The Sandakan Diary Tom’s Note: The founder’s wife of Sandakan, located on Sabah’s east coast, wrote this small diary in 1894. Bajau Legend The Sultan of Johore had a beautiful daughter that was betrothed to the Sultan of Sulu. When the time came, a large fleet was assembled to escort her to Sulu. When passing […]
All Creatures Great and Small #28 Fish Information on fisheries in Sarawak is scarce and poorly known. This review completes a checklist of fishes in Sarawak waters and tells of the status of the resource. https:doi.org/10.33736/bjrst.4651.2022 Visitors will pay to see orangutans. This study states the visitors to the Sepilok Orangutan centre were willing to
All Creatures Great and Small # 28 Read More »
Tom’s Note: Here are some fun proverbs from the Dusun people of Sabah. Are there any similarities between Malay, Chinese or other languages? Some Dusun Proverbs and Proverbial Sayings 1. “One way or the other, when defeated becomes ashes when winning becomes charcoal a man engaged in a lawsuit. There’s no profit in it. 2. A
Tom’s Note: Here is an oral history of Datu Merpati. He is a person who, it was said, ruled Sarawak sometime in the 1700s and who many of the current and past rulers have traced their lineage. Much of it is fantasy except for one item the Sultan of Brunei appointed Datuk Merpati to rule
Datu Merpati: A Fable? Read More »
Tom’s Note: Connecting the upper Oya and Egan rivers in Sarawak is a man-made canal called a Kut. It was first built in the late 1790s and has been modernized and dredged since then. Here are a couple of stories telling the origins of the Kut. Early History of the Kut Canal About 1790, the
The Kut: Connecting the Egan and Oya Rivers Read More »
All Creatures Great and Small #27 Where was Borneo? The lack of preserved basement (the rocks under the studied rocks) results in the uncertain placement of many areas in Southeast Asia. The first evidence of the oldest basement was found in Borneo on the northern margin of Gondwana. (The place where all continents were together
All Creatures Great and Small # 27 Read More »
Part Two The New Foochow Settlement of Sarawak Part Two Foochow settlement at Binatang Binatang is situated on the left bank of the lower reaches of the Rejang River between Sibu and Sarikei districts. Most of the people are natives of Chiang and Chuan of Fukien province. The Cantonese came from Singapore. The government set
Foochow of Sarawak Read More »
The New Foochow Settlement of Sarawak Note: Dollar amounts are Straits dollars where 3 Straits dollars =1 USD; 1 picul=60kg In 1900, Mr Wong Nai Song came to Singapore after an attempted coup in China. He harboured the idea of colonization but could find no place to settle. Mr Wong heard that Sir James Brooke
The Foochow of Sarawak Read More »
The Expedition of 1934 The Kanowit Punitive Expedition One fine morning in June 1934, we left Sibu by way of the Chamois. A few hours later, we stayed at Kanowit to make arrangements for our forces. We changed into a small launch, took the Kanowit River, and stopped at a location a few stretches after Julau. We
Kanowit Punitive Expedition Read More »
Book Review: SMJ 1970The Malays of South-West Sarawak before Malaysia by Tom HarrissonReviewed by Gale Dixon (Department of Geography, University of Oregon)This big, heavy volume is packed with good information important to professional anthropologists, historians economists, geographers, and sociologists and of interest to a wide readership of informed people who make the social sciences their
The Malays of Southwest Sarawak Read More »
