Major events in the History of Bau by Chang Pat Foh
Part 1
Bau Town, about 35 km from Kuching, is the trading centre of the district. Being an interior area in the First Division of Sarawak, its geographical features are composed of rugged terrain and dotted with sporadic limestone hills. It has an area of 884.40 sq. km and shares a common boundary with Kalimantan, Indonesia. In 1850, Mau San (Bau Lama) had a population of 4,000 which increased to 18,000 in 1951.
The old name for Bau district is “Upper Sarawak” whereas the old name for Bau is “Mau San” or “Bukit Mau’’. Bau Town is also known as Shak Lung Mung in Chinese Hakka (a subgroup of Chinese) which means “the entrance of a rocky cave.”
Bau is one of the oldest districts in Sarawak. In the olden days, Bau was not only a well-known mining district in Sarawak but also of great political importance and was established in 1820.
The Anti-Brunei Movement, 1836.
Antimony was discovered in the district in 1823 when Sarawak was still under the rule of Brunei. Pengiran Mahkota was the Governor of Sarawak, who made Kuching as his capital. The arrival of Pengiran Mahkota together with an entourage of Brunei Malays made the position of the local leaders uncomfortable. In 1826, Pengiran Mahkota forced the Land Dayaks (Bidayuh) and the Malays in the district to work in the antimony mines. He paid the native miners hardly any wages. He often took away their padi (rice) and boats. Furthermore, he even took away the Land Dayak (Bidayuh) women and children and sold them as slaves.
After 10 years of forced labour and inhuman treatment to the native miners, the Land Dayaks (Bidayuh) and the Malays, under the leadership of Datu Patinggi Ali from Lidah Tanah, rebelled against Pengiran Mahkota in 1836.
The Datu never liked the cruel ruler from Brunei and he proclaimed Sarawak independent of Brunei. He organized the native miners from Siniawan and Bau into a fighting force. He built his headquarters at Siniawan and fought very hard against the Brunei ruler.
For quite some time, he could not get rid of Pengiran Mahkota; nor could the Pengiran defeat him and the native miners. Later on, the Sultan of Brunei, Omar Ali Saifuddin, sent his uncle, Raja Muda Hashim, to quell the disturbance in Sarawak, but to no effect. The Pengiran Mahkota did not obey the orders from Raja Muda Hashim. The Anti-Brunei Movement dragged on.
In 1839, at the height of the civil war, James Brooke, an English adventurer, made a visit to Sarawak bringing letters and presents from the British Governor at Singapore to Raja Muda Hashim in acknowledgement of his humanity and kind treatment to some English shipwrecked sailors.
James Brooke became enchanted with the place and he revisited Kuching in August 1840. The civil war was still ongoing. Muda Hashim promised James Brooke that if he could assist him settle the civil war, the country of Siniawan and Sarawak proper would be given to him and he would be granted the title of Rajah.
Brooke found that the Land Dayaks (Bidayuh) were defeated because of starvation. However, the Malays from Singapore still resisted the rule from Brunei.
In early October 1840 James Brooke, at the headquarters of Pengiran Mahkota’s site at Lidah Tanah and later on at Fort Belida, urged Pengiran Mahkota to spare the lives of Patinggi Ali and his men, but there was no agreement over this deal.
At the end of 1840 and upon full intervention by James Brooke, the war came to an end. Both Pengiran Mahkota and Datu Patinggi Ali agreed to a ceasefire, assuming the governor and his men should return to Brunei and his men would not be prosecuted. Peace was finally restored in Sarawak.
James Brooke was then given the authority to control Sarawak. In 1841, he was installed as the first White Rajah of Sarawak. Datu Ali was reinstated and became an influential administrator and adviser to him. ‘Sarawak” at that time included only Lundu, Upper Sarawak (Bau), Sarawak Proper (Kuching) and part of Samarahan district.
I (the author of this article) went to visit Siniawan recently. Tua Kampung bin Din of Kampong Siniawan kindly brought me to the historical site of Bukit Belidah which is just below Siniawan Bazaar.
In 1836 the Belidah attacks were launched against the miners led by Pengiran Makohoda, and in 1837, Chinese Miners led by Liew Shan Pang were intercepted there. Now it is overgrown with big trees, creepers and bushes. However, I found some holes around the site.
Establishment of Bau Bazaar (Mau San)
Before the anti-Brunei Movement was put down in 1840, a few hundred Chinese miners and their families had already established themselves at Mau San. (Bau under the leadership of Liew Shan Pang.) The Chinese settlement at Mau San (Bau) between 1820-1830, when the antimony and gold discovery was made known to the people in the gold fields of Indonesian Borneo. The Chinese came over to Mau San through Pangkalan Tebang. They started to exploit the antimony in Paku and Jambusan areas and gold in and around Mau San area. Some of them planted padi, corn and potatoes around the mining areas in addition to their mining activities.
Rows of shophouses were made of attap (woven palm leaves) and houses (kajang) were constructed on both sides of Jalan Lana(a street) and residential houses were also built for the miners in and around the vicinity of Mau San. In early 1850, the Bau Kongsi enjoyed a period of prosperity. There were at least 4,000 Chinese in Mau San. Gold and antimony mining was only operating in Mau San area, but activity extended to Paku, Bidi, Taiton and Jambusan sections..
Besides the sundry shops, tea shops and lodging houses were also operated at Mau San for the convenience of travellers from Kuching and Sambas. The sale of opium to the Chinese was no longer under their control. Rajah James Brooke allowed the import of opium to earn extra revenue. Opium smoking was legal at the time. Opium shops were common within the commercial area. Upon payment of a few cents, the miners could relax with opium smoking after a day’s hard work. There was no restriction on gambling, and it was very popular among the miners.
Mr L.V. Helms, manager of the Borneo Company, commented. “The Chinese miners formed a total separate with their own culture and habits of drinking tea and samsu (local white wine which is from rice and sugar). They smoked tobacco and opium. They gambled at the gambling shops at night. In short, they worked and played hard’’
Many Chinese came to mine for gold, and many went back to China with the wealth they acquired. In 1850, Mau San was quite a sizeable bazaar with over 100 shophouses and many residential houses. At that time, gold ore could be exploited from fissures and crevices in the limestone hills. The alluvial soil beneath the hills and the gravel and sand at the bottom of the rivers also provided small quantities of gold.
Bau Chinese Anti-Rajah Movement, 1857
Before James Brooke became Rajah of Sarawak in 1841, Chinese miners under the leadership of Liew Shan Pang had already established themselves at Mau San for the past 20 years. They are controlled by the Tai Kongsi and they even have their own currency. Due to the loose control and poor administration by the ruler from Brunei, the Chinese miners were quite contented in their free way of life.
After Rajah James Brooke had taken over the control of Sarawak from the Sultan of Brunei, he imposed ‘Cukai Paia’ on the Kongsi which prohibited the Kongsi from directly importing and trading with foreign countries in opium, wine and other products. He also prohibited the Kongsi from directly exporting gold and antimony to foreign countries. At the same time, the Rajah also allowed the formation of the Borneo Company in 1856 to mine gold in Bau. Due to all the above factors, the Chinese rebelled against the White Rajah. They wanted the Kongsi’s old way of life to be continued. To obey the rules of the White Rajah Government was too much for them.
Liew Shan Pang led 600 armed miners from Mau San (Bau) to attack Kuching on February 18, 1857. He succeeded in the attack, but James Brooke escaped unhurt. In fact, Liew became the “Rajah of Sarawak” for 4 days from 19 February 1857 to 22 February 1857.
The attack on Kuching and subsequent occupation are recorded in many places elsewhere.
Liew and his men retreated to Bau when Tuan Muda Charles Brooke with his Dayak force from the 2nd Division arrived. Liew Shan Pang was killed at Siniawan on 24 February 1857. The rest were mostly killed or suffocated to death by the Rajah’s men at Mau San.
While chasing after the Chinese miners to Mau San (Bau) the force killed all Chinese on sight. When the Rajah Muda reached the headquarters of miners at Mau San, they set fire to all the buildings on 25 February 1857. The town of Bau was burnt down, but the flag post of Kongsi was only partly burnt. It still stands at Mau San today (1987).
In 1861 a survey was made and it was discovered that only four Chinese families were left in the rural area of Bau. After the Chinese Anti-Rajah Movement, there were practically no Chinese miners left in Mau San for the next 10 Years. Previous flourishing gold and antimony mines and pepper plantations were deserted.
The year 1867 not only saw the establishment of a new Bau Bazaar and the revival of gold mining in that district but also the discovery of another important mineral at Tegora by the Manager of Borneo Company, Mr L.V. Helms. There was a demand for mercury at that time. Production of the mineral began in 1888. A few years later, mercury was also discovered at Gading, also in Bau District. Most of the high-grade ore was mined out by 1898.
During the Second World War, the Japanese resumed the production of mercury at Tegora and by the time it ceased operation in 1949, 21,598 flasks of mercury at 76 pounds per flask were produced from these two areas and were exported overseas.
The production of antimony since the discovery of the ore in 1823 (by Europeans) was also very significant. More than 88,500 tons of antimony had been produced from Pangga, Jambusan, Bidi and Buan Bidi. In 1860, the Borneo Company constructed roads and railroad tracks to the ore deposit areas from Buso. Buso was an important interior port of Upper Sarawak because all the ores from the mining areas were transported to Buso. They were shipped to Kuching by motor launches and barge.
In 1867, 10 years after the abortive Anti-Rajah the Rajah Government invited Liew Ted and his group from Simunjan to Bau to re-work the gold mines. Syd Ted and his men were loyal Chinese (Hakka) who originally came from Sambas Indonesia sometime in 1840 but had gone direct to Simunjan to work in the mines there. Under the leadership of Syd Ted, more Chinese either from Sambas Indonesia or Kuching eventually came to work in the gold and antimony mines. Within a period of 5 years, i.e. from 1867-1872, a new Bau Bazaar was built.
Footnotes and pictures are available from the Sarawak Gazette in April 1987. Part two will be presented next time.
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