Tom02

Santubong Iron

Iron Work and Santubong The Santubong delta iron working industry began in 615 AD at the earliest and 900 AD at the latest and stopped around 1380 AD.  They used a single Carbon 14 date and  associated Chinese stoneware and coins and some religious artefacts of the Buddhists era to date the iron. Both of

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Why So Many Ibans ?

Why so many Ibans? The author of this article attempts to explain why there are so many Ibans compared to other groups. He says the Ibans, relative newcomers to Sarawak, predominate in the State. Increase in children does not explain the phenomena. The Iban are below average in natural fertility. They have fewer babies per

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Melanau Poison Tale

Melanau Tale On the Oya river, a few bends above Tamin and just below Skuau, there once lived two brothers whose Chieftain father had died. Both were still young, kind to everyone in the village and good at every undertaking. The elder of the two was elected to succeed his father and was acclaimed by

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Tarsier

Note: This is a first person essay which I have abbreviated to fit the Internet form of reading.  Enjoy ! I arrived in Kuching at the end of October, 1971. The monsoon season had just brought the first and longer lasting rains of the wet season. What was I doing in Sarawak? “everything about Tarsius”.

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The Missionaries

Probably one of the most hilarious stories I have read in the Sarawak Museum Journal, if that publication can ever be called hilarious, is an article by Barbra Harrison entitled “Near to Ngadju”.Here she relates the tales from the Rhinish Mission of Barmen Germany. The Rhinish missionaries were in search of new lands to conquor

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