The word Raja in South-East Asia means a king and believe it or not, till the year 1946, there was a White Raja ruling the kingdom of Sarawak, now part of Malaysia.

The way, the founder of the dynasty James Brooke became the ruler of this large state (50,000  square miles in area — larger than that of Portugal) is interesting.

The story begins in 1839, when James Brooke (1803–1868), a young soldier of fortune sailed his schooner to the South China sea.

An English adventurer in the service of the East India Company, at the age of 21, Jamie Brooke had been wounded in battles in India, mutilated and doomed to a childless future. Unable to marry, he took to the sea which he said “wants nothing but a gallant heart from her lover”.

He reached Sarawak and  quelled a rebellion between native tribes to overthrow the ruler of the day, Rajah Muda  Hassim. As the ruler had no heirs, on his death he gifted Sarawak to James and on Sept  24, 1841, James Brooke became Raja of Sarawak. 50,000 square miles of viciously virginal jungle in north-west Borneo.

But this proved lucky for the people of Sarawak, as Brooke proved to be a progressive king for his days. He introduced a simplified British legal system, which included persuading the bloodthirsty tribes from cutting each others heads off as trophies. To this day, the rafters of longhouses throughout Sarawak are decorated with hanging skulls from the past. Eventually there were three White Rajahs:

Sir James Brooke (1841–1868), Charles Johnson Brooke (1868–1917), Sir Charles Vyner Brooke (1917–1946). James Brooke, the first White Rajah, received a sizable chunk of land from the nearby Brunei. And throughout the first two Brookes’ rule, Sarawak’s size increased tremendously, as more territory was leased or annexed from Brunei.

At 65, James died a bachelor and was succeeded by his nephew Charles. Charles Johnson Brooke continued the work his uncle had started, suppressing piracy, slavery, and head-hunting, while encouraging trade and development and expanding his borders as the opportunity arose. In 1891, he established the Sarawak Museum, the first museum in Borneo. By the time of his death, Britain had granted Sarawak protectorate status, a railway, and oil had been discovered.

When his father died at 85 in 1917, Charles Vyner Brooke succeeded him and brought  Sarawak into the modern world. Handsome, witty and Cambridge-educated, Vyner issued his own stamps, flew his own flag, maintained his own army and police force. 

Then Japan invaded Sarawak in 1941. Rajah Vyner Brooke was visiting Australia during the time of invasion and was unable to return to Sarawak until its liberation in 1945, despite his attempts to launch commando raids to fight the Japanese in the jungle.

A government in exile was formed, although it proved ineffectual due to the lack of contact with his subjects and Sarawak, along with the rest of Borneo, was liberated by the Australian Army in 1945. Unable to restore it financially without external support, Vyner made a heartbreaking decision, ceded Sarawak to the British Colonial Office for a sizeable pension for him and his three daughters.

Charles’s nephew, Anthony Brooke initially opposed cession to the Crown along with a majority of the native members of the Council Negri, or Parliament.

Sarawak continued to be part of the British Empire in the East, till 1963, when with the formation of Malaysia, it become a part of the new nation. Vyner died in 1963.

The period of Brooke rule is generally looked upon favourably in Sarawak, although successive post-federation Malaysian governments have attempted to downplay and to a certain extent, denounce the Brooke Raj. However, modern Sarawak still boasts many businesses and attractions which capitalise upon the era of the White Rajahs.