Capital of: Brunei
Location: On the Northwestern part of
the island of Borneo, sitting on the Northern bank of the Brunei
river, before it flows into the Bay of Brunei.
Population:
278,000 for the whole metropolitan area (almost 2/3 of the population
of the whole country).
Mayor:
I can't seem to find this out, perhaps that is something that the
Sultan takes care of as well.
Possible
English meanings: perhaps using the languages of Persian, Malay and
Sanskrit you would get something like: Town of the God or Town of the
abdicated Sultan (in honour of the Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah's late
father, who abdicated in his favour, when he had grown to old). I
couldn't find much in the way of reference to this besides Wikipedia
though.
Significant
sights, or sites: The Sultan's Palace (the largest residential palace
in the world, according to the Lonely Planet it is 4 times the size
of Versailles), Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, Jame'Asr Hassanil Bolkiah
Mosque (both of which are stunning, at least by the pictures, google
some, they're neat), the regalia museum and the Brunei Museum and
Kampong Ayer the water village (a more traditional village on stilts
in the river), the forest reserve and national park.
Demographics:
Malay
65.7%, Chinese 10.3%, other indigenous 3.4%, other 20.6% (this is the
2011 estimate for the entire country of Brunei, I could not find one
for the city of Bandar Seri Begawan).
Public
Transportation: Taxi (teksi in Malay) and buses. Or your feet, its
not that big a place (at least on a cooler day). Also, we heard from
some people we had been there, Begawanese with cars are happy to pick
you up and transport you if you are going the same direction as them,
merely for the pleasure of conversing with you.
Airport:
Brunei International Airport
Founding
and brief history:
Bandar
Seri Begawan was only named as such since 1970. Before that it
appears to have been called Brunei town (Bandar Brunei). There seems
to be no known founding date, but it is mentioned as early as the 7th
century in trade with Tang China. At which point it was probably
more like the small portion of the place that is called Kampong Ayer.
Brunei, the Sultanate was a regional power in the 15th
and 16th
centuries and controlled a good portion of Borneo during that time.
It successfully shoved off imperial advances by Portugal and Spain
during this period as well. It did begin losing power and land after
the 16th
century though and by the beginning of the 20th
century it was officially a British Protectorate and had shrunk to
the size it currently is.
Bandar
Brunei remained the outlet from which the Sultans of Brunei ruled and
in 1929 with the discovery of oil within their territory, the
opportunity to regain some of the former splendour of Brunei seemed
achievable. British protection made little difference in World War 2
against the Japanese advance and Bandar Brunei was occupied from
1941-1945 by Imperial Japan. After the war as Malaysia became an
independent state, Brunei opted out of the union, remaining under
British Protection. Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah,
became the Sultan in 1967 after his father abdicated. And in 1970
renamed Bandar Brunei to Bandar Seri Begawan, after his father passed
away.
In 1984 Brunei became officially
independent of British rule, leaving the state entirely in the hands
of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah.
When
I first realized Bandar Seri Begawan existed: While we were planning
our travels around Borneo after buying our copy of the Lonely Planet:
Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei. It seemed like a place that would
be cool to visit, but it turned out the we did not have enough time
or money while we were on Borneo (Brunei is more expensive than
Malaysia).
One
interesting fact: Because most of Brunei's wealth comes from off
shore oil, the country has not needed to cut down much in the way of
trees, so, unlike neighbouring Malaysia, there is still a lot of
jungle in Brunei, even right within city limits of Bandar Seri
Begawan. This is actually jungle, not Palm oil plantations.
References:
The
Lonely Planet Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei. 11th
Edition. (Published Jan 2010).
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/18/brunei-trailblazing-first-commercial-film-yasmine-silat
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