Perak Museum Taiping

This museum is the oldest museum in Peninsular Malaysia. It is located in the town of Taiping, about 85 km from Ipoh, the capital of Perak. It is also near the Taiping Jail and about 3 km from town. Most of the museum’s earlier collections are ethnological and anthropological items. Geological, botanical and enthamobological collections make up additonal specimens. To date, the total of accumulated collections is 8,474 , consisting of 5,074 cultural collections, 523 nature collections and 2,877 miscellaneous collections, including archaeological items. The Perak Museum is rich in ethnological, historical, archaeological and ethamobological collections. Some of them are classified as rare collections over a hundred years old such as animal species like the “benturong” and “pulasan”, skeletons and scores of animal skeletons and smoked clay which are either extinct or extremely hard to find. Most of these collections and artifacts are displayed in the museum’s four main galleries housed in an almost 120-year old building. It was built in 1883 and maintains an ancient British architectural concept of the Art Dico kind.