Sepupok – a unique history

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The Niah River flowing towards the Niah Caves.

The Niah River flowing towards the Niah Caves.

SEPUPOK is also known as Old Niah Town. Many people are often confused by its two names and unique history.

During the Brooke rule and the British colonial administration, Sepupok was the gateway to the Niah Caves and therefore, the precious birds’ nests as well.

Originally, it was a 12-woodenshop Chinese bazaar set up in the early 20th century and surrounded by Iban longhouses, Penan settlements and Kedayan fishing villages.

Until very recently, people travelled to the Niah Caves by longboat along the Niah River in the absence of no roads between Miri and Old Niah or Sepupok.

In the 1950’s and 60’s, the research and excavation of the Niah Caves were conducted via Sepupok. The administrative centre of Niah, especially Subis, is in the District Office building on top of the hill, overlooking Sungai Peri and the old Sepupok bazaar.

Thirty years ago, the Malaysian government built a road joining Sepupok to the main trans-Sarawak road, leading to the founding of a new township called Batu Niah and putting Niah Caves on the world tourist map. This has led to the ‘Second Life of Sepupok’.

In the last two years, a new Sepupok — its ‘third life’ — had risen up along the new Coastal Road.

 

Iban-Chinese trading

In her younger days, Monica Ngumbang’s world revolved around her longhouse along the Niah River.

Naturally, she compared most things with what she knew. When first brought to see the Chinese shops of Sepupok by her parents in the late 60’s, she likened the whole Chinese bazaar to their longhouse.

“The shops were the bilik where the towkays sold stuff or served coffee and the five foot way was the ruai. Upstairs would be the sleeping area for the families. And like the longhouse, the bazaar faced the river,” she said.

The original wooden shophouses in Sepupok.

The original wooden shophouses in Sepupok.

Monica was born in Rumah Limbang, not too far from Sepupok, more than 40 years ago. She vividly remembers the Chinese wooden shops and the Chinese friends she made there.

Her parents tied their longboats to jetty of their special ‘towkay’. Each family would be closely connected with one towkay.

It was always a good outing for the family to sail down the Niah River to Sepupok where Monica’s parents would sell their rubber sheets, rice and jungle produce.

On their return journey, they were happy to load their store-bought items in their longboat. The children loved having some cakes, biscuits and even sweets as treats. Aerated water from the coffeeshop was a must while their mum would also buy some material.

Monica remembers the towkays and the Ibans from the various longhouses were the best of friends, calling each other by their nicknames. The usual arrangement was for the customers to purchase goods and pay at the end of the month.

Each family would have a special ‘account book’ to record their purchases from the towkays.

 

Thriving town

Inggol Rangong, who was born in Ulu Niah, told thesundaypost Sepupok was not only a ‘thriving town’ back then but also a centre for news about the ‘outside world’. The Ulu folks brought down rice, rubber sheets and jungle produce, including rattan and game meat.

Inggol said: “Sepupok was the business centre, before Batu Niah was established. It was truly an old trading centre during the colonial days.”

The Chinese towkays also conducted ‘mobile’ business upriver in longboats filled with biscuits, sugar, salt, salted vegetables, fresh Chinese vegetables.

The famous udang galah mee sold at Sum Pheng, Sepupok.

The famous udang galah mee sold at Sum Pheng, Sepupok.

They would stay a week at each longhouse, and on their return journey, their longboats would be filled with jungle produce such as rattan, fruits, rice and rubber sheets.

The relationship between the Chinese and the Iban was always amicable and some even became ‘bian’ or brothers.

In return, when the Ibans needed to stay at Sepupok for administrative purposes (Sepupok was then the British administrative centre of the Niah Valley), they were welcomed to stay with the shopkeepers and their families.

Most of the Ibans had ‘Seagull’ brand outboard engines. The boat of Inggol’s father was driven by a small three-horse power unit but to Inggol, as a child, it was the fastest boat in the world.

 

Early education

The Chinese settlers set up their own school — the Ching Nam Primary School — for their children and the Iban children who would like to attend school.

One of the towkayneos from a shop in Sepupok told thesundaypost she enjoyed going to school near the wooden shops. Set up in 1922, the school always had good teachers.

The Ching Nam Chinese Primary School, established in 1922.

The Ching Nam Chinese Primary School, established in 1922.

Twenty-nine years ago, the Chinese shopowners moved to the concrete shoplots after the access road was built. Life became very different from then on.

Today, the towkayneo still stays in Sepupok where she says business is slow and life is quiet. Her children have moved to do business in Miri and Batu Niah where there are opportunies of better education for her grandchildren.

 

Earliest Birds’ Nest Centre

The Niah Caves have always been known to produce some of the best birds’ nests in the world. Young men — Iban, Kayan or Penan — would climb up long bamboo poles to collect the birds’ nests from the ceilings of the Caves.

While many had been injured during these dangerous climbs, most would still risk their lives to collect the stuff from some of the most precarious roofs.

Monica remembers very clearly an old woman who did nothing but tweeze small feathers from the high grade birds’ nests. So in retrospect, Monica witnessed the beginning of birds’ nests business in Sepupok.

Inggol Ranggong also commented that because of the high price of processed birds’ nests, most Ibans did not eat them.

Apparently, collecting and selling bird’s nests is still a Chinese business — and specifically also a Chinese delicacy.

 

Population and early settlement

Older Ibans still talk about their involvement in the northward migration during the Brooke rule in 1934, led by the Panaus of Skaloh and Renggan. The Raah  appointed Manggoi as the first Iban penghulu of the area.

It was the then government’s policy to encourage the cultivation of rice and later, rubber in the rich valleys of Bintulu, Niah, Sibuti, Baram and Limbang.

The Second Rajah gave letters of authority to his loyal Ibans to bring settled agriculture to the northern Sarawak. As part of the Iban diaspora, Tuai Rumah Ranggong came to settle in the Saeh Valley in Ulu Niah.

Also, a large longhouse community — Rumah Libau with homestay facilities — is situated near the Niah Caves. There are more than 40 Iban longhouses scattered all over the Niah valley now.

Melanaus had also settled in this area to focus on fishing and forestry and other government administrative works. T1he Malays came too. Many of them were originally traders from Brunei, according to historical records.

According the blog — Trekking Sarawak — the Penan people are the original inhabitants of the Niah area and may have ancestry going back 40,000 years.

These nomadic Penans had converted to Islam in the 18th century and settled in Malay style kampungs. The largest group of Muslim Penans live in Tanjong Belipat.

The Malays, however, had arrived in Niah from Brunei and were originally traders but in Niah, they took up fishing and farming.

Interestingly in the past, the collection of birds’ nests was well managed — 10 acres of the Niah Cave were divided into over 500 territories which were awarded as traditional collecting rights to the Penans.

Anyone wanting to collect bird’s nests in Niah must go through the Penan territorial owners or buy them out.

Today, the actual birds’ nests collectors are from all races, including the Bugis who arrived in the wake of oil palm expansion. Birds’ nests are supposed to be collected only twice a year but now, everyone collects as often as possible and many illegally too.

Tom Harrison wrote that the Chinese had probably been visiting the Niah valley in search of birds’ nests since the Tang Dynasty. In 1959, he also found Chinese tools for collecting edible birds’nests in the caves.

However, there are also many Chinese sources referring to the birds nests traffic in Melaka during the Ming Dynasty. The main Chinese settlers in Niah only arrived in the early 20th century and they cultivated pepper as well.

The present Chinese population is mainly of Fujian ancestry and speak the Minnang dialect, usually known a Hokkien. Many arrived in the 1920’s while some later to settle permanently in Sepupok. A small number also moved away from Miri by boat to escape the Japanese Occupation.

The Niah River is notorious for crocodiles but it also offers the best of fish and excellent river prawns. River prawns or udang galah have made coffeeshops here such as Yam Seng and Sum Pheng very well known in northern Sarawak.

Tourism business can be improved once there is concerted effort made to bring tourists to watch the fireflies at night, go on small river cruises and do bird watching. Every day, the locals and fishermen from as far away as Bintulu come here for fishing and catching prawns.

 

Challenges of Sepupok

The old Chinese towkays at Sepupok still remember the only clinic in those days was found in Sepupok. Native mothers brought their babies for triple antigen and other injections. Kids would squirm and cry because of their fear of injection.

The dressers who served the people in the Niah Valley, were treated with a great deal of respect, so were the District Officer, and the Sarawak Administrative Officers.

Today, patients seeking treatment can go in their own vehicles to Batu Niah where there is a private clinic and a government clinic about half an hour’s drive away.

Since the arrival of land transport, lifestyle has changed completely. Batu Niah is now easily reached — Bekenu is only 40 minutes and Miri one and half hours from there.

As a result, Sepupok was pushed aside, turning it into a quiet out-of-the-way bazaar with a small population. For many years, the shop keepers have been feeling the pinch as they could no longer earn a good living.

While some left to join their children in Miri, those who stayed back, continue to have their own businesses such as Yam Seng and Sum Pheng coffee shops.

A shopkeeper, when asked if he would move to the new Sepupok township along the coastal road, replied: “It’s hard to say. We will wait and see what happens.”

Sepupok has transformed from a wooden bazaar into a little town in the last 100 years. And now a third phase of development, featuring KFC, Pizza Hut and modern glass paneled shophouses, are coming up along the busy coastal road.

What will be its future be? Only time will tell.