Sarawak is not only the land of longhouses, but it is also a place rich with remote Chinese communities responsible for developing the economy of the rural hinterland. This is the story of the rise and fall of three Chinese bazaars, Bau, Siniawan and Buso who were famous riverine villages from the time of the White Rajahs.
One hundred and seventy years ago they enjoyed a golden age, but over time destiny changed their fortunes. To tell their story, Joseph Aloysius Kuek, a retired Batu Lintang teacher and educationist with an interest in history, tells the stories of rise and fall of these three villages. Turning the clock back, Kuek, 90, who is also a professional photographer, touched on the history in the rise and fall of the famous gold mining town of Bau.
In the beginning, Bau was the most important location in Sarawak because of its important minerals such as antimony and gold.
In the early 1830s and through the hard work of the Chinese immigrants from Sambas in neighbouring Dutch Borneo — now known as Kalimantan Barat — Bau grew from a town of a few hundred to 4,000 people under the sovereignty of a Chinese “Rajah”.
Kuching was even less important; it was “tiny settlement” which a Dutch administrator from Pontianak described as “two hours rowing from the river estuary (Santubong), its population no more than a hundred Malays and a handful of Chinese traders dealing in birds’ nests.”
However, the discovery of antimony in upper Sarawak attracted more people to Kuching — Singapore merchants and Indian-Muslim businessmen — and by the time of Brooke’s arrival in 1839, Kuching’s population had grown to about 3,000. Bau district’s importance as antimony and gold mining region, led to the opening up of Kuching as a major entreport and the arrival of the Borneo Company in 1856.
Siniawan and the adjoining Gunung Serembu mountain complex was also an important location which Brooke’s officers visited. Governor General of Labuan Sir Spenser St John who often stopped by at the Chinese bazaar of Siniawan, 16 miles from Kuching on the way to Bau, testified to its greatness.
He said, “They (the Chinese of Siniawan) are evidently thriving, as the Dayaks of the surrounding country resort to this place, and there is a constant influx of Chinese (from Bau) and Malay gold miners”. But after the failed Chinese Insurrection of 1857 Bau, was reduced to ashes when Brooke’s forces wiped out three quarters of the Chinese population.
The small Chinese community in upper Sarawak remained incognito, until second Rajah Charles and his son Vyner, began to woo the Chinese back. It took sometime Bau to revitalise Bau which remained as nothing more than untidy and dilapidated bazaar during the Colonial era of the 1950s.
Kuek spent nearly 70 years capturing thousands of photographs of the Bau hinterland including the old town in 1948 — six years after it was burnt down angry Chinese labourers when the Japanese invaded Sarawak in December 1941.
Describing the incident, Kuek said that Bau seemed to be bogged down with several tragic events. He said, “When the Japanese captured Kuching on December 24, 1941 the local gold miners and farmers tried to buy up provisions to stock up in case they ran out of food”.
“But when they turned up at Bau, the ‘towkays’ refused to open their shops because they too were trying to stock up for their respective families. So the looters broke in and took what they wanted”.
“They then targeted the shop of the leading businessman who had also refused to pay the salaries of his workers,” said Kuek. Taking the law into their hands, a group of men searched for the main “towkay” but could not find him. They then set his shop on fire and before long the whole town was ablaze.
Kuek, 90, mused, “The towkay escaped with his life because one of his friends had bundled him in a sack and passed through the back portion of the shop. Fortunately, the rioters didn’t notice that their quarry was making his escape in a most unusual way”.
On communications, Kuek said the mode of transport during the Brooke and British colonial period was by river. “During the war I managed to make occasional trips by motor- launch, to Bau village to visit my favourite sister who was married to a District Health Inspector”.
It was during his many motor launch journeys along the Sarawak River from Kuching, that he stopped over at the busy village of Buso — the last stop before the journey to Bau.
Kuek said, “Siniawan and Buso were major trading bazaars which sold all sorts of goods and amenities or where the towkeys would barter with the .locals for Sago leaf roofing, uncured rubber sheets, crape rubber, pepper live poultry, pigs, pepper and jungle produce which were brought to Kuching.
“All journeys up-river started at the old Ban Hock wharf before making stops at various ‘Pengkalans’ along the way at Batu Kitang, Lidah Tanah, Siniawan and Buso.”
In 1950s Joseph led a group of students and teachers on educational tours to Bau which is the homeland of the Hakka Chinese.
He said, “We used bicycles which were either bought or loaned to the students. We cycled past a gravel road which took us to our first stop at Batu Kitang ferry-point. After that we stopped to rest in Siniawan“.
“At Bau we had a various activities such as visiting the famous Bau Lake gold mine where I briefed the students with a history lesson about the town’s history and tragic past”.
After the formation of Malaysia in 1963, the focus of the security forces was on Bau which was then a “hot-spot” because it was a major base of the Sarawak Communist party. During this time there were numerous killings and ambushes and assassination of police informers by the communists in towns such as Bau, Tondong and Siniawan.
However, Bau’s woes ended after Confrontation with Indonesia ended and the North Kalimantan Communist Party (NKCP) signed a peace agreement with the Sarawak government in 1973.
However, Bau suffered a tragedy on June 7, 1979 when a busload of 65 students and three trainee teachers from Batu Lintang teachers plunged into the Bau lake. Despite efforts to rescue them, 29 students and a teacher died.
About a decade ago, Buso and Siniawan underwent a sad period when they became “ghost towns” because a newly completed road from the 7th mile to Bau, bypassing both bazaars. Today, Buso has been abandoned with only one or two shops operating some business.
On the other hand, the community at Siniawan refused to accept their fate — though it remained an old cowboy town with its one-way street where its inhabitants lazed about along the corridors drinking black coffee.
So the small Chinese community at Siniawan as well as the Bidayuh and Malay inhabitants living on both sides of the river planned for a revival.
With the blessings of the Sarawak government they decided to turn the bazaar into a Chinese heritage site and develop the Malay quarter of Sungei Pinang on the other side of the bank as well. In August 2009 the Chinese inhabitants of Siniawan formed the Siniawan Heritage Conservation Committee with the hope of rekindling the local pride of its rich history.
Today Siniawan is not only a historical town, but a quaint “village” with a thriving birds’ nests business and a Chinese home-stay programme with traditional Chinese rooms, overlooking the Sarawak River.
Three years ago the committee initiated weekend “karaoke” sessions from Friday till Sunday, where potential crooners from the surroundings belt out Mandarin, Malay and English songs.
Nowadays, if you visit Siniawan any time after 7 p.m. you will be able to witness the Great transformation — from an old wooden bazaar with “belian walls” and zinc roofs, to where men and women dine and sing during the music sessions!
Every year the bazaar holds an annual “Country and Western” night where people from all over Sarawak, even as far as Bario, flock to Kuching walking the single-lane street like gun slingers — in cowboy hats and boots — before dancing to the music of bands in action.
One of Siniawan’s biggest worries is that like all the old bazaars which have succumbed to fires, there is a need to upgrade the antique wiring system of the old shop houses. Over the years, through wear and tear, even rats gnawed on the wires — causing short-circuits which led to fires.
Kuek warned, “Siniawan is a very old town and the facade is beautiful, but the house owners must be warned that the old wiring system of the two blocks of shop lots must be upgraded to prevent any mishap.”
Apart from that, the wooden premises, many of them constructed with precious ‘belian’ iron wood could easily go up in smoke because of some careless mishap such as forgetting to put off the stove or leaving a kerosene lamp unattended.
The Bau fire brigade is miles away and on a hot day, the tinder dry village could vanish in seconds.
That aside, if anyone is game, Siniawan is just a short 30 minute ride from Kuching and worth the drive. But beware as you pass by the Chinese graveyard along the stretch of the pitch-dark old road, which still has no street lights!
In fact, not too far away at Jugan is the grave of a famous Chinese war lord and rebel Liu Shan Bang who was killed in battle. Be warned that his restless spirit is said to seeking retribution for his murder and the massacre his 3,000 Chinese loyalists 170 years ago.
