STRUCTURE OF NEGERI SEMBILAN HOUSE

Since this building was an actual palace, surely it belonged to a ruler of the state and it was Negri Sembilan's fifth Yang Dipertuan Besar named Yamtuan Ulin, who was also known as Yamtuan Imam who built the palace. He ruled the state since 1861 to 1869. Upon completion of the building, he presented it to his daughter Tunku Chindai, perhaps as a wedding gift when she married Tengku Muda Chik. The palace was later passed on to their daughter, Tunku Halijah, the second wife to Yamtuan Muhammad (7th Yang Dipertuan Besar). 

Years after Tunku Halijah died in 1921, the palace was mostly abandoned and weather did its best as a decaying agent. Only during the reign of the 8th Yamtuan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, the old palace was dismantled and relocated to Seremban and turned into a mini museum. Later, it has been moved again to its current site, next to the State Museum where I was standing in the middle of its front yard.

Despite the simplicity of the building, I noticed there are plenty of carved panels used in many parts of the palace. The timber used to construct it also seemed to be from an expensive kind of hard wood. They look heavy too. I'm not sure what type of roof the original palace was equipped with but the current one is using the nipah leaves. What makes the palace even more unique is the fact that it was constructed without using any nails. Although this may not be the first building which employed this nail-less method that I've known, it is still very rare indeed. And this building method makes the dismantling and relocation works easier when the palace was shifted from Kuala Pilah to Seremban.

Since I wanted to confirm on wifey's claim that we could have our lunch inside the palace, I climbed up the stairs into the building. The front area of the palace is called Serambi (veranda) and it consists of the entire width of the palace. The veranda could be divided into two parts - Pangkal Serambi and Hujung Serambi. The former is also known as Ruang Adat, where usually leaders of local customs (Undang, Lembaga, and Buapak) had their meetings. This small area was also used for royal engagement.

Meanwhile, Hujung Serambi is located on the opposite end of the veranda. Known as Ruang Agama, this little space was used by religious teachers and individuals to conduct Islamic rituals including tahlil, yassin recital, doa selamat, and marriage solemnization.