Bisaya Fables

Medium This begins a series called Adventures and tells of trips Suriani, Dzul and I have taken through SEA. The Other World and Ali Ternate, Indonesia-Alfred Wallace, the premier biologist who with Charles Darwin published the famous paper on evolution, would have loved this. Indeed he would have.  You see, Wallace entered the world of […]

Architecture of the cross river Kampongs Kuching This is one of the very first articles written about the Kampongs Sebrang across the river from Kuching on the north bank of the Sarawak River. Yon Syafni Samat is currently working on her doctorate degree at the University of Sydney. She is a lecturer at the Department

Pre-History of Borneo During the height of the cold times during the Pleistocene (2.58 million to 11,700 years ago), all the land was connected and called Sundaland. The Malay Peninsula was connected to Borneo, Java and Sumatra. The water was locked up in ice in the north. The last time these areas were connected was

Efforts were made to find Jutta Kelling from FernUniversität Hagen in Germany  who authored the below sections to request permission to publish the passages on my blog.  I was not able to find any trace of her/him.  However, a full citation is given at the end of this piece. The Indian Convicts of Sarawak In

he Murut people live in Sabah along the Sapulut and Padas rivers. They can also be found along the border with Sarawak, where they are known as the Tagal people. In Brunei, they are referred to as the Lun Bawang, where they supplied soldiers to the Sultans of Brunei. They were the last group to

All Creatures Great and Small #67 Genetics Nicobar Islands The Nicobar Islands are located north of Sumatra and separate the Bay of Bengal from the Andaman Sea. The genetic link between the Nicobar community and the Htin Mal people of Laos and Thailand has been established. The migration to the Nicobar Islands, about 5,000 years

The Chinese and Santubong The italics are my comments. There was a tradition among the lesser states to pay homage to China by sending emissaries to the Emperor.  Santubong was referred in the Chinese literature as “Poli (婆利),” “Boni (渤尼/渤泥/浡泥)” or “Polo (婆罗). Santubong was at that time a port where ships could arrive, replace

Alexander Hare of Banjarmasin Alexander Hare reached Malacca from Calcutta in 1807 and started a business as an agent and merchant. Stanford Raffles became acquainted with Hare during two sick leaves late in November 1807 -19 January 1808 and then again from the end of July 1808 to the end of October 1808.   They

Birds in the Paddy Fields Our study has documented a comprehensive list of birds in the paddy fields of southwestern Sarawak during all three stages of paddy production including planting, harvesting and land preparation. doi:10.55730/1300-0179.3205 Tree Harvests, Soil Types and Fertilizers The Paulowinia tree is a fast growing tree native in the Orient. It is

Raffles and West Borneo The first Chinese miners were probably brought from Brunei between 1740 and 1745 to Sambas. The Malays rigidly controlled them until 1760, when they were able to throw off the Malay yoke and establish their own Kongsi. The Dutch discouraged immigration from China until 1791 when Dutch forces were withdrawn from