Matang Wildlife Centre (Kampung Budaya Sarawak)

Matang Wildlife Centre or Kampung Budaya Sarawak is situated in Damai Beach, Sarawak, in east Malaysia. It is located at the western corner of the Kubah National Park, the rainforest habitat for endangered wildlife. It is situated about 35km away from Kuching, One of the main attractions of Kubah National Park is the Matang Wildlife Centre. The centre acts as a house for endangered wild animals including Orang Utans, Sambar Deer, Hornbills, Sun Bears and other animals. Besides being a natural home to protect all these endangered species, the centre has training program for Orang Utan. In the program, young Orang Utans who were either orphaned or were rescued from captivity are taught ways to survive in the wild. All animals are protecting in spacious enclosures housing. One amazing program launched is called 'The Great Orang Utan Projects' where you can go and experience the centre with a different way. There are many more attractions offered by the Matang Wildlife Centre. They are nature trails, multiple waterfalls, rock pools, swimming area, picnic spots and viewing points. We can either choose to visit the Matang Wildlife Centre as a one day trip or you can spend the night there. As its location is not far away from the city centre of Kuching, most tourists fancy one day trip.

Bako National Park

Bako National Park is one of the Sarawak's oldest national park. Bako National Park is located in Kuching, the capital of Sarawak, in East Malaysia. It covers the tip of the Muara Tebas peninsula at the mouth of Kuching Rivers and Bako. Bako National Park is gazette in the year of 1957. Being the oldest national park in Sarawak, it is quite surprised to be one of the smallest national parks in Sarawak. One of the definite features of Bako National Park is the rugged rocky headland along with steep cliffs where visitors can overlook the South China Sea there. The scenery in the park is mesmerizing with many spectacular species of flora and fauna. Various kinds of plants and vegetations such as beach vegetation and cliff vegetation can be seen around. Besides, one of the famous fauna in the park in the proboscis monkeys or Dutchman. There are of course, other wildlife that are to be seen around in the park including Borneo bearded pigs, monitor lizards, mousedeers, snakes and other animals. The national park acts as a home to over 150 species of birds too.

Gunung Mulu National Park

Gunung Mulu National Park or Mulu Caves National Park is one of the major attractions in Sarawak. It is located near the Miri, the second largest state in Sarawak. Gunung Mulu National Park is located near the southern border of Brunei Darussalam and it is around 100 kilometres away from Miri town.There are a total of three mountains in the park namely Gunung Mulu with the height of 2376m, Gunung Api with the height of 1750m, and finally Gunung Benarat that has a height of 1585m. One of the largest limestone caves in the world is located below the surface. The National Park is renowned for its caves that have amazing record in the world. They are the Sarawak Chamber, which is the largest cave chamber in the world, Clearwater Cave, which  is the longest cave in the South East Asia and also Deer Cave, the largest cave passage. There are various species of flora and fauna spotted in the National Park. There are over 3500 species of plants and around 1500 species of flowers around int the park. As much as eight different species of the famous bird - Hornbills are to be seen in the National Park too. Besides, over 27 species of bats are spotted here. There are also treks and trails available in the park for all adventurous people. Many caves activities and forest activities are offered too. There is Mulu Canopy Skywalk which is hanging at the height 480m. The Skywalk is the longest tree based walk way in the whole wide world. There are more interesting activities guided, or unguided including the Night Shift, Paku Waterfalls, Camping, Cruising and Adventure Caving. All activities are offered with different rates and packages.

Gunung Mulu National Park

Orang Ulu

Orang Ulu is a group ethnics in Sarawak. The various Orang Ulu ethnics together make up roughly 5% of Sarawak's population. The phrase Orang Ulu means upriver people and is a term used to collectively describe the numerous tribes that live upriver in Sarawak's vast interior. Such groups include the major Kayan and Kenyah tribes, the smaller neighbouring groups of the Kajang, Kejaman, Punan, Ukit, and Penan. Nowadays, the definition also include the down-river tribes of the Lun Bawang, Lun Dayeh, "mean upriver" or "far upstream" , Berawan, Saban as well as the plateau-dwelling Kelabits. Orang Ulu is a term coined officially by the government to identify several ethnics and sub-ethnics who live mostly at the upriver and uphill areas of Sarawak. Most of them live in the district of Baram, Miri, Belaga, Limbang and Lawas. The Orang Ulu are artistic people with longhouses elaborately decorated with murals and woodcarvings. They are also well known for their intricate beadwork and detailed tattoos. The Orang Ulu tribe can also be identified by their unique musical sound made by Sape, a stringed instrument similar to a mandolin. A vast majority of the Orang Ulu tribe are Christians but traditional religions are still practised in some areas.

                                                                       


                                          Orang Ulu in Sarawak

Iban (Sea Dayak)

The origin of the name is mystery, although many theories exist. During the British colonial era, the Ibans were called Sea Dayaks. Some believe that the word Iban was an ancient original Iban word for people or man. The modern-day Iban word for people or man is mensia, a totally modified Malay loan word of the same meaning (manusia) of Sanskrit Root. The Ibans were the original inhabitants of Borneo Island. Like the other Dayak tribes, they were originally farmers, hunters and gatherers. Not much is known about Iban people before the arrival of the Western expedition to Asia. Nothing was ever recorded by any voyagers about them. The History of the migration of Iban people trace back to China where the historians believe that the original Iban people migrated from Yunnan, a province in rural China. The Ibans were unfortunately branded for being pioneers of headhunting. Headhunting among the Ibans is believed to have started when the lands occupied by the Ibans became over-populated. In those days, before the arrival of western civilization, intruding on lands belonging to other tribes resulted in death. Confrontation was the only way of survival. Int hose days, the way of war was the only way that any Dayak tribe could achieve prosperity and fortune. Dayak warfare was brutal and bloody, to the point of ethnic cleansing. Many extinct tribes, such as Seru and Bliun, are believed to have been assimilated or wiped out by the Ibans. Tribes like the Bukitan, who were the original inhabitants os Saribas, are believed to have been assimilated or forced northwards as far as Bintulu by the Ibans. The Ukits were also believed to have been nearly wiped out by the Ibans.

Bidayuh

Concentrated mainly on the west end of Bornoe, the Bidayuh's make up 8% of the population in Sarawak are now most numerous in the hill counties of Lundu, Bau, Penrissen, Padawan, Siburan and Serian, within an hour's drive from Kuching. Historically, as other tribes were migrating into Sarawak and forming settlement the Malays from the neighbouring archipelagos, the Bidayuh's retreated further inland, hence earning them the name of "Land dayaks" or "Land owners". The word Bidayuh in itself literally means "land People" in Biatah dialect. In Bau-Jigoi/Singai dialect, the pronounciation is "Bidoyoh" which also carries the same meaning. The traditional community construction of the Bidayuh is the "Baruk", a roundhouse that rises about 1.5 metres off the ground. It serves as the granary and the meeting house for the settlement's community. Longhouses were typical in the olden days, similar to that of the Ibans. Typical of the Sarawak indigenous groups, the Bidayuhs are well known for their hospitality, and are reputed to be the best makers of tuak, or rice wine. Bidayuhs also use distilling methods to make "arak tonok" a kind of moonshine. The Bidayuhs speak a number of different but related dialects. Some Bidayuhs speak either English or Sarawak Malays as their main language. While some of them still practice traditional religions, the majority of modern-day Bidayuhs have adopted the Christian faith with a few villages embracing the Islamic faith as a minority group within the Bidayuh community.

Dayung Bidayuh

Gawai Dayak

GAWAI DAYAK FESTIVAL

Gawai Dayak is a festival celebrated by Dayaks (Iban) in Sarawak and west Kalimantan which is oficially public holidays on 31 May and 1 Jun every year in Sarawak, Malaysia. It is both a religious and social occasion. The word Gawai means a ritual or festival whereas dayak is a collective namee for  the native ethnic groups of Sarawak and neighbouring Indonesian Kalimantan who are the Iban also known previously as Sea Dayak and the Bidayuh people also known as Land dayak. Thus, Gawai Dayak literally means "Dayak Festival". The Dayaks are the indigenous people of Borneo. Dayak is a generic term for over 200 riverine and hill-dwelling ethnic subgroups which are located principally in the interior of Borneo. Today, it is an integral oart of the Dayak social life. It is a thanksgicing day marking a bountiful harvest and a time to plan for the new farming season or other endeavors ahead. Dayak would visit their friends and relatives on this day. Such visit is more commonly known as "ngabang" in the Iban language. Those too far away to visit would receive greeting cards or wishing gawai greetings via radio broadcasting in this modern time. If there is a formal invitation to visit, the guest welcoming (ngalu pengabang) precession will be performed by the inviting longhouse.

Pesta Benak (Sri Aman)

The Batang Lupar flows 200km from its source in the Kapuas Mountains to the Teluk Datu of the Soucth China Sea. At its mouth, the river forms the broadest estuary in Sarawak, as well as accomodating the largest of the four benaks (tidal bore in  local Malay and Iban dialect) that occur in Sarawak. The benak of the Batang Lupar first becomes visible in the estuary region of Pulau Seduku. It reaches its peak as it passes the town of Sri Aman, 90km from the estuary. Along the banks of the town a tidal watching festival was inaugurated on the King Tide of 5th May 2001 -the Pesta Benak. This gave the local boatmen an opportunity to show their skills to tourists, surfing the bore in longboats, Prior to the event, several days were spent flushing crocodiles out of the river for the safety of tourists.

Sarawak Laksa & Midin (Forest fern)

SARAWAK LAKSA

Sarawak Laksa comes from the Malaysian state Sarawak, on the island of Borneo. It is actually very different from the curry laksa as the soup contains no curry at all. It has a base of Sambal Belacan, sour tamarind, garlic, galangall, lemon grass and coconut milk, topped with omelette strips, prawns, fresh coriander and optionally lime. Ingredients such as bean sprouts, (sliced) fried tofu or other seafood are not traditional but are sometimes added.

MIDIN (FOREST FERN)

Local vegetables are served widely in Sarawak. Particularly the two types of crispy jungle fern, midin and paku. Forest ferns have a special place in the diet of the people, with the two most popular ferns used as vegetables being midin and the fiddlehead fern (pucuk paku). Midin grows wild in the secondary forests and is peculiar to the state. It has curly fonds and is very crunchy even after it has been cooked. Rural dwellers have always considered the fern a tasty, nutritious vegetable and the jungle fern's rise from rural staple to urban gourmet green occured in the 1980's with the increased urban migration of the Iban. Aromatic leaves from trees, such as Bungkang, are also used in cooking to flavour food.

Pansuh

The Iban tribe are from Sarawak, Borneo. Their traditional foods are called Pansuh food, which simply means the cooking of food or dish in a bamboo stem. It's naturally clean, easy and simple. The food (meat, chicken, fish, vegetables and even rice together with the spices) will all be put together into the bamboo stem, then directly placed over an open fire to be cooked. The uniqueness of using the bamboo stem to cook is that the bamboo will give a special aroma and texture to the food where it's impossible to have using other methods such as using woks. One of the best known Iban dishes is pansoh manok, which features chicken and lemongrass cooked in a bamboo log over an open fire. This natural way of cooking seals in the flavours and produces astonishingly tender chicken with a gravy perfumed with lemongrass and bamboo.