The Borneo Story: Cavemen of Today

This is the third in the series of The Borneo Story by Tom Harrisson and Hugh Gibb in the late 1950s courtesy of The Doozer.

The episode investigates the ancient past of Malay and Penan tribes along the Niah River. Cave painting and burial grounds are shown. Six dances and games of Niah death rites are performed. It is truly amazing to look back at a past review of an ancient past of a group of people.

The Borneo Story: 'Cavemen of Today' from The Doozer on Vimeo.

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The Borneo Story: Birds Nest Soup

This is the second in the series of The Borneo Story by Tom Harrisson and Hugh Gibb in the late 1950s courtesy of The Doozer.

This episode documented the collection, sale, processing, cooking, and consumption of edible birds nests from Niah caves. It is notable that 'Birds Nest Soup' won a Grand Prix award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1958.

The Borneo Story: 'Birds Nest Soup' from The Doozer on Vimeo.

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The Borneo Story: Borneo from the Beginning

The Borneo Story is a much applauded but hard-to-find nine-part TV series documentary on Borneo first broadcast on the BBC in 1957. The documentary was produced by British film-makers and anthropologists, Tom Harrisson (1911–1976) and Hugh Gibb (1915-1990).

The documentary was filmed in a variety of locations throughout Borneo (mostly in Sarawak). Thanks to The Doozer, who had converted VHS tapes of the Borneo Story into digital format, we can now watch interesting footages of the days gone by on various tribal groups such as the Dayaks, and their ways of life as well as the rainforest, caves, rivers and swamps.

The first in the series (view below) is called 'Borneo from the Beginning' which is about the excavation of Niah caves where archaeologists dig for signs of prehistoric man in the caves.

The Borneo Story: 'Borneo from the Beginning' from The Doozer on Vimeo.

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Bekenu, Miri spreads out tour attractions

MIRI: Bekenu is poised to be developed as a tourism hub especially for agro-tourism and homestay programmes.

Its assemblyman Rosey Yunus says as Bekenu is the nearest district to Miri city and it has good infrastructure, it has the potential to be developed into a tourism asset.

“We already have two homestays here — the Kedayan Homestay at Bungai and Rumah Panjang Patrick Libau.

“We are also going to have another homestay at Kuala Sibuti soon,” she told reporters after a Hari Raya open house visit by the Head of State and his wife at her residence yesterday.

The former educationist added that the beautiful landscape, huge orchard farms, unique Kedayan and Iban culture, the presence of archaeological heritage of Niah Caves and beautiful diving spots off Bekenu were some of the added advantage of the area.

“We are working closely with the Tourism Ministry as well as the Federal Agriculture Marketing Authority to develop the cottage industry too,” she said, adding that she was also focussed on developing basic amenities for her constituency.

“For now we have managed to ensure that at least 90% of the people in Bekenu have basic amenities like roads, water and electricity,” she said, adding that the RM2mil Sepupok Water scheme launched this year would be completed by mid next year.

Continue reading at: Bekenu, Miri spreads out tour attractions
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Hope for naming of Niah Caves as World Heritage Site

KUCHING: Sarawak is waiting for the Niah Caves to be inscribed as a World Heritage Site.



Tourism and Heritage Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg said the state, through the Federal Government, had nominated the caves for certification as a World Heritage Site in the middle of last year.



The nomination had to be assessed by two panels — one at the national level and the other by the World Heritage Committee based at the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (Unesco) headquarters in Paris.



“We are looking forward to have Niah Caves as our next Unesco World Heritage Site. We haven’t got the result yet, but hope it will get the status,” he said yesterday.



The Niah Caves at Niah National Park is an important archaeological and historical site as some of the oldest human remains in South-East Asia had been found there.



Evidence shows that the caves had sheltered early humans more than 40,000 years ago.



Continue reading at: Hope for naming of Niah Caves as World Heritage Site

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Sarawak confident Niah Caves will be World Heritage site soon

NIAH: The state government has high hopes that the Niah Caves that sheltered early humans more than 40,000 years ago will be listed as a World Heritage site soon.

With this in mind, Assistant Minister for Tourism Datuk Talib Zulpilip said the state government had sent all the necessary paper work to Unesco.

Saying the state would follow up on the matter, he pointed out that the listing was very important and would have far reaching benefits not only to the people in Sarawak and Malaysia but also to the world community.

Among the benefits, he said, are tourism attractions and development as the caves and park are already popular tourist attractions, and getting the caves listed as a World Heritage site could also attract conservation funding.

“While the government and the relevant agencies are doing their best to have the caves listed as historical site, and also continue becoming places of attraction, the people, particularly visitors to the caves, too must play their roles.

“Visitors, please stop the ‘modern paintings’ on the caves. It is very disgusting and insulting to the heritage,” he said.

Talib told reporters this on Tuesday before leading members of the Tourism Taskforce Group (TTG) Miri Division, staff of his ministry and the Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) in the ‘gotong royong’ project to remove graffiti in the caves.

Among those present were Sibuti MP Ahmad Lai Bujang, deputy chairman of TTG Abdul Aziz Yusuf, who is also the Deputy Resident of Miri Division, SFC Miri head Abang Araby Abang Aimran, Niah Park warden Haidar Ali and the Miri coordinator of Totally Protected Areas Kamal Abdullah

Continue reading (Incl. Pic) at: Sarawak confident Niah Caves will be World Heritage site soon

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Bring back Niah Caves artefacts from abroad

MIRI: Archaeological artefacts taken from Niah Caves and which are now overseas should be brought home as they are the heritage of Sarawak and Malaysia, said Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud.

Archaeologists from as far as Nevada University in the United States of America had showed interest in Niah Caves as early as 1957 when 122 skeletons were taken away to be studied by Richard and Sheilagh Brooks.

Though the Brooks have prepared some reports, none have been published.

Professor Zuraina Majid last inspected them in 2004.

“As the Brooks are elderly and no longer able to conduct research I would like to propose that the artefacts, or some of them, be brought back to Sarawak,” said Taib at the launch of an international seminar on Bornean archaeology here Wednesday night.

The Centre for Global Archaeological Research, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Penang had brought back Gua Cha (Kelantan) burials from Cambridge University in 2008.

“However, before the Niah burials could be taken back Sarawak Museum must build a special room with specially designed curation boxes to meet appropriate standards of storage and preservation,” said Taib.

The proposed place for this is at the left wing of Miri Petroleum Museum which could be designed and prepared with assistance of USM staff.

“The burials should be brought home so as to be easily accessible to researchers,” Taib said.

The estimated cost of the whole project is around RM1.5 million which includes initial investigation trips to Las Vegas, air freight and airfares and construction of a special curation room and facilities.

Taib also proposed the nomination of Niah Caves as Unesco World Heritage Site.

Continue reading at: Bring back Niah Caves artefacts from abroad
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Niah Caves Should Be A World Heritage Site

MIRI -- The Niah Caves, located some 120 kilometres from Miri city, should be another world heritage site in Sarawak for its uniqueness, Chief Minister, Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud said here.

Speaking to launch an International Seminar on Bornean Archaeology here last night, he said by being a world heritage site, Niah Caves could enhance Sarawak's status in the world stage after similar accolade was achieved for the Mulu Caves.

He said archaeologists from as far as Nevada University in the United States had been showing their interests towards Niah Caves as early as in 1957 where 122 skeletons found were brought there to be studied.

"Though they have prepared some reports on the burials (of the skeletons), none has been published. I would like to propose that the burials be brought back to Sarawak," he added.

He said the burials being the heritage of Sarawak and Malaysia should be brought home to facilitate researchers to carry out further study and analysis.

Taib said that he would seriously study the State Museum's requests for the organisation's restructuring process to accommodate more human resources for their research sections, in particular archaeology.

Continue reading at: Niah Caves Should Be A World Heritage Site
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