‘Rumah Tradisional Bugis’ – Sultan Alam Shah Museum (2)

Nestled to one corner of the grounds of the Sultan Alam Shah Museum is a replica of a traditional Bugis house.

The Bugis of the Nusantara trace their lineages to their ancestors who originated from South Sulawesi. In addition to being fierce and brave warriors, they are also able and skilled seafarers who were involved, by invitation most times, in power and territorial disputes within the Nusantara, most notably with the Portuguese and the Dutch.

For that sense of fierce independence, the Bugis who traversed the body of water within the Nusantara has often been wrongly adjudged to be ‘Criminals of the High Seas’ aka pirates, when in reality they are no different from the many sea-faring peoples of the Nusantara eg the Bajau, the Suluks, to name but a few.

In Malaysia, the Bugis has long established their presence, even before the coming to these shores of the Upu Berlima (or the 5 Daengs from the Bugis royal house of Daeng Rilaka) – the brothers Daeng Perani, Daeng Merewah, Daeng Celak, Daeng Menambun and Daeng Kemasi.

In the history of the Nusantara, Daeng Rilaka’s Upu Berlima played a significant role as Tun Perak’s Lima Saudara of Melaka (Tun Tuah, Tun Jebat, Tun Kasturi, Tun Lekir and Tun Lekiu), as well as Pandu Dewanata’s Pandawa Lima (Yudistira, Bima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sadewa.