly 10 installation at Matang, but remained a The Pavilion Building (Textile Museum) unsuccessful, came from the air when the in Kuching, with beautiful ceramic artwork, 100 years after Frank McDougall was This magnificent building has been in popular recreational area. In 1975 the entire 13 Japanese bombed Kuching on Friday, ceramic carp and other creatures adorning consecrated the first Bishop of Sarawak continuous use as the General Post Office The Pavilion Building, designed in the style of area was landscaped and footbridges, 19 December 1941. This imposing landmark its rooftop. Dedicated to the Hokkien child in 1856. It replaced the old neo-gothic since its completion in 1931. Designed a New Orleans Creole townhouse, was the first pavements, walkways and an auditorium served as a Police Museum from 1971 deity Kong Teck Choon Ong, it is claimed wooden built by McDougall with the by Denis Santry of Swan and Maclaren building in Sarawak to use reinforced concrete. built. The park is equally popular with before being handed over to the State to date from 1848. It is widely believed that assistance of a German carpenter in 1857. Architects, Singapore, it is the only building Completed in 1909, it housed the Medical joggers and wedding photographers Rajah Charles Brooke Memorial Government. After extensive restoration the child deity appeared on the rooftops of It is built in typical mid-20th century in Sarawak to employ the use of Corinthian Headquarters and Hospital for Europeans thanks to its serene atmosphere. work, it now houses the Brooke Gallery Ewe Hai Street during the Great Fire of British style and has an imposing bright columns in its facade treatment, along until the mid-1920s, was then occupied by The Round Tower The second Rajah, Sir Charles Brooke, died in Kuching in 1884, warning the people with semi-circular arches and ornamented various government departments and was England on May 17, 1917 and was buried in the which showcases the history and legacy red barrel-vaulted ceiling. The Round Tower is an austere, fort-like of Sarawak under the Brooke era. and summoning the rain to put out the column capitals and friezes. Deep parapet the Japanese propaganda centre during the building and may have been originally country churchyard of Sheepstor, Devon. The fire. The temple’s annual procession, to walls hide the pitched roof while the World War II occupation. It was extensively intended for military use, but became the government erected a memorial in the form commemorate Deity’s birthday, falls on the colonnaded portico serves as a corridor, restored in 2005, and opened to the public new Public Dispensary on its completion of a 6-metre granite obelisk with a bas relief 22nd day of the 2nd lunar month. while the rear of the building is simple and as a Textile Museum, housing a remarkable in 1886. It replaced the former dispensary of the Rajah in marble, with bronze panels austere. collection of traditional Borneo textiles. and hospital operated at Mission House on each corner depicting raised figures of a by Bishop Frank McDougall (a qualified Malay, a Dayak, a Chinese and a Kayan.