Mount Santubong Sarawak

MOUNT SANTUBONG KUCHING SARAWAK

Mount Santubong (Malay: Gunung Santubong) is a mountain in the Malaysian state of Sarawak. It is located about 35 km north of the state capital Kuching.
On a clear day, it can be seen from Kuching. The mountain and its surrounding area is a popular tourist attraction.

 A legend often associated with the mountain is of two beautiful princesses of heaven, Santubong and Sejinjang. Santubong was an expert weaver while Sejinjang was an excellent rice tresher. When war broke out between two villages, Kampung Pasir Puteh and Kampung Pasir Kuning, the King of Heaven sent the princesses to keep peace in both villages. The villagers saw both beautiful princesses and stopped the war. After the war, both princesses taught the villagers their expertise and both villages began to trade and became prosperous. Many princes heard of them and came from the whole island to marry them, but all was denied by them. One day, a handsome prince came, and the princesses had a quarrel and exchanged blows because both of them fell in love with the prince. Sejinjang swung her tresher which hit Santubong's cheek. Santubong threw her weaver at Sejinjang, hitting her in the head. Putting an end to the quarrel, the King of Heaven cursed both of them into mountains. Santubong turned into Mount Santubong while Sejinjang was turned into Mount Sejinjang. It is said that both mountains resembles women lying on their back and a crack on Mount Santubong was the scar on Princess Santubong's cheek.

 In 1855 a British naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace who was collecting animals in Santubong, wrote a paper called "Sarawak Law" which can be considered as a precursor to the biological theory of evolution. A year later, Wallace left Sarawak and wrote another article on evolution based on his years of observation in the Far East, that was sent to Charles Darwin and was simultaneously published by the Royal Society. Similar to Galapagos, Mount Santubong should be considered as a scientific world heritage in biological science and should be preserved for the future generations. Unfortunately, the proposal to established the area as a national park never materialise and human settlements as well as touristic development (hotels, golf course and condominium) are claiming most of the low lying areas. It is suggested the world community to set up a fund to buy back the land and save Mount Santubong that is very important in the development of concepts and theories in biological sciences.