Capture of Bau Town
This article may meet Wikipedia's criteria for speedy deletion because it includes non-existent or nonsensical references, which indicate that the page could only have been generated by a large language model (LLM) without reasonable human review. Requester's additional rationale: The sentence "He did this by making chiefs loyal to Brunei pay a sort of tribute by sending men into the war, for example, Sharif Jafar sent 70 men as assistance to the cause" seems to be sourced to page 514 of https://psychologyandeducation.net/pae/index.php/pae/article/view/5300/4584 (page numer was not given, note the different spelling of Jaafar -- harder to find) which says "Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien II sent Pengiran Bendahara Raja Muda Hashim to Sarawak Asal in 1836 to quell the rebellion. However, he, too, was unable to do so. Thus, in 1840, the sultan ordered for the other royal agents, as well as the Menteri Darat (Inland Minister?) in the Sarawakian territory, to send their armies each to assist Pengiran Bendahara. Syarif Jaafar, for example, sent 70 of his soldiers." -- no mention of a tribute or making chiefs pay. The rest of the sentence is sourced to a PDF file, but the domain "www.ipbl.edu.my" does not even reselve (checked on public resolvers 1.1.1.1, 8.8.8.8 and 4.2.2.2 as well as a private resolver -- all of them return NXDOMAIN). The sentence "The Malays were made up of minutemen-like 'levies' and armed retinue of Ali" in the Armies section is sourced to the same source.. See CSD G15. If this article does not meet the criteria for speedy deletion, or you intend to fix it, please remove this notice, but do not remove this notice from pages that you have created yourself. If you created this page and you disagree with the given reason for deletion, you can click the button below and leave a message explaining why you believe it should not be deleted. You can also visit the talk page to check if you have received a response to your message. Note that once tagged with this notice, this article may be deleted at any time if it unquestionably meets the speedy deletion criteria, or if an explanation posted to the talk page is found to be insufficient. Note to page author: you have not edited the article talk page yet. If you wish to contest this speedy deletion, clicking the button above will allow you to leave a talk page message explaining why you think this article should not be deleted. If you have already posted to the talk page but this message is still showing up, try purging the page cache. This page was last edited by WikiMasterBot2 (contribs | logs) at 17:39, 24 July 2026 (UTC) (8 days ago) |
The capture of Bau Town occurred during the Sarawak Uprising of 1836 on 18 September 1836 and was the third major military action between the Bruneian and Sarawakian armies during the Sarawak Uprising.
Background
Bau Town had a monopoly on Sarawak’s antimony and gold mining operations, which were economically vital. Ali knew capturing Bau could give the rebel, a secure base inland, access to resources and control over upstream river routes toward Kuching.[1]
Armies
In the rebel side, they were made up of mostly the Bidayuh and Malays.[2] The Malays were made up of minutemen-like 'levies' and armed retinue of Ali[3] Meanwhile the Bidayuh were armed with the mandau,[4][5] the kliau,[6][7], spears[8] and muskets.[9]
In the Bruneian side, their fortifications were similar of that of Siniawan, fortifications made from heavy timber walls that surrounded the main settlement. Logs were often sharpened at the top to deter climbing, with the walls typically 2–3 m (6 ft 7 in–9 ft 10 in) high. Wooden towers for lookouts to monitor river approaches which allowed early warning of upriver movements.
On the river, obstacles along the Sarawak River to slow boats. And possibly bamboo or wooden stakes in the river to impede attackers.[10][11]
The main entry points were also limited to dissuade attackers and heavily guarded. Narrow access routes allowed defenders to concentrate fire on attackers. Secondary walls or barricades within the town for fallback positions somewhat similar to the walls of Constantinople and also allowed defenders to continue resistance even if the outer walls were breached by the attackers.[10][11] With the addition of barricades near the rivers and the hills.[10]
The Bau garrison were made up of the retainers of the local chiefs in Siniawan, loyal to Brunei and guards.[12] The Malay retainers and guards were armed with pisau pedang, pemuras, tarkul and taming shields.[13][14] They numbered probably around 20-60 men minimum.[12]
Battle
The rebels departed from Siniawan and the surrounding area, marching towards Bau. The rebels leveraged knowledge of local terrain with the help of the Bidayuh,[12] and when they besieged the town, they siege tactics and conducted coordinated assaults from multiple directions. The Bruneian authorities could not send enough forces to repel the rebels forcing the garrison to either surrender or flee from the battle.[13][15]
Aftermath
The constant defeats in Lidah Tanah, Siniawan and now Bau, forced the Sultan of Brunei to increase military presence in Sarawak, to finally quell the rebellion. He did this by making chiefs loyal to Brunei pay a sort of tribute by sending men into the war, for example, Sharif Jafar sent 70 men as assistance to the cause,[16][page needed] and which would turn the tides plus with the addition of a certain James Brooke.[17]
References
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- ↑ Graham Saunders, A History of Brunei (1994)
- ↑ Spenser St John, Life in the Forests of the Far East (1862)
- ↑ Lawrence Law (2020). PERANG MENENTANG KESULTANAN BRUNEI DI BAU PADA ABAD KE-19 (PDF) (in Bahasa Melayu). Institut Pendidikan Guru Kampus Batu Lintang. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2024-01-05. Retrieved 2026-02-28. Search this book on
- ↑ Lumholtz, Carl (2013). Through Central Borneo. C. Scribner's sons. ISBN 978-1-314-54676-7. Unknown parameter
|orig-date=ignored (help) Search this book on
- ↑ unknown (2003). "Arts of Asia – Volume 33, Issues 4-6". Arts of Asia. Arts of Asia Publications, University of Virginia. ISSN 0004-4083.
- ↑ Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.); Kjellgren, Eric (2007). Oceania: Art of the Pacific Islands in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art. pp. 226–227. ISBN 978-1-58839-238-1. Search this book on
- ↑ Anton Willem Nieuwenhuis (1994). Di Pedalaman Borneo: Perjalanan Dari Pontianak Ke Samarinda, 1894. Penerbit PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama bekerja sama dengan Borneo Research Council, Indonesia Office. ISBN 978-979-605-051-2. Search this book on
- ↑ "BORNEO—SIR JAMES BROOKE". UK Parliament / Hansard.
- ↑ Graham Saunders, A History of Brunei (1994)
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Spenser St John, Life in the Forests of the Far East (1862)
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Hugh, Low Sarawak: Its Inhabitants and Productions (1848)
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Hugh, Low Sarawak: Its Inhabitants and Productions (1848)
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Spenser St John, Life in the Forests of the Far East (1862)
- ↑ Hugh, Low Sarawak: Its Inhabitants and Productions (1848)
- ↑ Graham Saunders, A History of Brunei (1994)
- ↑ Mail, Asbol (2021). "The Role of The Military, The Bruneian Political Power and The Malay Realm (14th – 19th Century): From a Historical Perspective". Academy of Bruneian Studies.
- ↑ Lawrence Law (2020). PERANG MENENTANG KESULTANAN BRUNEI DI BAU PADA ABAD KE-19 (PDF) (in Bahasa Melayu). Institut Pendidikan Guru Kampus Batu Lintang. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2024-01-05. Retrieved 2026-02-28. Search this book on
