Mardiah bte Haji Omarali
04B2418
Dk Nor Rashidah Pg Haji Tajudin
04B2419
Nurjurainah bte Haji Jahari
04B2425
BRUNEI: FROM 5000 YEARS AGO TO TODAY
This webpage is made especially for our dear sir, Dr. David Brown, as our first CO1601 computer project. Hope you enjoy reading our webpage contents, as you scroll down.
The crew behind this webpage.. THREE Cute angels ~~
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Mardiah bte Haji Omarali 04B2418 |
Dk Nor Rashidah Pg Haji Tajudin 04B2419 |
Nurjurainah bte Haji Jahari 04B2425 |
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This interesting website tells the formation of Brunei as a great empire, how the people fight for their country and its trade and relations with other countries. We learned and discovered new things about Brunei in the past as well as at present by doing this topic. So we hope the visitors of this website can benefit and find the information in here useful.
According to the teachings of Islam, life on earth began when Allah first created Prophet Adam Alaihissalam and Siti Hawa. Adam and Hawa gave birth to several children. Their descendents grew in numbers until they settled all over the world. After making man, Allah made other living things like animals and plants, and non-living things like seas and mountains too. Animals in ancient times were bigger and longer. They left behind the patterns of their bodies and skeletons in pieces of rock. These are called fossils.
From the findings of archeologists, the earliest human beings are believed to be the Java Man and the Peking Man. This is based on the discovery of some skulls near the Solo River in Java and in the Zhoukoudian (Choukoutien) cave in Peking.
Between 1929 and 1937, 14 partial craniums, 11 lower jaws, many teeth, some skeletal bones and large numbers of stone tools were discovered in the Lower Cave at Locality 1 of the Peking Man site at Zhoukoudian, near Beijing, in China. Their age is estimated to be between 500,000 and 300,000 years old.
Zhoukoudian is located at a cluster of limestone hills in Fangshan county, 48 km Southwest of Beijing. It became world famous after some of the earliest human fossils were discovered there in limestone caves.
During the first year of excavation, an extremely well-preserved hominid lower molar was discovered, named Sinanthropus pekinesis or Peking Man (which classified as Homo erectus pekinesis) by a Canadian atomist, Davidson Black. In 1929, Chinese scientist, Pei Wen Chung, discovered complex skullcap of Peking Man.
Some of this erectus, were believed, could be found in Yuanmou (yunnan Province) and in Lantian, Shaanxi.
The Java Man and the Peking Man lived during the Stone Age. Based on the type of stone tools they made, the Stone Age is divided into Palaeolithic (the Old Stone Age), Mesolithic (the Middle Stone Age) and Neolithic (the New Stone Age).
It is a system for classifying prehistoric artifacts according to successive stages of technological development and is divided into the Stone, Bronze, and Iron ages.
In organizing the extensive collection of artifacts at the National Museum of Denmark, the 19th-century Danish archaeologist, Christian Thomsen, proposed an innovative system based on the assumption of a progression in human technology from stone to bronze to iron. According to his insight, early technology had developed in chronological stages rather than concurrently at different levels of society proved essentially correct, though ultimately of limited use in describing the various progressions in other parts of the world. Once empirical study of archaeological collections began, Thomsen's Three Age system was rapidly modified into four ages by the subdivision of the Stone Age into the Old Stone (now Palaeolithic) and New Stone (Neolithic) ages. Subsequent refinement has added Mesolithic (Middle Stone) and Chalcolithic (Copper and Stone) to the original terms, which are now known as periods rather than ages.
From the internet, Palaeolithic-second part of the Stone Age beginning about 750,00 to 500,000 years BC and
lasting until the end of the last ice age about 8,500 years. The people from this age were wanderers. They built rough shelters using leaves or small branches and some of them lived in bushes. Since they had only leaves for shelter, animals like tigers, leopards or snakes sometimes attacked and killed them. Due to this, the Old Stone Age people sometimes lived in trees. But trees were open to rain and storms. Such shelters were quite uncomfortable and even unsafe. So, some of them found shelter in the hillsides and in between rocks, while others lived in caves.
In Borneo, cave shelters used by primitive people were found in the Niah Caves in Sarawak. This is the oldest known settlement in Borneo.
The people ate uncooked food, roots, fish and meat. They were afraid of fire and so they were not able to keep warm when the weather turned cold. The earliest tools and weapons used by these people are made from stone, named ‘flint’.
As time goes by, more sharper tools and weapons were made. They learnt how to make stone axes, knives and chisel. Such tools were first found in a place called Hoabinh, near modern Hanoi in North Vietnam. These people made pots out of clay too.
This age, anyhow, of or relating to the cultural period of the Stone Age beginning around 10,000 B.C. in the Middle East and later elsewhere, characterized by the development of agriculture and the making of polished stone implements.
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When the Middle Stone Age ended, the New Stone Age began. The New Stone Age was a time when ancient people learnt to tame themselves and the animals. They began to learn how to grow their own food and stopped from wandering by setting at a specific place. Also, this age can be known as ‘the age of farmers and craftsmen’ or ‘the age of polished stone’, because the stone tools made were carefully carved, shaped and polished. The women learnt to weave the wool from animals to make clothes. Barks of trees were used to make clothes too.
In Brunei, finely polished stone tools were discovered at Tanjong Batu (in present day called as Muara) in 1975. In South East Asia, a distinct type of Neolithic culture involving rice cultivation developed, perhaps independently, before 2000. In the New World, the domestication of plants and animals occurred independently of Old World developments.
Not everyone became farmers and settlers at the same time. There were some people who were still hunters and gatherers. These people raided the farming villages for food. This was the beginning of fights and wars where some of this people from different villages quarrelled with one another over land and possessions. One who lost the fight would came under the rule of the conqueror and became slaves.
In this new era too, more and more people lived in a village and the villagers chose one among them to be their headman or leader. This started the leadership system. Later they became kings and owned kingdoms. Houses, palaces, places of worship and other buildings were built. Laws were also introduced to keep peace. Then, people started to travel from one village to another one to trade. No money was used at all! They exchanged goods. This was known as barter trade.
Slowly, the villagers grew into towns and cities. One of the oldest settlements found so far is at Jericho near the River Jordan.
We can see that most people in a town had their own work to do. When a community living together was full of activities, and had a government to organize and control the people, we call it civilization. Some of the earliest civilizations found in the East were the Hwang Ho Valley in China and Islamic Civilization in Middle East.
China has two great rivers called the Hwang Ho (sometimes as Hwang He) and the Yangtze Kiang. Chinese historians routinely refer to the Huang He as the cradle of Chinese civilization. Hwang Ho’s main attraction for the ancient Chinese to settle in was of its rich soil, river providing water and an efficient way of transport. However, there was a little contact with the outside world due to China’s great natural barriers. The early settlements of the Hwang Ho Valley existed nearly 5000 years ago and later to become states by joining with other places.
It was Shih Huang Ti who built the famous Great Wall of China that nearly 2400 km long. Among of the Chinese Civilization’s contributions were the invention of paper and introduction of writing to the world.
This well-known civilization began when the first verse in the Holy Quran was revealed to our great Prophet Muhammad. This verse is from Surah 96 Al-Alaq in the Holy Quran where the meanings is to encourage the early Muslims to search for new knowledge, which helped to shape Islamic Civilization on the basis of the Holy Quran.
The important discoveries were made in the areas of philosophy, medicine, science, mathematics and geography. Few great names like Al-Razi studied smallpox and measles and the way to treat these diseases and ibn Sina who was a philosopher and a scientist that contribute an encyclopedia of medicine. The people of the Islamic Empire were very talented. They contributed a great deal to the knowledge of medicine, science and philosophy. The Islamic Empire preserved the best of ancient cultures and passes them on to the Europeans. In a way, the Muslims were responsible for the new interest in classical learning in Europe.
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/a_java.html http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com www.unesco.org/ext/field/beijing/whc/pkm_site.htm www.wordreference.com/definition http://dictionary.reference.com
Ancient Brunei in the years 977 and 1371 A.D. was known as Po-ni to the Chinese, Kapuradvipa (Champorland) to the Indians and Varuni ('sea-borne' or 'sea-people') to the people of Srivijaya. Old Brunei was called 'Champorland' because camphor was one of Brunei's popular product. The second sultan, Sultan Ahmad, was the first to name 'Brunei' from the word 'Barunah'.
Darussalam, which means Abode of Peace in Arabic, was added in the 15th century by the third sultan, Sultan Sharif Ali. The purpose was to emphasise Islam as state religion and to enhance its spread.
The people in ancient Brunei were Malay Hindu-Buddhists, according to the Chinese. Brunei was said to have similar Malay-Hindu Buddhist traditions and customs such as Funan or Kumlun.
The early king of Brunei was called Sang Aji, or Reverend Monarch, a title of Sanskrit origin. The Brunei ruling dynasty changed during the early 1360s when Awang Alak Betatar, a prince from a powerful kingdom in western Borneo, ascended the Brunei throne. He became the first Brunei King to accept Islam, changed his title and name to Sultan Muhammad Shah (1363-1402). With Islam, Brunei asserted and expanded its role as an independent and dominant trading power in the region. Its trade and territories grew with the spread of Islam to encompass existing Malay kingdoms in Borneo and the Philippines.
A Persian missionary, Sharif Ali, later became Brunei's third sultan, spreads Islam in Brunei. He built mosques, and the first defense barriers at Kota Batu and across the Brunei river.
The sultanate's golden age begun with the reign of Sultan Bolkiah who was famous for many conquests which covered the whole of Borneo and Luzon in the Philippine Islands where he initiated the spread of Islam. The reign of Sultan Bolkiah (1485-1584) was the height of the Brunei Sultanate in territory, influence and power.
The reign of Sultan Omar Ali Saiffuddien II (1828-1852) marked the beginning of direct European involvement in Brunei. Between 1842 and the end of the century, Brookes' involvement in Sarawak and the British Chartered North Borneo company in Sabah eroded Brunei territory to its present split-halves.
The Sultan surrendered Labuan to the English in 1846 and signed a treaty on trade and good relationship. Later in 1877 some of Brunei's territories were leased to Sabah.
Sultan
Hashim signed a British Protectorate treaty in 1888 to entrust Brunei's
foreign affairs under British administration. The
signing of the 1906 Treaty brought in the first British Residential System
in Brunei. A British Resident was
to advise the Sultan on state matters, excluding Malay tradition and
religion. The treaty brought changes to the sultanate's traditional Malay
ruling systems.
The most revered 20th century ruler of Brunei was Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien III (1950-I967) who is known as 'the architect of modern Brunei'. He used Brunei's oil revenues to finance for the first time a five-year development plan (1953-1958) which gave Brunei an intensive infrastructure and transformed it into a thriving state. In 1953, government English schools were set up and a mosque in Bandar Seri Begawan was built.
Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien III and Sir Robert Scott signing the 1959 Constitution Agreement. (Source: History of Brunei Darussalam 1800-1967)
In the
same year, the Brunei Shell Petroleum Company started its first offshore
http://www.brudirect.com/BruneiInfo/info/brudirect__brunei_at_a_glance.htm http://www.bookings-asia.com/searchresults.html?aid=300404&country=bn http://brunei-hotelguide.com/index.htm?OVU
In the sixteenth century, the Spanish reached South China and Sulu seas with a view to colonization took Brunei Town by force. However, they were chased out a few days later by a cholera epidemic. The threat of piracy caused problems and deteriorate trade. Also, the sultans began to lose control of the noblemen.
The arrival of Western entrepreneurs were to take advantage of gaps in the trade market left by Brunei's decline. One of them was James Brooke who arrived in Kuching in 1839. Brooke was given the governorship of Sarawak after defeating the Dayak troops. He and his successors used the suppression of piracy to shrink Brunei's territories.
Due to the great power of British gunboats, Limbang and Pulau Labuan was ceded to the British crown. A treaty was signed the following year, forbidding the sultanate from ceding any of its territories without the British Crown's consent. In 1865, American consul, Charles Lee Moses, negotiated a treaty granting a ten-year lease to the American Trading Company of the portion of northeast Borneo (Sabah). By 1888, Brunei was declared as a protected state further minimising Brunei's control with the set up of a Residency in 1906.
Shrinking size of Brunei after most of the territories were taken by British North Borneo (Source: Secondary History for Brunei Darussalam) http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/south_east_asia/brunei/
Brunei was one of the famous trading centres in South China Sea. China was trading with Brunei as long ago as the seventh century. And Brunei benefited from its strategic position on the trade route between India, Melaka and China thus, exercising a lucrative control over merchant traffic in the South China Sea. It became a staging post where traders could buy local supplies such as beeswax, camphor, rattan and brasswork which was traded for ceramics, spices, woods and fabrics. In the fourteenth century it was taken over by the Majapahit Empire but by the end of the century it had become independent.
‘Pengalu’ comes from a Malay word which stands for ‘barter traders’. Barter trade existed in Brunei for about 500 years. It was mainly done by men. The pengalu were the middlemen who exchanged goods between the towns and the inland areas. Some of the goods exchanged were cooking utensils, salt, tamarind, sugar, salted fish, clothes and ornaments.
The people of Kampong Ayer can communicate with people living upstream through barter trade. The next trading visit was arranged by the villagers. Today, the pengalu trade is disappearing as most of the inland people can travel to towns easily by boat or car.
A padian is a hawker, mostly are women and wearing wide hats called ‘siraung’, visiting houses in Kampong Ayer selling vegetables, fruit, fish and supplying other daily wants using their perahu. The padian had been in this trade for hundreds of years as mentioned by Antonio Pigafetta in 1521 A.D. The padian and pengalu worked together, but today there are a few padian around.
During Sultan Bolkiah’s reign (1485-1524), Brunei was still using a Chinese currency known as ‘pitis’ or ‘kue’ money. Brunei’s coin was made of copper. It had a hole in the centre for tying. On one side of the coin were four Chinese characters used by the Emperor of China. Brunei had begun to make her own currency using tin and stamped with the Royal Seal during Sultan Saiful Rijal’s reign.
Cowries (small shells) Half pitis One pitis Chinese copper cash
The Brunei coin was used in Brunei and other trading centres, such as Melaka in the 16th century. Paper currency was only introduced in the 20th century in Brunei after the Straits currency. This currency was used in the Straits Settlements, Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei.
Location:
Brunei
Darussalam which means 'Abode of Peace' is situated on the north coast of
Borneo. It is surrounded on three sides by Sarawak, South China Sea and
Sabah. More than 80% of the total land area is still covered by forest.
The land surface is developed
on bedrock of tertiary age comprising of sandstone, shale and clays. Capital city: Bandar Seri Begawan with an area of about 16 sq. km. Brunei is divided into 4 districts namely Brunei-Muara, Belait, Tutong and Temburong. Area: 5,765 sq. km. with a coastline of about 161 km along the South China Sea. Population: Brunei Darussalam is one of the world’s smallest nations. The population in mid-year 1999 is estimated at 330,700 persons. Ethnic Composition: Malay and other indigenous people 73.5%, Chinese 14.9% and others 11.6% (2000 est.) Climate: Tropical/Equatorial. The temperature range is from 23-32 Degree Celsius, while rainfall varies from 2,500 mm annually on the coast to 7,500 mm in the interior. Religion: Islam (Official) 67%, Buddhism 13%, Christian 10%, Indigenous beliefs and others 10% Languages: Malay (Official), Chinese and English Brunei's culture is mainly
derived from the Malay Archipelago. Brunei Darussalam is richly endowed with
cultural Brunei Darussalam has rich
natural resources and a strategic location within the region. Majority of
the country is covered in tropical rainforests with exotic flora and fauna.
Eco-tourism has gained importance in the country's economic activities to
promote the conservation of its wonderful surroundings.
Livestock Major Exports: Crude Oil, Liquefied Natural Gas and Petroleum Products Major Exports: ASEAN, Japan, USA, Korea, Taiwan and Australia Major Imports: Machinery and Transport, Equipment, Manufactured Goods, Food, Chemicals, Beverages and Tobacco Major Suppliers: Singapore, UK, USA, Malaysia and Japan Social Services - Education and health care are free. Many tropical diseases have been completely eliminated. http://asiatravel.com/malaysia/sarainfo.html http://www.ubd.edu.bn/library/services/bruneiana/ab.htm http://www.globaltravelwriters.com/html/Brunei.html http://bruneibay.net/brunei_darussalam/ http://dg.ian.com/index.jsp?cid=78447&action=viewLocation&formId=66975
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By UBD students
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T
In
this age, the people of Mesolithic started to use fire. The first fire they
saw was the fire from trees struck by lightning. They learnt fire produced
heat,
In
the 1959 Constitution 
drilling. The present Sultan, His
Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di Pertuan Brunei Darussalam ascended the throne
on 5
October 1967
as the 29th Sultan. He further pushed Brunei Darussalam to
greater economic and social development.
heritage maintained until today. The setting up of the Arts and Handicraft
Centre in 1975 preserves and proliferates the arts and crafts of the olden
days such as boat making, silver-smithing, bronze tooling, cloth weaving,
mat and basket weaving. Other various artistic heritage of Brunei Darussalam
include Malay weaponry, wood carvings, traditional games, traditional
musical instruments, 'silat' (the traditional art of self defense) and
handicrafts. The Bruneians are skillful, creative and innovative people and
Brunei is one of the richest traditional culture in the Malay world.
