Distant Memories

Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of the Abode of Peace, does not lie on the coast but a few miles upriver along the Sungai Brunei. It is only recently that it has come ashore. Well into the nineteen-sixties the capital rested on stilts in the Kampong Ayer, the water-village, an expanse of houses made of wood and corrugated iron that stretches out of sight on both sides of the river. One of the few dwellings on terra-firma, apart from those belonging to the Chinese, was the late Sultan’s palace, a humble blue house only the most curious of tourists makes plans to visit and invariably misses.

You would be a fool to dismiss as a shantytown what you see upon arriving at the jetty that leads into the labyrinth of catwalks and bridges that give access to the kampong. They may look similar to the ones one comes across in the Philippines or in Vietnam, but upon closer inspection it becomes clear that their owners are much more affluent. Their exterior aspect belies what is concealed within and it is only when you walk across the catwalks or venture deeper on the speedboats that ferry people to and from town that you realise that this is a complete city with schools and hospitals and police stations and everything you can imagine in each sector.

We are too quick to judge the comforts of others by the standards of our discomfort. People live here because they wish nothing more than to continue to live the way their ancestors have lived since before they joined in recorded western history. For even before the first recorded encounter with people from the west in 1521 there was news of great splendour in the kingdom of Poni as the Chinese called it and the display Pigafetta describes in his chronicle is not something one readily puts up over night.

Before the Oil and natural-gas boom, Brunei’s camphor and sandalwood were highly prized and helped to establish it as a major trading post in South East Asia. Records of the Sung Dynasty which ruled in China from the 10th to the 13th century tell of the significant trade and cultural links between the two empires. Trading agreements were signed, ambassadors exchanged, and there is little doubt that the art and craft of Brunei was influenced by its close ties with China. In the late 14th early 15th centuries Brunei reached its apogee, occupying the whole of Borneo and parts of the Philippines as far away as Manila. In those times culture flourished and the 5th Sultan of Brunei, passionate for music and poetry, would have the royal orchestra accompany him on his boat whenever he visited his territories.

In the Royal Regalia Museum it is possible to wander amongst replicas of what I imagined to be the same Perahus that sailed downriver to meet Magellan’s fleet under it’s new commander, Sebastian del Cano - Ferdinand Magellan himself having been killed in Cebu. The boats are there, decorated with gold leaf and flying peacock feathers and one has only to imagine them laden with gifts, musicians and court dignitaries come to greet the visitors and take them ashore where they were then escorted on silk-covered elephants to the palace in Kota Batu, the ancient capital enclosed behind fortifications and guarded by 62 canons of cast-iron and bronze, it’s interior draped in silks and brocade, as told by the fleet’s chronicler Antonio Pigafetta.

To find myself here almost 500 years later stirs up emotions, a certain patriotic pride - the fleet may have been Spanish but Magellan, even if he didn’t make it here, was Portuguese and the spirit of his achievement is not blemished by the actions that took place four days later and started to spell the decline of this once great Empire. The distinction between the achievements of the Portuguese and the actions of the Spanish comes across quite clearly in my contacts with the local people - I feel it is like a door that is being left open to me.