A Tribute to Sarawak’s 20th Senate President Datuk Mutang Tagal from Ba Kelalan
A ramble into the heart of the Central Highlands, straddling the Sarawak-Kalimantan border, has never failed to excite the imagination of the avid traveller.
With many six-foot-tall “highlanders” towering over the natives from other tribes in the lower lands, I made my first foray into the highlands more than 30 years ago.
Armed with stories of giants who etched their images on massive rocks and boulders, I decided to investigate the origins of these tales as I roamed the hinterland.
I had heard about the Seluyah giants who were as tall as 11 to 13 feet and had seen etched images of these human beings on massive rocks — centuries-old megaliths, monoliths, menhirs, and dolmens the giants had erected in Bario.
As the Kelabits and their Lun Dayeh “cousins” shared the same culture, they have formed an association of “Highlanders” called FORMADAT to protect their ancestral land.
To further explore North Kalimantan, I sought the assistance of local cultural experts from Long Bawan — the administrative centre of “Kabupaten”, a regency within the Kerayan district.
My adventure commenced after a 1,000km journey by Boeing from Kuching to Miri, then by Twin Otter to Limbang-Lawas and Ba Kelalan.
After a night at the “Apple Lodge”, its owner and former pastor, Tagal Paran, sent me off early the next morning.
Alpius drove us by four-wheel-drive vehicle through the 15km stretch where we entered foreign territory.
In the old days, the road was a timber track until it was upgraded in 2002 and tar-sealed 10 years later.
But alas, over the years, the timber trucks continued to plough through, creating a muddy track.
Today, the stretch resembles a minefield with its many potholes, which become “craters” especially during the “Landas” monsoon between October and February.
Our Toyota Hilux continued to rumble through the broken road to Long Bawan — the capital of the Kerayan district — and we passed through the Malaysian and Indonesian immigration and army checkpoints; we had to “surrender” our identity cards to the Tentera Nasional Indonesia (TNI) as the border still was not an official CIQ (Customs, Immigration, and Quarantine) border crossing.
Since time immemorial, the Ba Kelalan-Long Bawan stretch had been used by the Lun Dayeh of Indonesia for trade; it was especially essential for the Indonesians because the Kerayan district (also spelled Krayan) was cut off from the rest of Indonesian Borneo.
It was part of East Kalimantan until President Jokowi decided to form a fifth province, Kalimantan Utara (KALTARA), for better administration.
Tagal Paran, in his mid-80s, said: “For centuries, the people of Kerayan would travel on foot to Ba Kelalan to trade — a journey of at least a day. We felt sorry for them because they are our cousins and are cut off from the rest of Indonesia (it still takes two weeks to walk from Long Bawan to the nearest town off the coast, Malinau) until they built their first airstrip about 15 years ago.”
A member of the Borneo Evangelical Mission (BEM), he is the father of two famous politicians: former Member of Parliament for Lawas, the late Mutang Tagal, who passed away on May 10, 2024, and the late Dr Judson Sakai Tagal, who was killed in a helicopter crash at the nearby 7,950ft Gunung Murud — Sarawak’s highest mountain — in 2004.
One of my Lun Dayeh associates, a businesswoman named Sinang Meru, who was one of the pioneers in the construction of the small Long Bawan airport, recalled that in the old days she had to walk with at least 10 kilos of rice to exchange it for essentials in Ba Kelalan.
Sinang, 47, who still shuttles between Sabah and Long Bawan at least twice a month, recounted: “In the early 1980s, it took me two weeks to walk from Long Bawan to Lawas. I remember that when I was about 10, my uncle had to carry me on his shoulders as we crossed a deep and fast-running stream.”
“Now the road to Ba Kelalan is much improved, but there is much to be done because the main connection to Sarawak is not tar-sealed, and during the rainy season, the 25km Ba Kelalan-Long Bawan stretch can sometimes take as long as five hours,” she lamented.
Despite the upgrading of the Long Bawan airstrip built by American missionaries, there are only a few weekly flights provided by one or two airlines and chartered air services which charge exorbitant rates. The other alternative is to fly with the American Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), which charges 50 per cent of its rate for missionaries.
Sinang, whose family was originally from Long Adang, a Kelabit village in Limbang, Sarawak, is also a rice dealer offering competitive prices for Kerayan’s famous aromatic “Pade Adan” (Adan rice) to customers as far as Jakarta!
The Lun Dayeh of Kerayan are the biggest rice growers in the central highlands.
Several years ago, the Kelabits were the greatest rice growers, cultivating the famous Bario rice, which has found its way to Peninsular Malaysia.
Now, growing Bario rice has become a pastime as the educated younger population has left the village for employment.
The dilemma became acute when it became difficult to employ Indonesian workers because of strict immigration laws and low wages. As such, “Pade Adan” is repackaged and sold as Bario rice.
