Dalat is the administrative town of the

Dalat district The Dalat District is located in Mukah Division, Sarawak, Malaysia. It is situated by the Oya river. The district covers areas from Kg. Penat to Oya, and from Muara Sg. Kut to Ulu Baoh. The district has an area of 905.29 km2, while the Oya su ...

in Mukah Division,

Sarawak Sarawak (; ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the M ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. It is situated by the Oya river.

Etymology

According to Heidi Munan's book "How Dalat Got Its Name", Dalat was named following a bloodshed among three brothers as the village chief did not name a successor. Many people died in the war. Corpses lying in the village attracted flies. "Dalat" means fly in the Melanau language, and therefore, the locals named the village Dalat, which is now a small town.

History

Government

Dalat is represented at the State Legislative Assembly by Dato' Sri Hajah Fatimah Abdullah @ Ting Sai Ming, from Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu. She won the seat in the 18th State Election 2016 for the fourth time. For Parliament, Dalat district is under Parliament 213:

Mukah Mukah ( muːkəh), historically known as Muka is a coastal town which serves as the capital and the administrative center of the Mukah Division since 1 March 2002. The district also covers an area of with a population about 49,900 in the Muka ...

Geography

Similar to most areas in the

Rajang Delta Rajang may refer to: * Rajang River The Rajang River ( ms, Batang Rajang) is a river in Sarawak, northwest Borneo, Malaysia. The river originates in the Iran Mountains, flows through Kapit, and then towards the South China Sea. At approximately ...

, Dalat town and its land district is located on peat land that is categorized as deep peat (more than 150 cm).

Climate

Dalat has a

tropical rainforest climate A tropical rainforest climate, humid tropical climate or equatorial climate is a tropical climate sub-type usually found within 10 to 15 degrees latitude of the equator. There are some other areas at higher latitudes, such as the coast of southea ...

(Af) with heavy to very heavy rainfall year-round.

Demographics

Image:Templedalat.jpg, The temple dedicated to deity

Tua Pek Kong Tua may refer to: * Tua River, a river in Portugal * Tua (Papua New Guinea), a river in Papua New Guinea * Tuʻa, also known as Alo, a chiefdom in Wallis and Futuna in Oceania * Tua line, a railway line in Portugal * Tua railway station, in Portug ...

located at the waterfront. Image:Kgbrunei.jpg, Kg. Brunei, this is how a typical Melanau village looks like in Dalat. According to the 2010 National

Census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

, Dalat townland has a population of 619. Most of the people use

Melanau language Melanau is an Austronesian language spoken in the coastal area of the Rajang delta on northwest Borneo, Sarawak, Malaysia and Brunei. There are several dialects—Mukah-Oya, Balingian, Bruit, Dalat, Lawas, Igan, Sarikei, Segahan, Prehan, Seg ...

to communicate here. There is a slight difference of the language between each villages, yet they can understand each other very well. Other languages such as

Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...

Sarawak Malay Sarawak Malay (Standard Malay: ''Bahasa Melayu Sarawak'' or ''Bahasa Sarawak'', Jawi: ''بهاس ملايو سراوق'', Sarawak Malay: ''Kelakar Sarawak'') is a Malayic language native to the State of Sarawak. It is a common language used by ...

, Iban,

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

Hokkien The Hokkien () variety of Chinese is a Southern Min language native to and originating from the Minnan region, where it is widely spoken in the south-eastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. It is one of the national languages in ...

and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

are also widely spoken. Main religions practised in Dalat are

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

(

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

and SIB),

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

, and

Malaysian Chinese religion Chinese folk religion plays a dynamic role in the lives of the overseas Chinese who have settled in the countries of this geographic region, particularly Burmese Chinese, Singaporean Chinese, Malaysian Chinese, Thai Chinese and Hoa. The Indones ...

Economy

Dalat is reputed to be the largest sago flour producer in the world. The district has four modern sago factories with a total output of more than 74 tonnes per day. The importance of the sago palm tree is evident in the district tagline.

Transport

Road

Dalat is connected by a single-carriage road to

. There are daily express bus services connecting Dalat and Miri via

Bintulu Bintulu is a coastal town on the island of Borneo in the central region of Sarawak, Malaysia. Bintulu is located 610 kilometres (380 mi) northeast of Kuching, 216 kilometres (134 mi) northeast of Sibu, and 200 kilometres (120 mi) ...

and

Air

The nearest airport is

Mukah Airport Mukah Airport is an airport in Mukah, a town in the state of Sarawak in Malaysia. History Old STOLport The old STOLport (Short Take-Off and Landing airport) was opened in 1960s and could only handle 67 passengers at one time. The STOLport was eq ...

. The locals however prefer to use either

Bintulu Airport Bintulu Airport is an airport serving Bintulu, a town in the state of Sarawak in Malaysia. The airport is located , by road, southwest of the city, and although small, it is able to handle planes as large as a Boeing 747. In 2008, the airport ha ...

Sibu Airport Sibu Airport is an airport located east south east of Sibu, a town in the state of Sarawak in Malaysia. In 2018, the airport handled 1,579,528 passengers on 20,869 flights and also handled 1,443 metric tonnes of cargo. The airport is the 11t ...

to fly to

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , su ...

particularly.

Water

River transportation is still very vital in Dalat. There are speed boats connecting Dalat and Sibu with a fee of

MYR The abbreviation Myr, "million years", is a unit of a quantity of (i.e. ) years, or 31.556926 teraseconds. Usage Myr (million years) is in common use in fields such as Earth science and cosmology. Myr is also used with Mya (million years ago). ...

35. The journey takes approximately 2 hours.

Transport

Bus Express

Other utilities

Education

Dalat town has four secondary schools namely SMK Dalat, SMK Oya, SMK Batang Igan and SMK Agama Igan. In the town proper, there are three primary schools namely SJK (C) Chin Hua, SK Saint Bernard and SK Kampung Sungai Ud . In January 2018, Centre Of Technical Excellence Sarawak (CENTEXS) Temporary Campus was officially launched by Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah offering Textile & Hospitality courses for the first intake. She also announced the plan to build a new CENTEXS campus costing RM 50 million will be built near Dalat Welfare Complex.

Healthcare

The town is served by an eight-bedded public hospital, Dalat Hospital. Despite having the fewest beds among 22 public hospitals in Sarawak, it is equipped with facilities such as

X-ray An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...

laboratory and a

dialysis Dialysis may refer to: *Dialysis (chemistry), a process of separating molecules in solution **Electrodialysis, used to transport salt ions from one solution to another through an ion-exchange membrane under the influence of an applied electric pote ...

centre. Since there is a good system of transportation, any needs which Dalat Hospital could not handle would be referred to Mukah Hospital or even

Sibu Hospital Sibu Hospital is the second largest hospital in the state of Sarawak, Malaysia. This hospital is the secondary referral centre for eight district hospitals located in the central region of Sarawak; namely Kanowit, Kapit, Mukah, Dalat, Daro, Sari ...

Others

Dalat town also has a post office, district office, a hospital, a stadium (Stadium Perpaduan Dalat), a few blocks of shop-houses, a Catholic church (St. Bernard Church), a

Church, a Chinese temple (age more than a century), a district mosque and a Senior Citizens’ Activity Centre (PAWE). In June 2017, a voluntary fire station was launched. The fire station is an interim measure to respond swiftly to fires as the nearest facility is in

, some 40 minutes’ drive away. In December 2020,'Bazaarnita Fatima' and Phase 2 of Dalat Waterfront were officially opened by the Chief Minister of Sarawak, Datuk Patinggi Abang Abdul Rahman Johari bin Al-Marhum Tun Abang Haji Openg. There is only one bank in Dalat which is a branch of RHB Bank.

Culture and leisure

The Melanaus are famous for their traditional food such as ''umai'', sago worms and the sago pearls. The importance of sago palm to Melanau culture is celebrated biennially since 2005 in a festival called ''Karnival Balau Dalat''(Balau Dalat Carnival). The festival was included in the 2020 Sarawak tourism calendar. Since 2008, Dalat Regatta (known locally ''Pesta Besaug Dalat'') is held alternately with the Balau Dalat Carnival. Other major celebrations are Christmas, Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Chinese New Year and ''Kaul'' Festival. ''Kaul'' Festival is a Melanau annual "cleansing" when traditionally, uninvited spirits and other bad influences were escorted out of the village by a flotilla of boats, and ceremonial offerings of food, cigarettes and betel nut were set on the ''seraheng'' (decorated pole). Each village celebrates the festival on different dates prior to the festival in

— touted as the ‘Mother of All Kaul Festivals’ in third week of April.

Associations/ Clubs

* The Dalat Melanau Association was registered on 9 September 2010 under Association Act 1966–33 with Registrar Of Societies Number PPM-002-13-09092010. The association aims to encourage Melanau at Dalat district to be more proactive and while helping to promote progress for local Melanau people. The club also aims to protect Melanau Dalat heritage and culture. * Dalat Photography Club - Co-founded by well known freelance photographer Naising Bega who is famous for his artwork. Naising also acts as one of the instructors in this club. The club was registered on 6 November 2012 with ROS PPM014-13-06112012. The club initially known as Melanau Dalat Photography Club which made it early present on Pesta Bersaug Dalat in October 2010. It later renamed to Dalat Photography Club to encourage more people enter the club. The Patron of the club is Dalat state assembly woman Datuk Hajah Fatimah Abdullah @ Ting Sai Ming.

Literature

* Heidi Munan's short story 'How Dalat Got Its Name' is published in the book ''Melanau stories'' (2005) Utusan Publications. The short story was included in the Malaysian lower secondary school English literature curriculum from 2000 to 2009. * The Kut Canal and Medong Village are also featured in the book ''Melanau stories'' (2005), in 'The Story of Kut Canal'.

Notable people

* Dato' Sri Hajah Fatimah Abdullah @ Ting Sai Ming - State Assembly Representative of Dalat and the current Minister of Women, Early Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development (Sarawak). She was born and raised in Kampung Teh, Dalat. * Rozie Khan - fashion designer and founder of "Rozie Khan Couture". She is the winner of Best Designer award at the 2018 Borneo Fashion Week. * Albert Bansa - documentary filmmaker, and the FreedomFilmFest (FFF) 2019 grant winner for the film "''Pengidup Aku''" (My Life).

References

{{Sarawak Dalat District Towns in Sarawak