Pahang Heritage Festival Delights Crowd With Crafts And Rich Cultural Legacy

PEKAN, Sept 8 (Bernama) -- The Pahang Heritage Festival 2025, which concluded yesterday, was not merely a cultural showcase but also served as a platform to highlight the legacy of arts, culture and heritage, ensuring that they remain alive in the hearts of the people, especially the younger generation.

Organised by Yayasan Tenun Pahang Diraja, the seven-day festival, which began on Sept 1 at the Tunku Azizah Royal Craft Village in Pulau Keladi, here, brought visitors closer to heritage arts not only from Pahang but also from across the country, including Sarawak.

The Tengku Ampuan of Pahang, Tunku Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah, expressed delight at the large turnout at the inaugural festival, with nearly 100,000 visitors from within the country and abroad.

Her Royal Highness, who is also the founder and chairperson of Yayasan Tenun Pahang Diraja, extended appreciation to all parties who contributed to the festival’s success, including the Pahang Museum and the Malaysian Handicraft Development Corporation (Kraftangan Malaysia).

“When we first planned this festival, we did not know what kind of response to expect. Our greatest fear was that nobody would come. Alhamdulillah, by the fifth day, I was told we had nearly 70,000 visitors,” she told reporters yesterday.

Tunku Azizah said the festival was initially planned as a biennial event but could be held annually due to the overwhelming response.

The event, which also featured participation from Türkiye and three ASEAN countries, Laos, Indonesia and Singapore, generated RM1 million in sales from craft products and traditional food.

Her Royal Highness said the nation’s artistic heritage must always be preserved, highlighted and developed for future generations, with various initiatives undertaken through Yayasan Warisan Tunku Azizah and Yayasan Tenun Pahang Diraja.

“This is not for me, but for the people of Pahang to appreciate that our heritage has a wealth of crafts, from weaving and carving to food, dance, and music. All of these must be preserved, or they will simply fade away,” she said.

Tunku Azizah also expressed appreciation to the Sultan of Pahang, Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah, for his continuous support in ensuring that the country’s heritage and traditional crafts are preserved and elevated on the international stage.

The festival also offered visitors the opportunity to take part in various craft workshops, including block batik, hand-drawn batik, clay batik, linut batik, and tie-dye fabric colouring, as well as woodcarving, metalwork, mengkuang weaving, telepuk (gold leaf craft), gerus, kelingkam, and ceramics.

There were also silk thread weaving from Laos, sirma embroidery (Türkiye), natural dyeing (Indonesia), and pineapple fibre and kenaf crafts from Singapore.

The festival was made more special with a cooking demonstration by Tunku Azizah and a cooking competition for school students.

-- BERNAMA