Melanau - History and Cultural Relations



Few reliable historical records of the Melanau exist before the nineteenth century, although European travelers and map-makers placed names not unlike "Melanau" on the northwest coast of Borneo. There are also probable references to the Melanau even earlier in Chinese records. The Coastal Melanau and the Kajang groups in the interior relate that their ancestors migrated from central Borneo and founded a Kajang kingdom from which the Coastal Melanau broke away. The Coastal Melanau believe that much of their culture and many of their institutions are derived from the legendary empire of the folk hero Tugau, who was overthrown in a struggle with Brunei. Some historians suggest that these events occurred in the fourteenth century, others, as early as the seventh. In 1861 the Melanau coastal district was ceded to James Brooke, the rajah of Sarawak, by the sultan of Brunei. The Rajang Delta was already under the control of Sarawak. The cession was made to gain control of the export of sago flour to Singapore. The trade was essential for the survival of the regime of the rajah of Sarawak. So as not to disturb the flow of trade, the rajahs interfered as little as possible with the local social and political organization. During World War II the third rajah sold the country to the British government, which, until Sarawak became a part of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963, instituted a number of modernizing economic and educational changes, accompanied by further developments in representative government and administrative institutions.


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