The Sarawak State Museum occupies a Victorian building in the style of a Normandy town hall — an architectural oddity in a Bornean city that somehow works. It is the oldest museum in Borneo and houses one of the finest ethnographic collections in Southeast Asia, covering the material culture, tools, weapons, carvings, and costumes of the Dayak, Malay, and Chinese communities of Sarawak. The natural history section includes Bornean wildlife, with particular depth on the insects and birds of the state.
The collection is dense and genuinely interesting, curated with seriousness rather than showmanship. Allow at least two hours. The garden between the old building and the new wing holds several large traditional longhouse structures used for ceremonies and exhibitions. The museum is a short walk from the waterfront, past the Brooke Memorial and along the road that runs inland from the courthouse.