Places of Worship & Devotion

The host deity, the Golden Buddha was first found drifting along the Lundu river by a group of Iban boys in 2012. It is now hosted in Poh Lin Shan 保灵山 at the road junction to Serikin in Bau, in a natural limestone cave by devotees. One of the local devotees, Tan, earlier on was already planning for a place of worship in the area; coincidentally, this mysterious Golden Buddha Statue was found, the rest is history. It was said to be floating a thousand miles in the sea, at sitting position, before reaching Lundu. Could this be due to the mega tsunami in 2012? There are many mysterious stories or sayings on this floating Buddha and the limestone cave; one of those is about the mystical sangha shadow glimmering on a limestone wall in the cave, it is believed that the invisible image will only appear to those with faith. Undoubtedly, Poh Lin Shan has added another attraction in Bau recently to both the religious devotees and the tourists, and hopefully continued to bring pro...

This is a forgotten sad story of a Chinese leader Liu Shan Bang, the Twelve Kongsi operating in the Mau San gold mine, and the once prosperous self governed mining town of Bau Lama or Mau San. The Mau San Tian Tsze Lung Kung is more than a century old. It was founded around the time when gold & antimony were discovered in Mau San, about 1820 – 1830. The host deity is Lau Chu Tian Tsze, a deity of Hakka origin since most of the miners were Hakka, originally mostly from Sambas, Kalimantan. This temple provided the pioneer miners spiritual supports and also served as a centre for cultural activities & other administrative matters of the Twelve Kongsi. Before the arrival of Sir James Brooke, Sarawak was under the rule of Brunei. Around that time, Sarawak, particularly the settlement around the gold mining areas were facing an uprising against the Brunei ruling from native Dayaks and the Malays. James Brooke assisted the Sultan of Brunei to settle the local civil war ...

Si Won Yea (Stone God) at Paku, Bau, about 30km from Kuching, by the old Kuching/ Bau Highway Facelift 2010

“ Over a hundred years ago, a small Catholic Chapel was built among the Bidayuh on the slope of Mt. Singai, Bau, Sarawak in 1885. Today this majestic ancestral home of the Bidayuh of Singai is no longer inhabited following the migration of the people to the surrounding lowlands. The site of the first chapel at Mt. Singai however has been turned into a Memorial and Pilgrimage Centre with the building, completion and blessing of the Centre in November 1999. The Centre has attracted a lot of Catholics and other Christian Pilgrims and has become very popular with the local Catholics and other Christian denominations and those from other places, so much so that the existing living quarters, especially the washrooms and toilet facilities could no longer cope with the increase in the number of visitors there.” Above extracts was from a memo (dated 30 July 2007) posted at the CMPC at Mt. Singai, Bau, Sarawak. Mt. Singai, situated between Bau & Batu Kawa, about 550m hi...