National Craft Day 2015

An agency under the Malaysian Ministry of Tourism and Culture held an event to celebrate the national Craft Day at Kuala Lumpur Craft complex between March 26 and April 7. One of the main reasons to organize such an event was to promote public awareness among citizens of Malaysia, as well as to show appreciation to the national heritage and craft culture.

As media students of APU, we also gathered to visit the craft complex and join to celebrate Malaysian National craft day with hundreds of other people visiting the Museum.

Personally, as an International student I found it very interesting to learn about local traditional contemporary products, participate in various activities and get to know the Malaysian culture.

When visiting a destination, there are some places you simply can not miss, and one of those places is certainly the heritage craft exhibition. Ancient ceramic jars, wooden coffins of an ethnic community in Sarawak, authentic stones that are believed to have a medicinal properties and so much more to discover in the exhibition.

The National Craft day is an annual event that takes place in Kuala Lumpur every year. If you have already missed this year’s event, take notes and make sure you visit next year.

For this reason, I listed 5 things you need to do when you visit the Craft museum.

1. Crafted gifts and souvenirs

First of all, visiting the biggest Craft event of the year in the country and not to buy craft gifts or souvenirs is just not acceptable. Even if you haven’t planned to make any purchases, those beautifully crafted tiny boxes and baskets all around the place will not leave your sight at all. You also can find more souvenirs, handmade keychains, and fridge magnets.

2. Rattan weaving (Anyaman rotan).

“Rattan” is a Malay word, and Rattan weaving is one of the popular crafts in the country that are used to make baskets, chairs, and different furniture. The most interesting part is, not only you can watch people weaving baskets, but also you can join them and learn some basic techniques on how to weave small rattan products of different colors and shapes. It might look a bit complicated, but actually it is very easy and fun activity to do. And this is what I did. I am actually very proud of myself.

3. Bamboo Kelarai weaving (Anyaman kelarai buluh)

Another activity you should definitely try is Bamboo weaving. Kelarai weaving is very old tradition, I have been told, and it passes down from one generation to another. We were introduced to local people of Sabah who mastered the Kelarai weaving and were glad to show us their work. Visitors again are allowed to join and learn to weave their own Kelarai craft.

4. Traditional interactive game - Congkak

Congkak is the game of Malay origin, and this game is played not only in Malaysia, but in other countries such as Singapore, Indonesia and some parts of Thailand. As far as I understood, the meaning of the game was “calculation game” or “mental calculation”.

Basically, the one who is able to calculate the opponent’s further steps ahead and collects more coins will win. Truth to be told, a calculation is not one of my strongest points. And considering the fact that I can not even play chess, I refused to take a chance and try the game.

However, if you are familiar with chess or any other games like that, surely it is an interesting game to learn and to play.

5. Food from different states and villages.

Literally, the most important thing you must do while visiting the craft museum is the food, try it. There are so many local dishes from different Malaysian states and villages that I did not even know existed. The variety is just overwhelming.

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