As I continue working on my novel-in-progress about Sarawak, and with encouraging comments on my blog, I feel it is time I tell you more about Sarawak in the form of photos from my last research trip earlier this year, focusing on sites that will figure much in my novel. These pictures will give an idea of the time setting of my novel, and the people and events that are an inspiration for my fictitious work.
Refer to "Sarawak" in the Travel Section of this website for more photos from my 2008 trip there.
The Astana, home of the White Rajahs in the 19th and 20th centuries when Sarawak was under the rule of the Brooke regime
A "five-foot way" in front of shophouses in the Main Market, Kuching
Atap Street, a Chinese bazaar in Kuching', where houses used to have atap (palm leaf) roofs in the 19th century
The present-day riverfront boulevard in Kuching, capital city of Sarawak
The present-day Courthouse in Kuching facing the Sarawak River, where much of the action during the Chinese Miners' Rebellion of 1857 took place
Model of a Fish-Eye Junk at the Chinese Historical Museum in Kuching. Immigrants from southern China went on sea journeys in these boats to Borneo in the 19th century, where they made a living as miners, plantation workers, or merchants.
A kopitiam (local coffee shop or teahouse), a popular joint in towns and bazaars in Sarawak
Modern-day Bau, a mining town since the 19th century, about 22 miles from the capital Kuching. Its gold mines attracted many Hakka (Chinese) immigrants to its locale in the 19th century. Its former name was Mau San, named after the shape of the mountain shaped like a hat.
The remains of the famous flag pole in Mau San, perhaps the only remnant of the mining town that was destroyed after the failure of the Miners' Rebellion against the Brooke regime in 1857
Site of the miners' town of Mau San which was destroyed after the failure of the Miners' Rebellion in 1857
The temple in Jugan, where the leader of the Hakka miners and of their rebellion against the Brooke regime was buried after he was killed in the rebellion
Entrance to Ghost Cave in Bau, where widows and orphans of slain Hakka miners took refuge and were burnt or smoked to death following the failure of the Miners' Rebellion. An altar was erected at the entrance to appease the spirits of the dead in the cave.
Present-day Siniawan, a bazaar about 5 miles from Bau Town, the scene of the bloody battle between the Hakka miners and James Brooke's men on February 24th, 1857
A boat crossing between the banks of the Sarawak River at Siniawan, a riverside bazaar about 5 miles from Bau
Present-day Buso, another bazaar upriver about 5 miles from Bau, another scene of the massacre of Hakka miners as they fled from Kuching after their rebellion failed
Up the river from Kuching into Dayak territory, where this native tribe used to headhunt in days of old
Interior of a Dayak longhouse