8 Malaysian statues that made us ask “……Kenapa?😨”

While scrolling through Facebook on the can earlier today, this masterpiece of a statue popped up on our feed:

We had to know more about the statue’s story. Who made this thing, and why does it look like it just came back from the Vietnam War? After scouring the internet (Google) for two hours or so, all we could find out about this statue was that it’s somewhere in Serian, Sarawak.

While that is quite unfortunate, we did find a couple of other of statues that’ll unwrap your ketupat. For instance, there’s this other statue in Serian…

 

1. A durian that turned from silver to gold

First put up in 2020 at Serian Durian Piazza, the durian statue was a symbol of the popularity of Serian’s durians. It supposed to be made out of aluminum, but its creator, Lee Chin Teck, decided to go with concrete and silver paint in the end.

The thorny titan was repainted gold in 2023, and was eventually torn down to make way for the Pan Borneo Highway.

 

2. A giant cashew apple in Kelantan

Fun fact: ‘Ketereh’ is the Kelantanese dialect word for the cashew fruit, and the statue sits in Kota Bharu, Kelantan as a mark of the cashew farming industry in Kelantan but we’re not entirely sure if it’s still around today.

 

3. A toothless tiger… literally

It seems like Serian has no shortage of weird statues – this tiger statue is apparently a stone’s throw away from the kerbau we mentioned in the intro, and similarly to the kerbau, no one knows why it was erected in Serian. Despite that, the statue was well-loved by the locals (despite how goofy it looked) – so much so that they nicknamed the row of shops next to it ‘Entangan Limo’. Sadly, it was also demolished in favour of the Pan Borneo Highway.

 

4. Michael Jackson in Abraham Lincoln’s pose

The second greatest M.J. of all time behind Michael Jordan (don’t @ us) was immortalized in the form of a fiberglass statue at the Hard Rock Hotel Penang. In all honesty, the statue does look quite majestic, but the whole ‘sitting in a throne’ thing reminds us too much of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC:

 

5. A cat taking another cat hostage

This Lover Cats statue can be found in the Malaysia-China Friendship Park in Kuching, but… the cat in the back looks less like a lover and more like a psychopath? If you make eye contact with it, confirm muncul beside your bed at night.

 

6. An orangutan on a toilet

We thought Kuching only has weird cat statues, and for that, we apologize. You can find this bad boy meditating on his pooper at the 5th mile of Jalan Penrissen, and apparently, he belongs to T.R. Stone Enterprises – a company that specializes in ledge stone, pebble stones, toilet bowls, sanitary ware and kitchen accessories.

 

7. A crocodile pointing to a crocodile farm

Now, we’re headed far, far northeast of Kuching to Sandakan, where this crocodile statue can be found standing on its hind legs and pointing in the direction of the Sandakan Crocodile Farm. We don’t know what it’s like inside the farm today, but back in 2014, the farm was embroiled in controversy as critics sounded the alarm on the animals living in terrible conditions.

 

8. A piece of ginger beside a parang

Ginger is such a massive source of income for the folk at Kampung Tikolod, Sabah, that they put up a huge ginger statue to pay respects to the veg. We’re guessing the parang is there to spice up the spice.

Do y’all know of any other weirdass statues in Malaysia that we missed? Let us know!