The Siteng PeopleIn the olden days, the Siteng people inhabited the upper Baram river in the Fourth Division of Sarawak. While in this area they were attacked and killed by hundreds of wild pigs. Those that survived fled in many directions. Some lived in Julan, a tributary of the true left bank of the Baram […]
A Young Princess Who Married a Wild BeastOnce upon a time there was an old women who lived in the Pontianak region of Borneo. She was very poor. She was not able to farm padi but was able to gather fruits and vegetables and sold them to the Rajah. In return the Rajah gave her
The Princess who married a beast Read More »
Our story begins with the migration of the Hakka from central China in Henan to the south from about the Third century A.D. They first entered Jiangxi, then during the Tang and Song periods to Southwest Fujian. The migration continued into Guangdong Province. By the 18th and 19th centuries the areas of northeast Guangdong were
Hakka in China, Indon and Bau Read More »
Indian Muslim CommunityWe can date the Indian community to at least 1820 when Patinggi Ali built a house in the area. It would seem logical that he would build a house in an already established Indian Moslem community. It is thought he came down from Bau. When the actual Indian community came, whether it was
Indians+Plantations+Sikh Read More »
A few years back I took a trip up the river to Kapit in central Borneo. The boat stopped at numerous ports drooping off and picking up people, goods and to my surprise roosters. They were in separate cages and everyone looked at the birds and cackled in a language I did not understand. The
We begin this series with a Dyak love story. The people were not half crazed lunatics charginging into the villages to take heads and drink blood, but were sensitive humans who took a head for the purpose of presenting it to his loved one. This poem, from the Sarawak Museum Journal of 1959, tells the
A Dayak Love Story Read More »
