Visiting NIAH NATIONAL PARK, 131km north of
Bintulu, is a highly rewarding experience - in less than
a day you can see one of the largest caves in the
world, as well as prehistoric rock graffiti in the
remarkable painted cave, and hike along primary
forest trails. In the outer area of the present park,
deep excavations have revealed human remains,
including skulls which date back forty thousand years,
and artifacts like flake stone tools, mortars and shell
ornaments - the first evidence that people had lived
in Southeast Asia that long ago.
Bintulu, is a highly rewarding experience - in less than
a day you can see one of the largest caves in the
world, as well as prehistoric rock graffiti in the
remarkable painted cave, and hike along primary
forest trails. In the outer area of the present park,
deep excavations have revealed human remains,
including skulls which date back forty thousand years,
and artifacts like flake stone tools, mortars and shell
ornaments - the first evidence that people had lived
in Southeast Asia that long ago.
The park is roughly halfway between Bintulu and Miri,
11km off the main road and 3km north of Batu Niah.
From Batu Niah, it can be reached either by a
half-hour walk, by longboat or taxi.
From the park headquarters, it's a thirty-minute walk
to the caves. Take a sampan across the river and
then follow a wooden walkway through dense
rainforest where you are likely to see monkeys,
hornbills, birdwing butterflies, tree squirrels and flying
lizards. Some distance along the walkway, a clearly
marked path branches off to an iban longhouse,
Rumah Chang, where you can buy drinks and snacks.
The main walkway continues, heading up through the
Trader's Cave (early nest-gatherers would
congregate here to sell their harvests) to the
mind-blowing, west mouth (60m by 250m) of the
Great Cave. From within the immense, draughty
darkness you can hear the voices of the bird's nest
collectors who collect swiftlet nests for use in the
famous bird's-nest soup; their thin beanstalk poles
snake up from the cave floor. Once inside, the
walkway continues on, via Burnt Cave and Moon
Cave, to the Painted Cave, thirty minutes' walk away.
Here, early Sarawak communities buried their dead in
boat-shaped coffins, arranged around the cave walls;
dating of the contents has proved that the caves had
been used as a cemetery for tens of thousands of
years. One of these wooden coffins is still perched on
an incline, its contents long since removed to the
Sarawak Museum. It's hard to distinguish the wall
paintings behind the coffin - a thirty-metre-long
tableau depicting boats on a journey, the figures
apparently either jumping on and off, or dancing. This
image fits various Borneo mythologies where the
dead undergo challenges en route to the afterlife.
There are two other trails in the park. Jalan Madu
splits off the main walkway around 800m from the
park headquarters and cuts first east, then south,
across a peat swamp forest, where you see wild
orchids, mushrooms and pandanus. The trail crosses
Sungei Subis and then follows its south bank to its
confluence with Sungei Niah, from where you'll have
to hail a passing boat to cross over to Batu Niah ($1).
The more spectacular trail to Bukit Kasut starts at the
confluence of these two rivers. After crossing the
river, the clearly marked trail winds through forest,
round the foothills of Bukit Kasut and up to the
summit - a hard one-hour slog, at the end of which
there's a view both of the forest canopy and Batu
Niah.
11km off the main road and 3km north of Batu Niah.
From Batu Niah, it can be reached either by a
half-hour walk, by longboat or taxi.
From the park headquarters, it's a thirty-minute walk
to the caves. Take a sampan across the river and
then follow a wooden walkway through dense
rainforest where you are likely to see monkeys,
hornbills, birdwing butterflies, tree squirrels and flying
lizards. Some distance along the walkway, a clearly
marked path branches off to an iban longhouse,
Rumah Chang, where you can buy drinks and snacks.
The main walkway continues, heading up through the
Trader's Cave (early nest-gatherers would
congregate here to sell their harvests) to the
mind-blowing, west mouth (60m by 250m) of the
Great Cave. From within the immense, draughty
darkness you can hear the voices of the bird's nest
collectors who collect swiftlet nests for use in the
famous bird's-nest soup; their thin beanstalk poles
snake up from the cave floor. Once inside, the
walkway continues on, via Burnt Cave and Moon
Cave, to the Painted Cave, thirty minutes' walk away.
Here, early Sarawak communities buried their dead in
boat-shaped coffins, arranged around the cave walls;
dating of the contents has proved that the caves had
been used as a cemetery for tens of thousands of
years. One of these wooden coffins is still perched on
an incline, its contents long since removed to the
Sarawak Museum. It's hard to distinguish the wall
paintings behind the coffin - a thirty-metre-long
tableau depicting boats on a journey, the figures
apparently either jumping on and off, or dancing. This
image fits various Borneo mythologies where the
dead undergo challenges en route to the afterlife.
There are two other trails in the park. Jalan Madu
splits off the main walkway around 800m from the
park headquarters and cuts first east, then south,
across a peat swamp forest, where you see wild
orchids, mushrooms and pandanus. The trail crosses
Sungei Subis and then follows its south bank to its
confluence with Sungei Niah, from where you'll have
to hail a passing boat to cross over to Batu Niah ($1).
The more spectacular trail to Bukit Kasut starts at the
confluence of these two rivers. After crossing the
river, the clearly marked trail winds through forest,
round the foothills of Bukit Kasut and up to the
summit - a hard one-hour slog, at the end of which
there's a view both of the forest canopy and Batu
Niah.
The Niah Caves of Sarawak
| The Niah Cave is located in the Niah National Park. Humans inhabited the Niah Cave some 40,000 years ago. See the painted drawings. |
| Early Sarawak communities buried their dead in boat-shaped coffins, arranged around the cave walls; dating of the contents has proved that the caves had been used as a cemetery for tens of thousands of years. |
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