National Textile Museum, KL
Since I was in the vicinity of Independence Square last school holiday (I visited KL Children’s Library and KL City Gallery), I took the chance to bring my son and nephew to visit the National Textile Museum. Well, it think it was more of me taking the chance. I love looking at textile and thought I go and educate myself on the history of textiles.
The National Textile Museum is located in a building formerly the Federated Malay States Railway Station built in 1905. It was conserved and refurbished as museum on 2007.
The museum explores the rich diversity of the peoples of Malaysia and traces the development and trend of textiles that have characterised and shaped the lifestyle of Malaysians as early as the pre-historic era right up to the modern time. Upon entering the museum on the ground floor we visited two galleries: Gallery Pelangi and Gallery Pohon Budi. Gallery Pelangi traces the Malaysia’s textile evolution and exhibits selected heritage collection of batiks (block prints, tie-dye and hand drawn), Baba & Nyonya textile, Sarawak textile and India textile.
Textile on display.
1. Wooden block with floral motif. | 2. Relak nuts – a traditional material used in washing the cloth to be calendered so that the cloth will smell fragrant.
Gallery Pohon Budi showcases the origins of textiles from the pre-historic time as well as its growth through trade. Also exhibited are tools, materials and techniques of textile-making processes of weaving, embroidery, batik-printing and many more. There are also videos showing the process and I actually felt pretty proud because my husband was one of the person involved in the making of the videos.
Before we could climb the stairs to see exhibits in other galleries, Yassin and Danial were already tired. So we skipped the upper part of the museum and promised to come back and continue. It was really tiring as we were out as early as 9.30am up until 1pm. We took a bus to KL as my car was in a workshop due to a minor accident. We had heavy breakfast at 10am at Secret Recipe’s, Central Market.
Overall, we had a great time reading the print exhibits and learning the history of textiles and how textiles were made. One of the things we learned that the checkered Pelikat sarong was brought from Port of Pulicat, India during Melaka’s heyday as prominent trading center in the 15th century. I always love the feeling of getting ‘richer’ with information when visiting museums. Do you feel that way?
For those who like to visit the National Textile Museum, opening time is from 9.00am to 6pm daily. It will on be closed on first day of Eid’ul Fitri and Eid’ul Adha. Admission is free. Free guided tours are available upon request. You need to call for reservation for groups and schools.
Address:
National Textile Museum
26, Jalan Sultan Hishamuddin
50050 KL.
Tel: +603-26943457/3461
33 Comments
farah lazyturtle
hi kak emi,
mggu lepas sy dh pegi kl city gallery sbb baca entri kak emi. ada lalu kat tepi tekstil muzium ni tapi tak singgah pun.. nanti nk pegi la..=]
samdaddycool
Saya pun dah tahu asal nama kain pelikat lepas baca entri ni. Banyak kali lalu tempat ni, tapi tak pernah teringat wujudnya muzium tekstil ni setiap kali ada kat kawasan masjid Jamek / Dataran… Mungkin sebab tiada signboard yang memandu pengunjung dari arah jalan besar ???
farah lazyturtle
btl2..tiada signboard yang tunjuk jalan ke sana. cuma signboard kecil saja.
Rose
It looks like a fascinating place! Thanks for the little tour.
Joyce
Looks like a worthwhile way to spend your day.
http://joycelansky.blogspot.com
Ezyane
Wow.. I always heard about Muzium Textile, but never feel like wanna go there and explore ..
And just realize that Muzium Textile is one of interesting place to go.. InsyaAllah, akan ke sana. Thanks kak emi..
canvas
waw. quite interesting!
emila
Safiy, memang interesting. Kalau ada masa pergilah melawat ya.
emila
You are welcome,Ezyane. You’ll love it here as you suka menjahit. Banyak inspirasi kat dalam ni.
emila
Yes, Joyce, very worthwhile.
emila
Hi Rose! It is. Glad I made the effort to visit the museum.
emila
Yes, signboardnya kecil sangat. And the entrance tu kat dalam bukan kat tepi main road.
emila
Betul. Yang dekat main road tu signboard memang kecil sangat. Dan dari Jalan yang nak menghala ke CM tu, ada satu lagi. Besar sikit but still too small to make people notice it.
emila
Hi Farah, nanti singgah ya! Kak Emi suka tengok textile di situ terutamanya yang embroidery.
docgelo
i’ll try to drop by this textile museum on my next visit to kl (question is, when will be that be? hmmmm)
Syuq
Tempat-tempat yang k.Em pergi memang menarik. Sebenarnya kan, mungkin ada yang pernah sampai ke tempat2 tersebut, tapi balik dan berkata, ‘biasa je’:) . K.Em sebenarnya dah berjaya ubah cara orang pandang tempat ‘biasa’ tersebut dalam penulisan k.Em. Bila baca blog k.Em, baru terperasan “Ohh menarik jugak sebenarnya tempat ni”. Kemudian bila pergi, baru pandang betul-betul dan baru nampak keistimewaan tempat tersebut (^_^)
emila
Itulah, Syuq. Kak Emi dah lama duduk Kl/Selangor tapi tak sampai 50% tempat Kak Emi lawati. Kak Emi nakartikel yang Kak Emi siarkan ini dapat menarik perhatian orang untuk melawat.
emila
Ok Gelo! It is very interesting, you know. The history actually goes back to the days where traders from India, China, Indonesia came to Melaka to trade all the beautiful textiles.
azah
wow, macam best je muzium ni. Insyallah, akan lawat satu hari nanti. 🙂
azah
nanti bila masa nak travel, just buka web akak, pastu tengok mana tempat best untuk travel 😀
azah
yes! betul-betul setuju dengan syuq!
mazny
Seriously, when I was in India last year, I saw many men wearing the pelikat!
mazny
That was in a small town called Calicut…
mazny
Now I wonder if Pulikat was Calicut, lol 😀
mazny
The truth is, Calicut used to be an infamous and busiest port for South India hundreds of years ago!
mazny
During my trip to India, I saw many men wearing kain pelikat in a town called Calicut!
mazny
There is a beach called Kappad near Calicut, where Vasco da Gama first landed on the Indian shore.
mazny
Nanti I post gambar di FB 🙂
mazny
Hey, why were all my comments gone just now?! Thats why I thought I should post them again!
mazny
LOL 😀
mazny
Thanks for the information about the Children’s Library.
mazny
I wish to visit that place one of these days.
mazny
Jeeez, never know it exists!