The Lahad Datu District () is an administrative district 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

Tawau Division Tawau Division () is one of the five administrative sub-divisions of Sabah, Malaysia. It occupies a total of 14,905 square kilometres or 20% of Sabah's territory. The main towns include the capital of Tawau, Lahad Datu, Kunak and Semporna. Tawau ...

which includes the districts of

Kunak Kunak () is the capital of the Kunak District in the Tawau Division of Sabah, Malaysia. Its population was estimated to be around 13,823 in 2010. The population consists mainly of Bajau and Suluk peoples. There is also a sizeable Chinese m ...

, Lahad Datu, Semporna and

Tawau Tawau (), formerly known as Tawao, is the capital of the Tawau District in Sabah, Malaysia. It is the third-largest city (or town)While Tawau have a population of more than 100,000 of which is considered city elsewhere in the world it is offic ...

. The capital of the district is in Lahad Datu Town.

Etymology

The name "Lahad Datu" comes from the Bajau language, "Lahad" means the place and "Datu" means the dignity of certain people during the sultanate era. The place name traced its roots from the migration of Datu-datu from the

Sultanate of Sulu The Sultanate of Sulu (; ; ) is a Sunni Muslim subnational monarchy in the Philippines, Republic of the Philippines that includes the Sulu Archipelago, coastal areas of Zamboanga City and certain portions of Palawan in today's Philippines. H ...

led by Datu Puti as a result of the handing over this area by the Sultanate of Brunei to Sulu after the Brunei Civil War.

History

Following the acquisition of this area by 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) ...

, the Lahad Datu District was established and subsequently became the major producer of

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

for the company beside

coconut The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family (biology), family (Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, ...

plantations to produce

copra Copra (from ; ; ; ) is the dried, white flesh of the coconut from which coconut oil is extracted. Traditionally, the coconuts are sun-dried, especially for export, before the oil, also known as copra oil, is pressed out. The oil extracted ...

. On 11 February 2013, several armed Filipino supporters of the Sultanate of Sulu, calling themselves the ''Royal Security Forces of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo'', arrived in Lahad Datu district and occupied the village of Tanduo. They were sent by Jamalul Kiram III, a claimant to the throne of the sultanate. His stated goal is to assert the Philippine territorial claim to eastern Sabah as part of the North Borneo dispute. In response, Malaysian security forces surrounded the village. After several negotiations with the group by the Philippine and Malaysian governments to reach a peaceful solution were unsuccessful, the standoff escalated into an

armed conflict War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

which ended with 56 followers of the self-proclaimed sultanate dead and the rest captured by the Malaysian authorities. The Malaysian forces lost ten people in addition to six

civilians A civilian is a person who is not a member of an armed force. It is illegal under the law of armed conflict to target civilians with military attacks, along with numerous other considerations for civilians during times of war. If a civilian enga ...

Demographics

According to the 2010 census, the population of Lahad Datu district is estimated to be around 199,830. 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 ...

, many of whom are not included in the population statistics. The population of the district is divided among the larger communities and the total area of the district as follows:

Tourism

The district has several tourist attractions, including

Danum Valley Conservation Area Danum Valley Conservation Area is a tract of relatively undisturbed Borneo lowland rain forests, lowland dipterocarp forest in Sabah, Malaysia. It has an extensive diversity of tropical flora and fauna, including species such as the rare ...

, Tabin Wildlife Reserve and the Madai Cave.

Gallery

File:Lahad-Datu Sabah Ar-Raudah-Mosque-01.jpg, Ar Raudah Mosque. File:Lahad-Datu Sabah Anglican-Church-St-Mark-02.jpg, St. Mark Anglican Church. File:Lahad-Datu Sabah Gereja-Basel-00.jpg, Lahad Datu Basel Church. File:Lahad-Datu Sabah-Che-Yee-Khor-Moral-Uplifting-Society-01.jpg, Che Yee Khor Moral Uplifting Society. File:Lahad-Datu Sabah Guan-Yin-Temple-08.jpg, Guan Yin Temple. File:Lahad Datu Sabah Gurdwara-Sahib-Singh-Sabha-02.jpg, Gurdwara Sahib Lahad Datu. File:LahadDatu Sabah MountSilam-01.jpg, Mount Silam. File:Lahad-Datu Sabah Tower-of-Heaven-01.jpg, Tower of Heaven.

References

External links

*
Lahad Datu District Council
*
Lahad Datu District Office
{{Districts of Malaysia