Kampong Ayer (Water Village)

Kampong Ayer (also spelled Kampung Ayer; English: Water Village) is a traditional stilt settlement in Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of Brunei Darussalam. Comprising dozens of contiguous villages built on wooden stilts over the Brunei River and estuarine area, the settlement is historically long‑inhabited and has been described in travel and cultural sources as the world's largest water village. The built environment consists of traditional wooden stilt houses, extensive wooden boardwalks, mosques, schools, shops and services; institutional efforts to document and present its cultural heritage include the Kampong Ayer Cultural and Tourism Gallery. Modernization initiatives under state programs in the 2010s sought to improve living standards in Kampong Ayer, including construction of modern two‑storey concrete stilt houses allocated to residents who wished to remain in the water village rather than move to land. Sources report varying population and area figures (for example, a 2016 Wikipedia population figure of 10,250 versus higher counts reported in an archival video and some travel sources), indicating discrepancies in counting methods and dates. The settlement remains a living community and a tourist destination accessible by water taxi and guided tours. Reported phenomena: the provided source set contains no accounts of hauntings, apparitions, supernatural entities, or paranormal events tied to Kampong Ayer. No named spirits or ghost traditions specific to the site are documented in the supplied materials.