The tour began with a discussion of Buddhism. Our guide told the story of the Buddha Siddhartha.
A holy man having predicted at birth that Siddhartha would be either a great ruler or a man of wisdom, his father (also a king) kept him behind closed doors most of his early life to seal his son's fate as a ruler. Overcome with curiosity of the outside world, at age 29 Siddhartha took a ride to see the beyond the walls of what had been his world. On this journey, he encountered four things that would change his life from then on: an old man, a sick man, a corpse and an ascetic. Having never witnessed suffering, old age, disease and death were a shock to him. Of equal impact was the ascetic's refusal of society and its trappings, and his focus on ridding himself of fear and suffering. Siddhartha returned to the palace, pondered what he'd seen, and ended up renouncing the life he had to embark upon a quest for enlightenment. As a Buddha, Siddhartha discouraged any worship of him, and upon his death requested that his image remain anonymous. 
In homage, nonetheless, people made imprints of his feet, or represented him as the lotus. Tidbit: Buddhas are said to have toes that are all the same in length. Discussions of headhunter tribes of Borneo, the story of Ganesh and why he has the head of an elephant, an exhibition on the Singapore river, the museum has quite a collection.
Most recently, they are running an exhibit on KiangXi the Manchu emperor of the Qing dynasty in China. KiangXi took the throne at age 8 and ruled for 60 years, the longest rule even still of any Chinese emperor. I don't know much about China's history, so for me, the exhibit was especially informative. KiangXi seems to have been a Renaissance man, in purest sense of the word. Involved in every aspect of his empire and far beyond, he encouraged dialogue and study of military training, arts, religion, science from all parts of the globe.
An open-minded human being and yet disciplined, he had a personal lust for life and knowledge ranging from archery to calligraphy. He helped to fuse ideas from Europe with Chinese tradition. The crown jewel of the exhibit, according to our guide, is a small vase from KiangXi's time period. What makes the piece so special is its blend of European and Chinese design on porcelain, along with its authenticity mark engraved on the bottom. Maybe five inches in height, the piece is so rare, most vases from this period damaged or broken if still in existence. The museum had to take out a huge insurance policy for this piece alone. The tropics don't lend such a favorable climate to the preservation of artifacts and antiques.
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