The Kinabatangan District () is an

administrative district Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...

in the

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

n state of

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...

, part of the

Sandakan Division Sandakan Division () is an administrative division of Sabah, Malaysia. It stretches diagonally from the northeastern coast of Sabah to the state's central region. With an area of 28,205 square kilometres, it occupies 38.3% of Sabah's territory, ...

which includes the districts of Beluran, Kinabatangan,

Sandakan Sandakan () formerly known at various times as Elopura, is the capital of the Sandakan District in Sabah, Malaysia. It is the second largest city in Sabah after Kota Kinabalu. It is located on the Sandakan Peninsula and east coast of the sta ...

, Telupid and Tongod. The capital of the district is in Kinabatangan Town.

Etymology

The name Kinabatangan was originally called "Cinabatangan" which means a long river by a Chinese settlement governor in the area named

Ong Sum Ping Ong Sum Ping () is a legendary figure.Johannes L. Kurz "Making History in Borneo: Ong Sum Ping during the Late Yuan and Early Ming Dynasties" International Journal of Asia-Pacific Studies 14.2 (2018) http://ijaps.usm.my/?page_id=4256 Identified ...

who had arrived to the area in the 16th century. It is believed that the name of Kampung Mumiang, Sukau and Bilit located in the district also comes from the

Chinese language Chinese ( or ) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and List of ethnic groups in China, many minority ethnic groups in China, as well as by various communities of the Chinese diaspora. Approximately 1.39& ...

. Some sources stated that Kinabatangan was already used by the locals as recorded in the books of French authors in 1782 and 1837, long before the arrival of Chinese immigrants to the area.

History

Bruneian records record the marriage of Sultan

Ahmad Ahmad () is an Arabic male given name common in most parts of the Muslim world. Other English spellings of the name include Ahmed. It is also used as a surname. Etymology The word derives from the root ( ḥ-m-d), from the Arabic (), from ...

, Sultan

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

's brother, to Princess Kinabatangan who is the sister of Ong Sum Ping, who ruled 1408–1426. The modern district are established during the administration of the

North Borneo Chartered Company The North Borneo Chartered Company (NBCC), also known as the British North Borneo Company (BNBC), was a British chartered company formed on 1 November 1881 to administer and exploit the resources of North Borneo (present-day Sabah in Malaysia) ...

. At the beginning, the district office is known as the Lamag District Office which established in 1905 by the British colonial authorities whose administrative centre is located in Lamag. The office however only provide services in the affairs of the administration and court. The office later known as Kinabatangan District Office where it is now provide a wider range of services including in district development planning, socio-economics, infrastructure facilities and human capital.

Geography

The nearby

Kinabatangan River The Kinabatangan River () is a river in Sandakan Division, in eastern Sabah, Malaysia. It is the second longest river in Malaysia, with a length of from its headwaters in the mountains of southwest Sabah to its outlet at the Sulu Sea, east of ...

is an area along which small fragments of lowland riverine

rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

remains which is the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary. The area is wet and humid and the swampy lowlands are home to particularly high densities of Borneo's more emblematic birds and mammals, such as

hornbills Hornbills are birds found in tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia and Melanesia of the family Bucerotidae. They are characterized by a long, down-curved bill which is frequently brightly coloured and sometimes has a horny casque on the upper ...

Borneo elephant The Borneo elephant, also called the Bornean elephant or the Borneo pygmy elephant, is a subspecies of Asian elephant ''(Elephas maximus)'' that inhabits northeastern Borneo, in Indonesia and Malaysia. Its origin remains the subject of debate. A ...

s, and the endemic

proboscis monkey The proboscis monkey or long-nosed monkey (''Nasalis larvatus'') is an arboreal Old World monkey with an unusually large nose (or proboscis), a reddish-brown skin color and a long tail. It is endemic to the southeast Asian island of Borneo an ...

. Scattered in the area are

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

outcrops, many with caves that harbour large nesting colonies of echolocating

swiftlet Swiftlets are birds from the four genera ''Aerodramus'', ''Collocalia'', ''Hydrochous'' and ''Schoutedenapus'', which form the tribe (biology), tribe Collocaliini within the swift (bird), swift family (biology), family Apodidae. The group contain ...

s, as well as endemic limestone-inhabiting flora and fauna, such as

Diplommatinidae Diplommatinidae is a family (biology), family of small land snails, also known as staircase snails, with an operculum (gastropod), operculum, Terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Cyclophoroidea. The Cochlostom ...

snails. The largest and best known of these limestone hills is Gomantong Caves. Kinabatangan also is the large of area under Ramsar site (estuary) with 78,000 hectares both combined rivers that as Kinabatangan and Segama was gazetted in 2008 as 'Kinabatangan-Segama Wetlands Ramsar site'. The recognition is significant, as the wetlands comprise rarely found coastal mangrove swamps and peat jungles.

Demographics

According to the last census in 2010, the population of the district is estimated to be around 146,987 inhabitants. As in other districts of Sabah, there are a significant number of illegal immigrants from the nearby southern

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, mainly from the

Sulu Archipelago The Sulu Archipelago ( Tausug: Kapū'-pūan sin Sūg Sulat Sūg: , ) is a chain of islands in the Pacific Ocean, in the southwestern Philippines. The archipelago forms the northern limit of the Celebes Sea and southern limit of the Sulu Se ...

and

Mindanao Mindanao ( ) is the List of islands of the Philippines, second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and List of islands by population, seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the ...

of whom are not included in the population statistics.

Gallery

File:Bilit Sabah Nurul-Hikmah-Mosque-01.jpg, Nurul Hikmah Mosque. File:Kinabatangan Sabah Jalan-Sukau-01.jpg, Sukau Road. File:RiversOfSabah SungaiKinabatanganBridge-03.jpg, Kinabatangan Bridge. File:BatuPutih Sabah AgopBatuTulug-23.jpg, Batu Putih.

References

External links

*
Kinabatangan District Council
*
Kinabatangan District Office
{{Authority control