MUSCOVITES can be described as very excited when the Russian State Museum of Oriental Art, for the first time in its centennial history, organised the exhibition of Malay traditional dress that ran for a month.
Many visitors who came to the exhibition that started from Sept 1 to Oct 1 enjoyed looking and learning about the many items showcased from the museum's collection.
These include the baju Melayu with kain sampin made of songket, baju kebaya, various handkerchiefs and headgear, including the tudung and tengkolok, silk scarfs, and batik Terengganu, Kelantan and Sabah that mesmerised the visitors, young and old.
The visitors were mainly focused on the three dresses of Princess Nazatul Shima, which were donated to the museum through the good service of Dr Tatiana Denisova, and a tengkolok and songket presented by Malaysian writer Alias Muda, who wanted to multiply the Malaysian collection in Russia.
"Extraordinary" is the comment from Moscow State University linguist Dr Svetlana Chlenova, obviously enthralled by the various exhibits on show.
Meanwhile, the famous art researcher, Galina Sorokina, is so excited about the exhibition that she expressed her interest to write a book on Malay heritage, including traditional clothing. That is how much the famous Russian Museum exhibition attracted the attention of the people of Moscow to the traditional culture of Malaysia.
And this is not the end of the story. Recently, the famous Malaysian fashion designer, Akma Suriati Awang, who was involved in making costumes for international films by 20th Century Fox, such as Entrapment, Anna and The King and worked on the Lion King play in the Costume Department of Hafen Theatre in Hamburg, Germany, in 2005, donated some Malay costumes designed by her to the Russian Museum as well.
Thus, numerous fans of Oriental culture in Russia's capital have been given a chance now to enjoy the beauty of Malay dresses created by this famous fashion designer. The Russian State Museum of Oriental Art in Moscow is one of the largest educational cultural institutions of the Russian Federation.
The museum was established in 1918 and stores exhibits from 100 countries, including from Southeast Asia.
The building was built in the style of classicism by the Italian architect Zhilyardi.
For more than 100 years of its history, the museum has been known by several names, including "Museum of Asian Art" (1918- 1925), the National Museum of Oriental Culture (1925-1962), the National Museum of the Oriental Nations (1962-1992), and its current name — since 1992. Nowadays this particular museum has permanent art exhibitions from China, Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, Central Asia and Kazakhstan, the Caucasus, Tibet, Buryatia, Mongolia, India and Iran. It also has paintings by Nikolai and Svyatoslav Rerikh (all more than 160,000 art pieces).
It also regularly organises temporal exhibitions like this latest on Malay traditional dress, which had a big draw among the people here.
Going back to the batik exhibition, Professor Vilen Sikorsky, who has visited Malaysia twice, saw it as a bridge of friendship between the two countries, and hoped that cultural exchange between Russia and Malaysia through such events would be even more vibrant.
Perhaps, the most notable opinion came from a media representative, local journalist Tatiana Firsov, who saw Malaysian batik dresses for the first time. She expressed admiration for the many patterns and colours, as well as the skills of Malaysian batik makers, but felt a little disappointed that such products could not be bought in Russia.
Given the positive vibes and reactions, over to you Malaysia and your batik business operators.
Perhaps, Russia can be a new batik market or destination.
The author, who is writing from Russia, is a former lecturer at Universiti Malaya