Tutong or officially known as Tutong Town ( ms, Pekan Tutong) is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

Mukim Pekan Tutong Mukim Pekan Tutong is a mukim in Tutong District, Brunei. The population was 10,551 in 2016. It encompasses Pekan Tutong, the district's sole town and administrative centre. Geography The mukim is located in the north-west of Tutong District ...

Tutong District Tutong District (; Jawi: دائيره توتوڠ) or simply Tutong is one of the four districts of Brunei. It has an area of ; the population was 48,313 in 2016. The administrative town is Pekan Tutong. It is home to Tasek Merimbun, the count ...

Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely sur ...

. It is located about from the country's

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

Bandar Seri Begawan Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB; Jawi: بندر سري بڬاوان; ) is the capital city of Brunei. It is officially a municipal area () with an area of and an estimated population of 100,700 as of 2007. It is part of Brunei-Muara District, the sm ...

Governance

It is officially a

Municipal Board A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

area and covers . The members consist of government officers, the

penghulu Penghulu ( Jawi: ; also Pěnghulu) is the headman or chief of a region in traditional societies on the Malay archipelago in Maritime Southeast Asia. The term is currently used in Brunei and Malaysia as the community leader of the smaller country ...

, and appointed representatives from the local residents, organisations and business community. The main responsibility, through the Tutong Municipal Department, is collecting revenue from taxation of building, commercial licence fees and rental of commercial lots in commercial centres owned by the Department. The area under the municipality is about and comprises parts of Petani and Bukit Bendera. Petani and Bukit Bendera are village-level subdivisions, the third and lowest administrative divisions in the country, and administered under Tutong District Office, another department in the

Ministry of Home Affairs An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministry ...

. Petani and Bukit Bendera constitute parts of

Pekan Tutong Tutong or officially known as Tutong Town ( ms, Pekan Tutong) is a municipality town in Mukim Pekan Tutong Tutong District, Brunei. It is located about from the country's capital Bandar Seri Begawan. Governance It is officially a Municipa ...

subdistrict.

History

Japanese road block on the Brunei-Tutong road

In 1900, the town only consisted of four or five simple houses with several small shops. The earliest governmental building was constructed in 1910, followed by a school being opened in 1918.

Oil exploration Hydrocarbon exploration (or oil and gas exploration) is the search by petroleum geologists and geophysicists for deposits of hydrocarbons, particularly petroleum and natural gas, in the Earth using petroleum geology. Exploration methods Vis ...

within the district began in 1913, and by 1923,

Brunei Shell Petroleum Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New Yo ...

(BSP) already had 8 exploratory holes drilled. The Brunei-Tutong road was officially opened in 1927. The town was first incorporated in 1929 as a Sanitary Board area and had the responsibility of monitoring cleanliness and development in the town. On 16 December 1941, the first landing by the

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

Kawaguchi Detachment The Kawaguchi Detachment was an Imperial Japanese Army formation that existed during World War II. Under the command of Major General Kiyotake Kawaguchi, the detachment consisted of the 35th Infantry Brigade and the 124th Infantry Regiment. The deta ...

Seria Seria () is a town in Belait District, Brunei, about west from the country's capital Bandar Seri Begawan. The total population was 3,625 in 2016. It was where oil was first struck in Brunei in 1929 and has since become a centre for the countr ...

as part of the Battle of Borneo during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Occupation of Brunei came to an end when the

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

9th Division came ashore at Muara during

Operation Oboe Six The Battle of North Borneo took place during the Second World War between Allied and Japanese forces. Part of the wider Borneo campaign of the Pacific War, it was fought between 10 June and 15 August 1945 in North Borneo (later known as Sabah) ...

on 10 June 1945. The Tutong Bridge was finally completed in 1959, thus

ferries A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water tax ...

are not required to carry passengers to cross the

Tutong River The Tutong River ( ms, Sungai Tutong) is a river in Tutong District, Brunei. It is the second longest of the four main rivers in the country. Sites Tutong Town is one of the largest human settlements in the district in which the river passe ...

. During the 1962 Brunei revolt, rebels of the TKNU managed to gain control of the town. A convoy of

Land Rovers Land Rover is a British brand of predominantly four-wheel drive, off-road capable vehicles, owned by multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), since 2008 a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors. JLR currently builds Land Rovers ...

with soldiers from the 1/2nd Battalion

Royal Gurkha Rifles The Royal Gurkha Rifles (RGR) is a rifle regiment of the British Army, forming part of the Brigade of Gurkhas. Unlike other regiments in the British Army, RGR soldiers are recruited from Nepal, which is neither a dependent territory of the Unite ...

were ambushed as they passed through the town while heading to

. Gunfires were exchanged from the town's police station which led to several

Gurkhas The Gurkhas or Gorkhas (), with endonym Gorkhali ), are soldiers native to the Indian Subcontinent, chiefly residing within Nepal and some parts of Northeast India. The Gurkha units are composed of Nepalis and Indian Gorkhas and are recru ...

being injured. Since 1970, the Board has become known as Tutong Municipal Board. In 1973, the Sungai Tutong Water Supply Scheme got rid of water defects to

. On December 3, 2012, the National Isolation Centre (NIC) was officially opened in town. During the

COVID-19 pandemic in Brunei The COVID-19 pandemic in Brunei is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The virus spread to Brunei on 9 March 2020, when its first case was confirmed ...

, the NIC has reached full capacity within a day on August 14, 2021.

Facilities

Education

* Muda Hashim Primary School (Public) * Chung Hwa Tutong School (Private) * Taman Seri Warisan Emas

Pertama Tutong School (Private) *

Muda Hashim Secondary School Muda Hashim Secondary School (, abbreviated as ''SMMHT'') is a government boys' secondary school in Tutong, the town of Tutong District in Brunei. The school provides five years of general secondary education leading up to O Level qualification. ...

(Public) *

Sufri Bolkiah Secondary School Sufri Bolkiah Secondary School (, abbreviated as ') is a girls' government secondary school in Tutong, Brunei. The school provides secondary education from Year 7 to Year 11 that leads to O Level and IGCSE qualification. Etymology Sufri Bolk ...

(Public) * Ma'had Islam Brunei (Public) There is no sixth form centre in Tutong town. However, sixth form education is at

Tutong Sixth Form Centre Tutong Sixth Form Centre (; Malay, abbreviated; ') is a sixth form centre in Tutong District, Brunei. It first opened its doors in 2012, and since then, accepts mainly secondary school leavers from the district. Background The school campus is ...

, which serves the whole of Tutong District.

Tourist attractions

* Tutong Market is a

wet market A wet market (also called a public market or a traditional market) is a marketplace selling fresh foods such as meat, fish, produce and other consumption-oriented perishable goods in a non-supermarket setting, as distinguished from " dry market ...

. It is located outside of the municipal area, that is in Serambangun, but it is managed by the Municipal Department. *

Hassanal Bolkiah Mosque Hassanal Bolkiah Mosque () is a mosque in Tutong, the town of Tutong District in Brunei. The mosque was opened in 1966; it can accommodate 1,000 worshippers at one time. History The construction of the mosque officially began on 17 April 19 ...

is the sole mosque serving the

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

residents of Tutong, as well as a few surrounding villages, namely Panchor Dulit, Panchor Papan and Serambangun. * Mercu Tanda Kenangan (also known as The Keris Monument) is a

monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, his ...

to commemorate the

Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Hassanal Bolkiah ibni Omar Ali Saifuddien III ( Jawi: ; born 15 July 1946) is the 29th and current Sultan and Yang di-Pertuan of Brunei since 1967 and the Prime Minister of Brunei since independence from the United Kingdom in 1984. He is one ...

's 58^th birthday in 2004. * Warisan Emas is a monument to commemorate the Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah's 60th birthday in 2006. * Istana Pantai is a

palace A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence, or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome which ...

built by

Omar Ali Saifuddien III Sultan Sir Omar Ali Saifuddien Sa'adul Khairi Waddien ( Jawi: ; 23 September 1914 – 7 September 1986) was the 28th Sultan of Brunei, reigning from 4 June 1950 until his abdication from the throne on 5 October 1967. He was also Brunei's fir ...

in the 1950s.

Recreation and sports

* Tutong Sports Complex offers facilities for conducting various types of sports, including football, athletics, swimming, tennis, badminton and basketball.

References

{{Authority control Tutong District Tutong Municipalities in Brunei