The Kelabit Highlands are a mountain range located in the northernmost part of Sarawak, Malaysia in the Miri Division. It hosts the Bario village.[1] The highest mountains in this range are Mount Murud at 2,423 metres (7,949 ft), Bukit Batu Buli at 2,082 metres (6,831 ft), and Bukit Batu Lawi at 2,046 metres (6,713 ft). The current population of the Kelabit people is about 6,800.

Maligan Highlands, another highland nearby located within the Limbang Division, hosts the Ba'kelalan village.[1]

Geography

The rocks of the Kelabit Highlands comprise mudstones, sandstones, and limestones ranging in age from the Oligocene to Miocene periods. In terms of plate tectonics, the region was a basin formed by warping at a subduction zone where the continental crust was forced upwards. The estimated rate of uplift is 20 mm per century for the last two million years.[2] Bario showed a lowering in temperatures during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM).[3]

Villages

Bario

The area hosts 13 villages.[4] Seven of these are in the Bario area while the others are around the outskirts of the plateau. 'Bario Asal' as the original longhouse within the plateau and Ulung Palang, Arur Dalan, Pa'Ramapoh Atas and Pa'Ramapoh Bawah, Pa' Derung, Padang Pasir and Kampung Baru are resettled villages in 1960s. To the east side are Pa'Umor, Pa'Ukat and Pa'Lungan and to the south are Long Dano, Pa'Dallih and Remudu. The other two villages are Long Lellang and Long Seridan.

Economy

In 2011, Ceria Group, a Malaysian agricultural company introduced mechanised farming of rice in the region.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b "Meet the highlanders of Sarawak". Borneo Talk. Archived from the original on 11 April 2021. Retrieved 21 August 2022.
  2. ^ Ghazally, Ismail; Laily, Din (1998). A scientific journey through Borneo - Bario - The Kelabit Highlands of Sarawak (PDF). Sarawak: Pelanduk publications. ISBN 978-9679786224. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 August 2017. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  3. ^ Jones, S.E.; Hunt, C.O; Reimer, P.J. (21 March 2014). "A Late Pleistocene record of climate and environmental change from the northern and southern Kelabit Highlands of Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo". Journal of Quaternary Science. 29 (2): 105–122. Bibcode:2014JQS....29..105J. doi:10.1002/jqs.2682.
  4. ^ "Bario, land of a hundred handshakes". Sarawak Tourism Board. Archived from the original on 3 April 2016. Retrieved 21 May 2017.
  5. ^ Coates, Karen (6 July 2015). "Mechanization Brings Quick Change To Borneo Region Known For 'Slow Rice'". NPR (National Public Radio). Archived from the original on 21 August 2022. Retrieved 21 August 2022.

External links

Kelabit Highlands travel guide from Wikivoyage

4°13′25.73″N 114°21′58.02″E / 4.2238139°N 114.3661167°E / 4.2238139; 114.3661167

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