Posts

Brunei and Brooke

Brooke and Brunei On Brooke’s arrival in 1839, Brunei was a decayed empire stretching the whole northwest coast of Borneo. In some rivers, pirate communities had been established. Pangerans at the capital of Brunei played politics. In other rivers, such as the Saribas and the Skrang, Arab adventurers and Brunei

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All Creatures Great and Small # 25

Melanitis lida All Creatures Great and Small # 25 Fossil leaf The first fossil leaf study of Sarawak’s rainforest indicates the dominant tree form was the dipterocarps ( the trees that are there now) dated back 4 million years. DOI: 10.7717/peerj.12949 New Species A new species has joined the Drop Tongue

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An Iban Story

Comic Tales of Api Salui by Benedict Sandin Sarawak Museum Journal July-December 1960 Tom’s Note: The below story has been passed from generation to generation among the Ibans. It tells a tale of a wise wife with her stupid husband. The Malays in the kampongs across the river also have

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A Ladies Perspective of the 1859 Revolt

The Chinese Revolt by Rev. Brian Taylor SMJ 1969 The first woman, other than women with their husbands, ever sent abroad by the Society for the Propagation of the Bible was Sarah Coomes. Miss Coomes was left behind in the first evacuation of the town after the Bau Chinese had

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Tom Harrisson a colonial master

Opinion Tom McLaughlinTom HarrissonWe now get to the part of the Sarawak Museum Journal where Tom Harrisson has written many of the articles. He was a British subject who was appointed head of the Sarawak Museum and the Sarawak Museum Journal in 1949 by the British Colonial Authorities. His writings

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All Creatures Great and Small # 24

All Creatures Great and Small # 24 Peat Peat exsists along the coastal areas of both Borneo and Sumatra. Peat is formed when conditions do not allow further plant material decay. During dry conditions, peat easily catches fire, and the fire causes further global warming. This paper studies how sea-level

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Iban Rebellion 1930’s

Asun’s Rebellion: The Political Growing Pains of a Tribal Society in Brooke Sarawak, 1929-1940 by Robert Pringle Tom’s Note: This article reflects a bias favouring the Brooke government and relegates the Asun Rebellion as a minor irritation. I doubt Ibans who were killed, resettled and had their longhouses torched saw

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Pleiades Creation Story by the Iban

The Mother of the Pleiades A Mythological Story of the Iban Almighty God made a golden stone in the eastern corner of the sky known as Tangkulas Batu Mas. Many years afterwards this stone changed into a very beautiful girl whose eyes and skin shone and glittered like a lump

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“Mona Lisa” of China

While travelling in Surabya, Indonesia, I acquired a fold-out book of about 20 leaves. I never knew what the book depicted, so I placed it on the shelf, hoping to find out. After showing it to many people over the years who said they did not know, the puzzle concluded

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A Mouse Deer Story

Salam The Mouse Deer- Second Evening Old Abdullah picking his way homewards through the deep forest one evening at sundown by following the narrow winding Wild Beast tracks that criss-cross it in every direction but which to him were as familiar as our town streets to ourselves, had picked up

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All Creatures Great and Small # 23

Barclaya All Creatures Great and Small # 23 Gas and Oil A report from Petronas, the oil company for Malaysia, indicates that production of 5.0 thousands of gallons of oil per day is possible from the Brownfield  Sarawak area. https://doi.org/10.2523/IPTC-22448-EA White Shrimp A disease affecting white shrimp being grown in

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The Chinese Come to Sarawak

Historian John Tan, of Kuching and Australia, wrote the following essay about early Chinese immigration. He translated and used information from the Chinese language publication Hainan Temple 天后宫 published by Dr Lin YT and his own sources. The Han Chinese  The Han Chinese migrated to the south of China from

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