Kedah Paddy Museum

Kedah Rice Museum (30 April, 2005)


Kedah Paddy Museum (GPS: 6.19107, 100.32648), also known as Muzium Padi or National Rice Museum, is a specialty museum in Alor Setar, Kedah. The only museum of its kind in Malaysia, it celebrates Kedah's rice-growing heritage. The museum is located at the foot of Gunung Keriang just north of Alor Setar.

The Rice Museum was built on land belonging to MADA (Malaysian Agricultural Development Authority) at a cost of RM24.7 million. The museum building resembles bushels of harvested paddy stalks. Throughout the Rice Museum, the rice motif is repeated everywhere, on the banisters, and even on the fence and gate outside.

Entrance to the Rice Museum.

Contact

Muzium Padi Kedah
06570 Alor Setar, Kedah
Phone: +60-4-7351315

Interior of the Rice Museum (30 April, 2005)

Rice Museum Travelogue (30 April, 2005)

I discovered the Rice Museum when I was sights in Kedah. I found it almost by chance when I saw the Rice Museum signboard by the roadside, and decided to turn in for a look, and was surprised to find this huge museum in the middle of nowhere. "Nowhere" here refers to almost 100,000 hectares of paddy fields. This is after all the Rice Bowl State of Malaysia.

The Rice Museum consists of two main levels and a top portion accessible by a spiral staircase. As you tour it, you are given a thorough explanation of anything involved with rice. Some are simply trivia, like songs dedicated to rice - this kind of reminded me of the Cat Museum in Kuching.

Information on rice growing in the country (30 April, 2005)


There are several galleries with panoramic murals. These are the result of painstaking work by 60 artists from North Korea. My favourite gallery is 59 steps above, accessible via a spiral staircase. What you find here is a massive circular mural measuring 103 metres in circumference, and 8 metres in height. You enter this gallery from the middle, and immediately the scene of the surrounding Gunung Keriang region unfolds around you. As you stand there admiring the mural, you are taken in by the sheer size of the murals.

Panoramic mural of the paddy fields of Kedah (30 April, 2005)


Indeed you cannot be sure where the ground is, and where the mural begins. Another thing, as you view the mural, you feel that the scenery was moving. Soon you realised that you are standing on a revolving platform, and by simply being still, you will have the scenery rotate around you. It was truly a mermerizing experience.

The Rice Museum is open daily from 10am to 6pm. On Fridays it observes a 12.30-2.30pm recess. Admission is RM3 for adults and RM1 for children. This museum can be one of the stops in an AsiaExplorers trip through Kedah.

View up the spiral staircase at the Rice Museum (30 April, 2005)


Rice motif on the railings at Rice Museum (30 April, 2005)

Getting there

From Alor Setar, take Lebuhraya Darul Aman (Route 1). It continues to Jalan Anak Bukit. From Jalan Anak Bukit, take a left turn to Route K2. You will see Gunung Keriang, the huge limestone outcrop, in front of you. The museum is located at the far side of the mount. Take another left turn to K351, followed by a slip road (there's a signboard pointing to the museum) that leads you to the museum.

The Kedah Paddy Museum is on the map of Alor Setar

Tim & Chooi Yoke at the Rice Museum (30 April, 2005)

Back to Discover Kedah mainpage; list of Museums in Kedah and Museums in Malaysia

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Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.