What’s in a name?

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Photo shows St James’ Church, Quop. Call the road to Quop Village, Jalan Bishop Howes.

AUNTIE Di and I have made it a point to discover as much as possible about the countryside in the immediate vicinity of Kuching City South. Amazing what interesting, and new (to us!) lanes and byways and ‘jalan tikus’ we have found. We have been doing a series of little half-day expeditions for the past year or so, weather permitting.

Considering we originate from Lundu and Hamilton, New Zealand respectively, it’s a bit of a miracle that we ever met. But here we are, having long adopted Kuching as our place of predilection. However, after half a century of living and working in this place, we haven’t really learned a lot about the immediate outskirts of Kuching let alone its vast hinterland. There is no end to learning at any age; we are curious how roads are named, by whom and why.

So these Sunday drives are a refreshing change, away from the city’s malls, from talks on beads or heritage or herbs, or from the cultural activities at the Waterfront – and most of all from political gossip and scandals far and near.

 

Jalan Kimura

Driving along a road in the outback of Kuching is not as interesting as the discovery of a legend or real story about a place that the road passes by. Last Sunday, we explored a curiosity. How long is Jalan Kimura from Kuching-Quop Road, and from where we are? Why is it called Kimura? It sounds Japanese and it is connected with a famous name indeed.

The locals at Kampung Kuap Dayak (or Quop if you prefer) told us something about the name but we found out more from a book called ‘A Fair Ground’ written by Peter HH Howes, an Anglican missionary who later became Assistant Bishop of Kuching.

The road has a Japanese connection. A Japanese by the name Kimura was a successful farmer there long before the Japanese war. He married a local Dayak girl; his descendants still own land there.

 

Kimura and Howes

There was in fact an interesting relationship in the early weeks of the war, between the English priest and the Japanese farmer of Quop.

Peter Howes was tasked by Bishop Hollis to look after the flock at Quop. When Japanese soldiers came to look for weapons left on the Quop Hill by the government soldiers as they escaped to the Dutch Borneo via Bau, Kimura did not disclose that there was an ‘enemy’ in the Mission centre. Well, they found him anyway, and good Mr Kimura was severely slapped by the Japanese soldiers. Howes was detained in the infamous Batu Lintang camp for the duration of the war.

After the war, Kimura was detained by British soldiers. As an ‘enemy’, he should have been repatriated. But Fr Howes, straight out of prison camp, and the parishioners of St James’ Quop, pleaded to save Kimura from being sent back to Japan. After all, so Howes explained, this man hadn’t come with the occupation forces; he had lived and farmed in Quop for a long time and was a good honest man. This saved Kimura from being expelled to Japan. Later he became a British citizen.

One fine Sunday we decided to turn off the Quop road and into Jalan Kimura. After a short drive, we came to a crossroads. Jalan Kimura again but a choice of three roads. Which is the real Jalan Kimura? We turned right and drove for a while, interesting secondary jungle, steep up and down, but then the road got narrower and narrower. We back tracked and tried the middle road. It looked to be a pretty narrow track – couldn’t possibly be a public road – but Auntie Di insisted that the road with a white line in the centre had to be the ‘official’ one.

Lo and behold, after some 10 minutes along that road we reached Jalan Muara Tuang. The one we had started on as Jalan Kimura was named ‘Jalan Sebisak’ at this end.

 

Who or what is or was Sebisak?

Perhaps, during the next trip we may be able to find out what or who Sebisak is or was. He or she may be a famous local figure or a well-known place that deserves a road a named after him or her or it. Or, most likely, a river or a hill.

On the way back to Kuching, I was thinking to myself that it would be appropriate to name a road in that area after Peter Howes. Bishop Howes was a Member of the State Legislature in 1946, one of the few Europeans who voted against the cession of Sarawak to the British Crown. That, incidentally, took a bit of courage!

Back to Muara Tuang road. The old villages of Merdang Gayam and Merdang Lumut are beyond recognition in the sense that there are now fine houses and a general air of prosperity – the market, the new church, the school. A sign of economic advancement, part of the larger community which includes Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas).

Within three hours including stops for drinks one can learn something about an area in a 30km radius of Kuching City either North or South. Let’s share information that adds to the general knowledge of heritage of a place.

If one cares to ask from people who remember things, and reads the literature on a particular area in Sarawak, there’s always something new to learn.

Next week? Anyone for a trip to Lidah Tanah?

Comments can reach the writer via [email protected].