Tom Harrisson’s own account of The Airmen and the Headhunters incident

Culture

by Patricia Hului - July 18, 2019July 17, 2019

The Airmen and the Headhunters: A True Story of Lost Soldiers, Heroic Tribesmen and the Unlikeliest Rescue of World War II is a book written by Judith M. Heimann. It tells the story of

How did the rumours of Kayans practising cannibalism spread?

Culture

by Patricia Hului - July 17, 2019July 16, 2019

One of the biggest misconceptions of Borneo in the 19th century was that it was a place where cannibalism was common practice. Plenty of tribes in Borneo were depicted as cannibals in European writing,

Preparing for war expeditions in Sarawak during the 19th century

Culture

by Patricia Hului - July 15, 2019July 15, 2019

Be it a punitive excursion or a tribal feud, war expeditions way back in the 19th century Sarawak took a lot of time and resources to prepare. Taking the infamous cholera expedition in 1902,

What does a bleeding corpse tell you in different cultures?

Culture

by Patricia Hului - July 12, 2019July 12, 2019

Do you know what happens to your body after your heart stops beating? Within seconds of death, the oxygen in your body will be depleted. Then the blood collects in the most dependent parts

The Sarawak Museum curator who became a cockroach specialist

Culture

by Patricia Hului - July 11, 2019July 11, 2019

Back in the early days of Sarawak Museum, many of its curators became prominent zoologists, anthropologists and archaeologists. Being posted here in Sarawak when it was almost unknown to the Western world allowed these

How did the headhunting practice start in Borneo?

Culture

by Patricia Hului - July 10, 2019July 10, 2019

Headhunting is the act of taking and preserving a person’s head after killing that person. Generally, scholars agree that headhunting practice’s primary function was for ritualistic and ceremonial purposes. Some even theorized that the

The inspiring story of MV Nam Hoi and its crew during WWII in Igan

Culture

by Patricia Hului - July 5, 2019July 5, 2019

If you've never heard of Igan, it is a small district located near the Batang Igan river in the central region of Sarawak. The population is mostly made up of Melanau people, who are

5 ways Sarawakians used to measure distance in the olden days

Culture

by Patricia Hului - July 4, 2019July 4, 2019

“One of the most difficult things in this world is to find out from a Dyak the distance between one place and another.” This was what Charles Grant wrote in A Tour amongst the Dyaks

Sarawak ten electrical commandments from the 1920s

Culture

by Patricia Hului - July 3, 2019July 2, 2019

Did you know that when plans for electric street lighting were drawn up in Penang and Kuala Lumpur in 1894, the second White Rajah Charles Brooke refused to adopt this new technology? Despite his misgivings,

Get to know these 12 animal species named after Charles Hose

Travel

by Patricia Hului - July 1, 2019July 1, 2019

Charles Hose was not just a British colonial administrator, he was a prominent zoologist and ethnologist. He also contributed to the discovery of oil in Sarawak. Hose first arrived in Sarawak in April 1884