Asian Civilisations Museum

Be prepared to learn:

South East Asia Exhibit:

• in 1866, Raffles divided the main city into two parts, the government and business section, located on the different sides on the river (how they still are today) 
• The museum was built in 1866 initially as a government building where local Singaporeans (who were the "first" Singaporean generations, who came from mainly South China) could get their ID cards and birth certificates. For the museum, they build an exterior structure around the original building to keep it safe and to add amenities such as electricity and air control 
• burials were a transition into another afterlife, so people were buried with pots full of things they would need, such as food, clothes, jewelry (wealthy), and other things. The Earliest civilizations buried these pots at the feet. As time went on, the pots were buried more towards the middle and face, and eventually set on the arms of the deceased. 
• The decorations of bronze and clay artifacts were of that the people saw, such as stars, palm trees, leaves, waves, etc. They also had a symbol prevalent throughout the south east, even though it was multiple meanings. It looks like a small hump. In some places, this was meant to represent God's eye to watch over you. In some, it was the symbol of fertility, the breast. Couples who wanted children would rub on it for good luck and fertility. 
• The Vietnamese buried their people with Dong Son drums, which are still used today, but as water pots instead of burial and ceremonial artifacts. The more you had in your grave, the wealthier you were. Those who could not afford a drum for burial, would make mini ones that fit in your hand. The original ones were as tall as your knees. 
• Buddhism is prevalent throughout South east Asia. As an example in Angkor Wat, Cambodia, the Buddhist temples have small steps that can only fit half of your foot, causing one to bow down when walking up. This is still used today, as it forces you to bow, showing respect to the Buddhist Gods 
• Buddha is shown sometimes as meditating within Naga, the snake. Naga has 7 heads, representing the 7 energy points of yoga. His heads are spread out above Buddha to protect him from the rain. Buddha is also sitting on top of 3 coils of the snake. This shows an example of when/where the many gods/deities were first sculptured. This one shows it was created during the rainy season, as the heads protect Buddha from the rain and sitting on his coils keep him from the floods. Some also show him in.out of clothes, meaning it could have been in the winter, or the humid months. 
• In Cambodia, when Buddhism was first brought there, the Cambodian God told the sculptures to make the Buddha statues have the kind'sg face, since nobody knew what he looked like (since he was from India). This way, when people say Buddha, they would think their kind was a god. 
• Those who follow  Buddha and do not reach nirvana are called Quam An. They usually have multiple hands to show they can multi-task, answering many prayers at once. 
• Some villages show Buddha as more feminine than masculine (he was a man), to show their mothering and protecting qualities. 
• In Highland Indonesia, they had soul locks, usually Necklaces places on a baby at birth. As they grew older, it would be replaces with a larger one. This represented literally its name, to keep the soul in place within the body. When they died, it would be removed to let the soul move on to the afterlife 
• In Vietnam, it was popular for the people to dress their children in hats with red pom-poms, representing flowers. This was so, when the children played outside, the flowers would protect them from the other bad spirits on the air. 
• Blue and red were very popular colors, as blue was from the indigo plant and was readily available, and red was the color of protection and celebration. However, if one was dressed completely in red without any other colors present, if worn before death, this meant the person wanted to seek major revenge in his next life. 
• Dajak's, Indonesian Islanders (this is gruesome, just FYI)
• when a boy was ready to become a man, he head-hunter. He would go out into the woods, and return with a human skull. He needed to show he was artistic as well as a good hunter, so the boy would shave the skull and tattoo the bone with etchings. There would be a place in the family house to show off the good warrior/artistic skills of the family men, so he would put the skull in this room, which would be filled with them on display. 
• The hair from the skulls would be displayed on a shield, which represented rank. The more hair (or holes for the hair, in case it fell out) you had on your shield, the higher rank/more seasoned warrior you were. 
• Sometimes they would eat the killed if there was a famine, but not in everyday practice. 
• When a woman was 3 months pregnant, just enough to start showing, the husband would go to a nearby village to find a boy or girl to kill, depending on which he was hoping to have. He would bring back the skull, and drain the blood onto his wife's pregnant belly, as a sign of transferring the spirit of the killed child into the unborn child. They literally thought this was how a baby was made.
• Bataks
• Christianity transferred these Islanders into non-head hunters
• They stayed in "long house", which held ~140 people. There was 1 small room, meant for the tribes eldest/head to sleep in
• The houses were carved with the legends of that particular tribe
• They had medicine men/witch doctors. The medicine book they held had three purposes, cure, prevent, and kill enemies. (Gruesome again) The medicine men had staffs with wooden "fringe" coming out of it, which was like a stopper to a hollow part of the staff. The doctor would find a very strong men (or boy) and fill up his orifices with mercury so no air could get out. While he is still alive, the man would cut out the beating heart and boil it it. The liquid was then poured into the staff and it was stopped up. 

West Asia

• It is part of national education for Singaporeans to learn Islam, Hindu, and Buddhism to learn to be tolerant to all religions. 
• This room was filled with mainly Islamic writing of the Quran, it was like an art exhibit. 
• Middle Easterners bring their own rugs into the mosque to pray 
• Qurans are on a stand. This is so, when a person is praying or neeling, the Quran is held higher than his knees
• they had a projector screen in front of a rug and on the ceiling. It scrolled through various mosques around the world so you got the feeling you were actually inside of one 
• in mosques, there are these 3 step staircases. Imam's preach at the 2nd step to project their voice, as the 1st step is left for Muhammad. 
• A haj for Singaporeans now a days (the pilgrimage to Mecca, as part as a requirement in ones lifetime to meet one of the 5 pillars of Islam) it takes about a month, as you stay in tents (not hotels). Here, they wear all white on their journey and it costs about 10,000 Sing $. 
• Qurans are put into special boxes when not being used 
• Muslims have so much geometrical patterns in their architecture and art because Muhammad asked that no animal/person be worshiped
• Mini Qurans were created back in the day, so they could be put on the staffs of the first soldiers to ride into war so the Quran would protect them 

China

• Most Singaporeans migrated from South China and can speak most the dialects of Chinese 
• Xingjiang province, which is north of Tibet province, is where the majority of Chinese Muslims are from
• Filial Piety is the practice of respecting your elders. In this old famous ancient book there is a quote
• When the parents are alive, one must not travel far. If one must, ones whereabouts should always be made known
• Elders are buried or cremated with fabric (or stones, in the old times) with drawings of filial piety stories. One of the stories is as follows: 
• There was a 3 generation family living in a village that was experienced a famine. The grandmother said she would not eat so her grandchild would eat. The son said, I only have one mother, but I can have many more children. As the son went to bury his child so his mother could eat, the heavens were so touched, he struck gold when he shoveled his first shovel of dirt. They lived happily ever after 
• The emperor was thought to be the son of heaven. He had his main robes, and then robes for his birthday and festivals. Different colors represented different things; yellow was the sun, blue was the moon, and various others were for the seasons 
• Robes with birds showed a rank of civilian in the emperors court, and all other animals were for the military. 
• Calligraphy is one of the highly sought after skills by a Chinese person (as well as musician and reciting poems/historical facts)
• She told me this is why so many Singaporean parents want their children to learn to play a musical instrument
• For those who cannot afford calligraphy pens, back in the day when all the men had long braids, they would whip their hair around and use the end of their pony tail braids to write with
• Now, the new tradition and highest quality brush is made from baby's hair. It is a new thing to shave the first head of hair a baby grows, for luck. It is then shipped into China, and a calligraphy brush is made from it.
• In ancient China, all of the good/nicely made artifacts were kept for the Kingdom and the mess-ups were exported. Now, its the opposite, the Chinese keep the bad quality stuff and only export the best.

Hinduism

• Most Indians who come to Singapore are from South India 
• Shira is one of the main gods celebrated by Hinduism. He is the god of energy and destruction. He is always shown to be dancing (with one foot up), to represent he is always energetic. The day he stops dancing is the day of the end of the world
• One of his sons, another God, has an elephant head. The story says that the father went away for a long time to learn. When he returned, the son did not recognize him and wouldn't let him into the house. The mother was in the shower, so she could not tell the son this was his father. The father was so mad that he couldn't come in, he cut off his son's head. The mother heard the screaming and came yelled at Shira for cutting off her son's head. She demanded that since he was a good hunter, he needed to replace his son's head. He found the first animal in the woods, an elephant, and cut off his head and gave it to his son. You can tell the "person with the elephant head" is a little boy, as his trunk always is shown to carry a little basket full of sweets. 
• This exhibit was set up in the many rooms as a Hindi temple, where certain rooms are saved for certain things. The most important room is where they store the gods (the statues). This museum room was also the most important rule back in 1866, it was the treasury room. The vault door into the safe is still standing and you can see the large heavy door with the stamp on it still.