Brunei

Brunei was once the seat of a powerful maritime sultanate that, at its height in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, controlled much of the coast of Borneo and parts of the present-day Philippines. Islam arrived with the trade routes and became the state religion. European contact, and then the rise of the British-backed Brooke "White Rajahs" in neighbouring Sarawak, steadily shrank the sultanate to its present size: two separate parts, divided by the Sarawak district of Limbang.

Brunei became a British protectorate in 1888. The discovery of oil at Seria in 1929, and later of offshore oil and gas fields, transformed a poor territory into a wealthy one. Unlike its neighbours, Brunei chose not to join the Malaysian federation, a decision influenced by the small armed rebellion of December 1962, which was put down with British help.

Full independence came in 1984. The country is an absolute monarchy: the Sultan, Hassanal Bolkiah, has reigned since 1967 and is also prime minister and head of several ministries. The guiding state ideology is Melayu Islam Beraja — Malay Islamic Monarchy. From April 2014 the country began phasing in a sharia penal code alongside its English common-law system, starting with offences punishable by fines or imprisonment. The full code, which provides for punishments such as amputation and stoning, came into force in April 2019; in May that year the Sultan extended the country's existing moratorium on the death penalty to the sharia code.

Brunei is a conservative Muslim society, and Islam shapes public life: the call to prayer, Friday closures, modest dress, and a ban on the sale and public consumption of alcohol. Around a tenth of the population is ethnic Chinese, and smaller numbers are Indigenous Bornean peoples, some Christian or following older beliefs.

Respect for the Sultan and the royal family is woven through national life, from the scale of the mosques to the ceremony of the Sultan's birthday. Traditional Malay courtesy governs greetings and hospitality — using the right hand, removing shoes indoors, accepting refreshments when offered.

Oil wealth has funded a welfare state — free or heavily subsidised healthcare, education and housing — producing a comfortable, low-key society with little of the visible poverty or the frantic development of the region's boomtowns.

Most of the roughly 470,000 people live in and around the capital, Bandar Seri Begawan, and the oil towns of Seria and Kuala Belait to the west. Life is quiet and car-centred, organised around family, the mosque, government employment, and the shopping mall; there is no bar or club scene.

The public sector is the largest employer, and the state provides generously, but the economy's near-total reliance on oil and gas is the central long-term worry, and efforts to diversify have been slow. Many young Bruneians go on to university abroad as well as at home.

Kampong Ayer, the water village of stilt houses and boardwalks on the Brunei River, has been inhabited for centuries and still houses thousands of people within sight of the modern capital — a living link to the sultanate's riverine past.

Bruneian food closely resembles Malay cooking, with Indonesian and Chinese influence. Rice is the staple, eaten with grilled or curried fish and chicken, sambal chilli pastes, and vegetables. The national dish is ambuyat, a sticky, near-flavourless starch extracted from the sago palm, twirled onto a two-pronged bamboo fork and dipped in a tart sauce.

Everyday meals lean on nasi katok (a cheap plate of rice, fried chicken, and sambal), noodle soups, satay, and kelupis and lamban (glutinous rice rolls wrapped in leaves). Night markets and the food places of Gadong, the capital's main shopping district, are where you graze.

There is no alcohol, so meals are paired with sweet iced drinks, fresh juices, and tea. Malay cakes (kuih) in bright colours are sold everywhere, especially in the run-up to the evening meal during Ramadan.

Bandar Seri Begawan is compact and centres on two grand mosques: the older Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, with its golden dome and lagoon, and the larger Jame'Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque with its 29 domes. The Royal Regalia Museum displays the royal regalia, the Sultan's mementos and the country's constitutional history, and a water-taxi ride crosses to Kampong Ayer.

The real draw is the rainforest. Ulu Temburong National Park, in the eastern part of the country, protects primary forest reached by longboat up shallow rivers, with a canopy walkway 50 metres above the forest floor and grey gibbons in the treetops. It is part of the "Heart of Borneo" conservation agreement.

Elsewhere, the Empire hotel complex on the coast at Jerudong, built for Prince Jefri Bolkiah in the 1990s and opened in 2000, is a monument to oil money, and Tasek Merimbun in Tutong district — the largest natural lake in the country, at the heart of an ASEAN heritage park — offers quieter wildlife walks. Brunei's appeal is calm and green rather than lively.