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1[[quoteright:330:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/brunei-map_174.gif]]
2Brunei, officially known as '''Brunei Darussalam''' (Malay: ''Negara Brunei Darussalam''; Jawi: ''نڬارا بروني دارالسلام'', lit. 'Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace'), is a small island monarchy in Southeast Asia, bordered on all sides by UsefulNotes/{{Malaysia}}.
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4The country is located at the northern tip of Borneo, the world's third largest island, sharing it with Malaysia and UsefulNotes/{{Indonesia}}. Its territory is split into a larger "mainland" in the west, which contains the capital, Bandar Seri Begawan, and 97.5% of the population, and a smaller exclave called Temburong in the east. Until the Sultan Haji Omar Ali Saifuddien Bridge was completed in 2020, Bruneians had to cross through Malaysia to reach Temburong from the mainland and vice versa, because of a lack of land connection between the two. The population is about 460,000, meaning it is the least populous country in Southeast Asia and second least populous in Asia. Malays form a majority of the population, with Chinese making up the rest. Malay, both written in Latin and Jawi (Arabic) scripts, is the sole official language.
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6The Sultanate once ruled over most of Borneo (the island's name of Borneo may have come from Brunei) during the 14th to 16th century, and for a while, also held Southern UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}. The coming of the Europeans ([[UsefulNotes/{{Spain}} Spanish]], [[UsefulNotes/{{Portugal}} Portuguese]], [[UsefulNotes/TheNetherlands Dutch]]) ended its regional hegemony, although the Sultanate survived. A war was fought between Brunei and the Spanish forces in 1578 known as the Castille War. There was also a brief civil war in Brunei from 1660 to 1673, due to a disagreement between the Crown Prince and one noble over a ''cockfight''. It also lost territory to the White Rajahs of Sarawak, had to also surrender to Britain Sabah (a fact disputed by the Philippine government as it claimed that Brunei leased Sabah to the Sultanate of Sulu, now a part of the Philippines) and had to accept British protection in 1884.
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8Brunei was occupied by UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and like other Southeast Asian countries, suffered under Japanese rule. It was liberated in 1945 and put back under British rule. During the '60s upheavals in the Malay archipelago (Indonesia and Malaysia were at war, because the former couldn't accept the latter's independence), Brunei, which was at the time a part of British Malaya, experienced a rebellion in the country's jungle, abetted allegedly by Indonesia. Despite its status as a British-protected Malay monarchy making it at home with Malaysia, the Sultan of Brunei at the time, Omar Ali Saifuddien III, decided not to join the federation, partly because of the Brunei Revolt, and also partly motivated by the desire that the natural gas and oil revenues should be the sultan's and his country's, not Malaysia's. As a result, Brunei remained under British control until 1984, making it the last British colony to achieve independence.[[note]]UsefulNotes/HongKong doesn't count, as it was transferred to [[UsefulNotes/{{China}} another country]]. If you want to get super technical, UsefulNotes/{{Australia}} only gained full independence from the UK in 1986, with the passing of the Australia Act, which completely forbade the UK from legislating for Australia. However, the country had been ''de facto'' independent since 1942, and had achieved self-dominion even earlier, in 1901.[[/note]] Since the revolt, the country has been under martial law indefinitely.
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10The current sultan is Omar Ali Saifuddien III's eldest son, Hassanal Bolkiah, who has been ruling the country since his father's abdication in 1967. The country is an absolute monarchy, meaning Sultan Hassanal has authority over the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. It is described as an oil sheikhdom which is not Arab. It has an ample amount of oil and natural gas reserves, which the government funds to its health and education services. The Bruneian economy is very strong due to said massive oil reserves, and they make currency matters simple by pegging it 1:1 to the UsefulNotes/{{Singapore}}an dollar. Measured by GDP per capita, Brunei is the fifth richest country in Asia, and the second richest in Southeast Asia, after Singapore.
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12Brunei shares the same Malay culture as neighboring Malaysia and Indonesia, but is more conservative; ''sharia'' (Islamic laws) is enforced liberally in both public and private matters (unless you're non-Muslim), whereas Malaysia only takes them in private matters, while Indonesia goes even further and allows you to take secular laws if you want. A common joke among business travelers there is that there is only ''one'' hotel in the entire country that serves alcohol. Due to this, sometimes Malaysian culture mock the Bruneians in their media, with the Indonesians occasionally doing the same. The Bruneians in turn mock the Malaysians and Indonesians for their lack of supposed piety and being supposedly poorer than them.
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14Media in Brunei is state-controlled to maintain the traditional Islamic principles. In spite of this, most of them still have to be imported from the outside; one thing that might confound foreigners is the fact that the country has produced exactly ''three'' domestic films, one of which was released back in the 1960s. Yes, it's that small.
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16There is a Brunei Sultan's tomb, Tomb of the King of Boni, located at Nanjing, China.
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18!!Famous Bruneians:
19* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Chun Wu Chun]], member of Taiwanese boy band Fahrenheit.
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21!!Brunei in fiction:
22* According to the opening news report scenes of the intro video of ''VideoGame/{{Homefront}}'', Brunei is part of the Greater Korean Republic. It is unknown if the country was annexed by force or willingly joined the Reunified Korean nation.
23* In ''Literature/NineteenEightyThreeDoomsday'', the country became independent earlier following the UK's collapse during the nuclear war. The country took advantage of the instability across Malaysia and quickly invaded the rest of Borneo for themselves. Years later, Brunei encounter Philippine forces in Sabah which it called an "violation of sovereignty." Both countries then signed a treaty that Sabah would be an autonomous Philippine territory, though dispute continues to this day.
24* The protagonists of Creator/JinYong's ''Sword Stained with Royal Blood'' would end up retiring to one of the nearby island.
25* The Sultan of Brunei is offhandedly mentioned as one of the examples of people who got successful without working hard by Sheldon in ''[[Recap/TheBigBangTheoryS12E12ThePropagationProposition The Big Bang Theory]]''.
26* Hardison was preoccupied with extracting two people from Brunei in ''[[Recap/LeverageRedemptionS1E5TheParanormalHacktivityJob Leverage: Redemption]]'' Halloween episode.
27* Elka compared her threeway relationship with Roy and Mamie Sue to the Sultan's scandalous supermodels relations in ''Series/HotInCleveland'' season five.
28* The Hood's gang targeted Sultan's cousin (unusually dressed in Arabic style) to get to the Sultan's secret stash in ''[[ComicBook/DarkReign Dark Reign: The Hood]]''.
29* The twin exorcists in ''The Exorcist's 2nd Meter'' are Brunei royalties (realistically though they would be Malays).
30* Robot president greeted the Sultan in a UN conference in [[WesternAnimation/InsideJob2021 Inside Job]].
31* ''Edge of the World'' chronicles the life of Rajah James Brooke, who was granted governorship of Brunei's Sarawak territory by the Sultan for helping pacified the unrest over there.
32----
33[[AC:The Bruneian Flag]]
34[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/flag_of_brunei.png]]
35->The yellow field stands for the Sultan (yellow is also a royal color across Southeast Asia), while the white and black diagonal stripes symbolize the chief ministers of Brunei. At the center is the all-red national emblem.
36----
37[[AC:Emblem of Brunei]]
38[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/emblem_of_brunei.png]]
39->The national emblem consists of the crescent of Islam (with a motto which reads "Negara Brunei Darussalam [State of Brunei, Abode of Peace]" in Arabic), the parasol of the monarchy, and a pair of upturned hands signifying the government's benevolence; below is a ribbon which reads "Always in service with God's guidance", also in Arabic.
40----
41[[AC:Bruneian national anthem]]
42
43->Ya Allah lanjutkanlah Usia
44->Kebawah Duli Yang Maha Mulia
45->Adil berdaulat menaungi nusa
46->Memimpin rakyat kekal bahagia
47->Hidup sentosa Negara dan Sultan
48->Ilahi selamatkan Brunei Darussalam
49
50--
51
52->يا الله لنجوتكنله اوسيا
53->كباوه دولي يڠ مها مليا
54->عاديل بردولت منأوڠي نوسا
55->مميمڤين رعية ککل بهاڬيا
56->هيدوڤ سنتوسا نڬارا دان سلطن
57->الهي سلامتكن بروني دارالسلام
58
59--
60
61->O Allah, we plead and cry to Thee,
62->Our Sultan and King, him a long life lease,
63->Help him rule thy lands, disposition wise,
64->Gates of glory and joy he shall boldly prise,
65->Peace be on our land, peace be on our Sultan,
66->God save Brunei, our beloved abode of peace.
67----
68[[AC:Government]]
69* Unitary Islamic absolute monarchy
70** Sultan, Yang di-Pertuan and Prime Minister: Hassanal Bolkiah
71** Crown Prince and Senior Minister: Al-Muhtadee Billah
72----
73[[AC:Miscellaneous]]
74* '''Capital and largest city:''' Bandar Seri Begawan ('''Jawi:''' ''بندر سري بڬاوان'')
75* '''Population:''' 460,345
76* '''Area:''' 5,765 km² (2,226 sq mi) (164th)
77* '''Currency''': Brunei dollar (S$) (BND)
78* '''ISO-3166-1 Code:''' BN
79* '''Country calling code:''' 673
80* '''Highest point:''' Bukit Pagon (1850 m/6,070 ft) (136th)

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