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The Perak Museum in Taiping is the oldest museum in Malaysia. Sir Hugh Low, the British Resident of Perak, had the Perak Museum constructed in 1883, to house the artifacts collected in the Kinta Valley and Lenggong Valley. Due to financial constraints, the construction was delayed, and the Perak Museum was only completed three years later, in 1886. The front and back annexes were added in 1889. Another two-storey wing was added to the museum in 1900, to house the expanding cultural exhibits on the Malays and the Orang Aslis, and also to display zoological specimens.
The first curator of the Perak Museum was a botanist and geologist by the name of Leonard Wray Jr. Mr Wray was instrumental in assembling the much admired natural history and ethnological collections of the museum.
Perak Museum, Taiping.
Within the museum one can find the skeleton of rhinoceros on display, vintage bicycles, rattan ware by orang asli, a replica of the Istana Kenangan of Kuala Kangsar, and also replicas of orang asli sheds.
Among the items on display in the grounds of the museum today are old fighter jets, steam carriages, a statue of Colonal Walker, the stone marking of the site of Maharaja Lela's Fort, ancient stone slab graves from Sungkai and ancient perahus (canoes).
Facade of the Perak Museum.
Corner view of the Perak Museum.
Ancient perahus on display on the grounds of the Perak Museum.
Water jars and earthenware pots on display in the museum.
Replica of an orang asli shed.
Skeleton of an elephant in the main wing of the Perak Museum
Statue of Col. Robert Sandilands Frowd Walker, on the grounds of the Perak Museum. Col Walker was the British Resident of Selangor and Perak who was much admired by both the Malay and Chinese community for settling labour troubles as well as for his hospitality.
