Gunung Buda National Park is a national park located in

Limbang Division Limbang Division is one of the twelve administrative divisions of Sarawak, Malaysia. It has a total area of 7,788.50 square kilometres, and is the fourth largest division after Kapit Division, Miri Division and Bintulu Division. Limbang Divisio ...

Sarawak Sarawak (; ) is a 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 Malaysian state of Sabah to the northeast, ...

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 located to the north of

Gunung Mulu National Park The Gunung Mulu National Park is a national park in Miri Division, Sarawak, Malaysia. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that encompasses caves and karst formations in a mountainous equatorial rainforest setting. The park is famous for its ca ...

. Gunung Buda National Park was gazetted in 2001. As in September 2017, the national park was in the planning stage for tourism activities. Roads were also planned to connect Gunung Buda with Gunung Mulu National Park. Gunung Buda meaning White Hill in

Lun Bawang The Lun Bawang (formerly known as Trusan Murut or Southern Murut) is an ethnic group found in Central Northern Borneo. They are indigenous to the southwest of Sabah (Interior Division), and the northern region of Sarawak (Limbang Division), high ...

language.

History

An expedition by British cavers in 1978 found the entrances and initial passages to several large caves such as Deer Cave and Clearwater Cave at

. These discoveries led to further explorations of Mulu caves in the subsequent years. Americans first visited Gunung Buda when John Lane and George Prest visited the mountain to assess its potential for an American expedition in 1993. In late 1994 and early 1995 the first American expedition took place. Others followed in 1996, 1997, and 2000. Collectively the expeditions have surveyed more than 60 kilometres of cave passages beneath Gunung Buda. The 1997 expeditions were made by the members of

National Speleological Society The National Speleological Society (NSS) is an organization formed in 1941 to advance the exploration, conservation, study, and understanding of caves in the United States. Originally headquartered in Washington D.C., its current offices are in ...

Geography

The highest mountain in the national park is Mount Buda, stood at high. It is separated from

Mount Benarat Mount Benarat ( ms, Gunung Benarat) is a mountain located in Gunung Mulu National Park in Sarawak, Malaysia. Consisting of limestone on the western side which is overlain by gritstone on the eastern side. It contains many caves which have been ...

by Medalem Gorge.

Climate

The climate is wet year around and temperatures climb into the low 30s Celsius every day.

Biodiversity

The rain forests of Buda and nearby Mulu host a tremendous diversity of life including at least 300

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

species, numerous

primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians ( monkeys and apes, the latter including ...

s, more than 2,500

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

species, more than 60

snake Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more j ...

s and many other beautiful varied forms of life. Changes in substrate, slope, elevation and drainage make the forests of the area particularly varied. At Gunung Buda, limestone forest, lowland

dipterocarp Dipterocarpaceae is a family of 16 genera and about 695 known species of mainly tropical lowland rainforest trees. The family name, from the type genus ''Dipterocarpus'', is derived from Greek (''di'' = two, ''pteron'' = wing and ''karpos'' = f ...

forests, kerangas swamp forests and upland dipterocarp forests all grow.

References

Related Resources

Caves of Gunung Buda : report of the joint Sarawak Forest Department and USA Caving Expedition to Sarawak, Malaysia 1995Caves of Gunung Buda, 1997 : Sarawak Forest Department and USA Expedition to Gunung Buda, Sarawak, Malaysia, January 30 to March 7, 1997Caves of Gunung Buda, 2000 : report of the Gunung Buda Project and the Sarawak Department of Forestry 2000 expedition to Gunung Buda, Sarawak, Malaysia
{{Authority control National parks of Sarawak Borneo montane rain forests Borneo lowland rain forests