The White Rajahs in Kuching (Sarawak)
Part of the Kuching (Sarawak) travel guide — see every topic in All Kuching (Sarawak) Guides.
In 1841 James Brooke, an English adventurer with an armed schooner, was granted the governorship of Sarawak by the Sultan of Brunei in return for helping suppress a rebellion. He and his descendants then ruled it as an independent state for over a century — three rajahs, expanding the territory steadily at Brunei's expense, running a personal monarchy that was neither a British colony nor an indigenous kingdom. The arrangement ended in 1946, when the third rajah ceded Sarawak to Britain amid considerable local opposition.
The three rajahs
James Brooke ruled from 1841 to 1868, suppressing piracy and headhunting expeditions and steadily acquiring territory. His nephew Charles Brooke, rajah from 1868 to 1917, was the builder: the Astana, Fort Margherita, the Sarawak Museum and much of Kuching's civic fabric date from his reign, and he expanded Sarawak to close to its present borders. Charles Vyner Brooke, the third and last, ruled from 1917 until the Japanese occupation, granted a constitution in 1941, and ceded the state to Britain in 1946 — a decision that split Sarawak politically and led to the assassination of the first British governor in 1949.
What they built
The Astana of 1870 — a low white bungalow-palace with a castellated tower, across the river from the town — is still the head of state's residence. Fort Margherita, named for Charles Brooke's wife Margaret, was built in 1879 against river-borne attack and now houses the Brooke Gallery, which tells the whole story with genuine nuance rather than romance. The Square Tower, the Round Tower, the Old Court House and the Sarawak Museum of 1891 complete the set, all within a short walk of the waterfront.
How to read it
The Brooke period resists easy framing and the Brooke Gallery is good on this. The rajahs governed with a small European staff and a heavy reliance on indigenous councils, restricted large-scale plantation and mining development in ways that preserved land rights and forest, and were paternalistic autocrats who suppressed indigenous practices by force where they chose to. Sarawak was not a British colony and its people were not British subjects; nor was it self-governing. Malaysians and Sarawakians hold a range of views on it, and it is worth listening to them rather than arriving with one.
After 1946
The cession to Britain in 1946 was opposed by a substantial anti-cession movement, and in 1949 the British governor Duncan Stewart was assassinated in Sibu. Sarawak became a Crown Colony, then joined Malaya, North Borneo and Singapore to form Malaysia in 1963 under terms set out in the Eighteen Points, which covered religion, language, immigration and autonomy. Sarawak retains its own immigration control to this day — which is why arriving from peninsular Malaysia means a passport check — and questions about autonomy remain politically live.
The White Rajahs at a glance
| Began | 1841 — James Brooke granted Sarawak by the Sultan of Brunei |
|---|---|
| Three rajahs | James (1841–68), Charles (1868–1917), Vyner (1917–46) |
| The builder | Charles — the Astana, Fort Margherita, the museum |
| Best account | The Brooke Gallery, inside Fort Margherita |
| Ceded | To Britain 1946; the governor was assassinated in 1949 |
| Legacy | Sarawak still runs its own immigration control |