Malay College Kuala Kangsar

1905 "Eton of the East", the school that produced most of Malaysia's first generation of leaders

The Malay College Kuala Kangsar (MCKK) is an Edwardian neoclassical pile of brick and white stone, set in extensive grounds at the western edge of Kuala Kangsar. Founded in 1905, it was the first boarding school built specifically for the sons of the Malay aristocracy and is the country's oldest fully residential school. The main building, with its long columned façade, central pediment and clock tower, is among the most distinguished pieces of British colonial school architecture in Asia.

Visitors are not permitted to wander inside the school, but the exterior is worth a stop for the architecture and the historical interest. A small museum on the campus, sometimes open to visitors with advance notice, displays the school's history and the careers of its more famous alumni.

things to do sight architecture
A story
The college was founded in 1905 to educate the sons of the Malay aristocracy and produced an extraordinary number of the country's mid-20th-century political class — including the first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, the second Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak and many cabinet ministers. The school is sometimes called the "Eton of the East" in self-conscious imitation of the English original.