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 ...

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 o ...

in Mukim Pekan Tutong Tutong District,

Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, 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 surrounded by th ...

. 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 fo ...

Bandar Seri Begawan.

Governance

It is officially a Municipal Board area and covers . The members consist of government officers, the penghulu of Mukim Pekan Tutong, 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 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 within the district began in 1913, and by 1923, Brunei Shell Petroleum (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

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 det ...

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 count ...

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Occupation of Brunei came to an end when the Australian 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 are not required to carry passengers to cross the Tutong River. 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 i ...

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 Uni ...

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 r ...

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 Bandar Seri Begawan. 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 (Public) * Sufri Bolkiah Secondary School (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, which serves the whole of Tutong District.

Tourist attractions

* Tutong Market is a wet market. It is located outside of the municipal area, that is in Serambangun, but it is managed by the Municipal Department. * Hassanal Bolkiah Mosque 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, hist ...

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 built by Omar Ali Saifuddien III 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