not only will you be allowed to visit the beautiful, spacious gardens within the palace grounds, but you will even have the chance to step into the magnificent, luxurious hall which is the official residence of His Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah, Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam. However, the memories imprinted are not confined only to the beauty of the palace’s interior decorations or the delicious, luxurious food served. On the contrary, the memory that is least likely to be forgotten is the opportunity to meet face to face and to bring forth feelings of gratitude and joy at being able to meet His Majesty and other members of the Royal Family at closer quarters. The tradition of ‘open house’ is practised in the State of Brunei Darussalam as well as in the neighbouring country, Malaysia. It is a tradition of receiving and being cordial with all levels of society, usually when welcoming some celebration, without requiring any official invitation. What distinguishes and is unique about the Istana Nurul Iman Open House and the Curds and Sweet Distribution Session is that these sessions are the only open house in the world organised by a country’s top leader at the official residence for three consecutive days, welcoming arrivals from all levels of society. Based on the open house held previously, it is estimated that His Majesty and the members of the Royal Family also stood for a period of five hours to exchange greetings and be cordial with everyone present.
It is estimated that His Majesty together with members of the Royal Family have greeted and met more than 100,000 visitors while this celebration was under way!
Source: MUHIBAH, the Royal Brunei Airlines in-flight magazine, 2014 Jul-Aug, pages 76-76. Printed in Bahasa Melayu and translated into English for this site; text recovered from the scanned page by OCR and lightly corrected.
