a shared ASEAN nationhood

At wonder | wander | world we travel to indulge curiosity in cultures and peoples, diverse and varied. An interactive and applied learning from the wonderful books that ignite and spark us originally.

Museums and exhibits are an immersive way of recreate a past lost to us in this vastly changing world of ours. They allow us to time travel and shape shift through the world of our ancestors. 

The Lost Kingdoms exhibition at Muzium Negara in Kuala Lumpur features 103 exhibits (a mixture of real artifacts and replicas) which span over fourteen centuries and the twelve kingdoms of precolonial South East Asia.

Represented in this exhibition are the kingdoms of Funan, Chenla/Zhenla, Angkor/Khmer, Pyu, Dravaravati, Champa, Langkasuka, Kedah Tua/Chieh Cha/Kataha, Srivijaya, Sailendra, Mataram/Medang and Majapahit.

“We need to understand the concept of these early kingdoms. The South-East Asia that we see today exists in the form of modern states. But in the ancient city-state concept, all these kingdoms had a shared nationhood in terms of civilization, beliefs, race and economic activities,” explains Nasrul, 43.

It took senior curator Mohd Nasrulamiazam Mohd Nasir (Nasrul) and his team nearly two years to put together and complete their regional research work. Granting us all a historical awareness that depicts the rich, vibrant, and advanced civilization that existed here long before any foreign invasion.

The exhibition is divided into five sections – Introduction, Evidence & Early Written Sources, City-State In Ancient Nusantara, City-State Kingdom In The Maritime Cultural Context and Local Wisdom.

A collaboration between the Department of Museums Malaysia, the National Museum of Indonesia and the National Museum of Cambodia.

Lost Kingdoms exhibition is in Gallery 2, Muzium Negara, Jalan Damansara in Kuala Lumpur until April 30. For more information, visit www.jmm.gov.my.