Limbang Division is one of the twelve administrative divisions of

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 federal constitutional monarchy consists of thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two regions: Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo's East Mal ...

. It has a total area of 7,788.50 square kilometres, and is the fourth largest division after

Kapit Division Kapit Division, formed on 2 April 1973, is one of the twelve administrative divisions in Sarawak, Malaysia. It has a total area of 38,934 square kilometres, and is the largest of the administrative divisions of Sarawak. Its population (year 202 ...

Miri Division Miri Division is one of the twelve administrative divisions of Sarawak, Malaysia. It has a total area of 26,777.1 square kilometres, and is the second largest division after Kapit Division. The seat of this division is the city of Miri. The pop ...

and

Bintulu Division Bintulu Division is one of the twelve administrative divisions of Sarawak, Malaysia. It has a total area of 12,166.2 square kilometres, and is the third largest division after Kapit Division and Miri Division. Bintulu Division consists of two di ...

. Limbang Division consists of two districts which are

Limbang District The Limbang District is one of the two districts of Limbang Division, Malaysia. It has a total area of 3,978.10 square kilometres. The major town is Limbang. It has one sub-district, which is Nanga Medamit Sub-District. It borders Brunei D ...

and

Lawas District The Lawas District is one of the two districts of Limbang Division, Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federal constitutional monarchy consists of thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the S ...

, which in turn are divided as sub-districts in Limbang ( Nanga Medamit Sub-District) and two sub-districts in Lawas ( Sundar Sub-District and Trusan Sub-District). Long Semadoh and Ba’kelalan are rural settlements in the southern part of Lawas district. Two major towns in Limbang are

Limbang Limbang is a border town and the capital of Limbang District in the Limbang Division of northern Sarawak, East Malaysia, on the island of Borneo. This district area is 3,978.10 square kilometres, and population (year 2020 census) was 56,900. ...

and

Lawas Lawas ( ms, Pekan Lawas) is a small town and the capital of Lawas District, Limbang Division, Sarawak, Malaysia. This district area is 3,811.90 square kilometres, and population (year 2020 census) was 46,200. It is 1,200 km from the state ...

. There are also few smaller towns such as Sundar, Trusan, Merapok and Tedungan.

Geography

Limbang Division splits Brunei Darussalam into two; West

Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely surrounded by th ...

to the west and

Temburong District Temburong District ( ms, Daerah Temburong; Jawi: دائيره تمبوروڠ) or simply Temburong () is the easternmost district in Brunei. It is an exclave — the land is separated from the rest of the country by Malaysia and Brunei Bay, a ...

in the middle of Limbang and Lawas districts. Limbang is located between West Brunei and Temburong, while Lawas is located between Temburong and the Malaysian state of

Sabah Sabah () is a state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indonesia to the south. The Federal Territory ...

. This geographical situation, as well as the autonomy of Sabah and Sarawak in immigration affairs means that immigration checks are required when travelling into or out of Limbang Division by road.

Demography

As of 2002, the population of Limbang Division was 81,152. This makes Limbang one of the most sparsely populated divisions in Sarawak with only 10.5 people per square kilometre. Most of the Limbang Division population is concentrated in the coastal areas of

and

Ethnics

Limbang is traditionally a home to Malay,

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), hi ...

Kedayan The Kedayan (also known as Kadayan, Kadaian or Kadyan) are an ethnic group residing in Brunei, Federal Territory of Labuan, southwest of Sabah, and north of Sarawak on the island of Borneo. According to the Language and Literature Bureau of B ...

, Kelabit,

Iban IBAN or Iban or Ibán may refer to: Banking * International Bank Account Number Ethnology * Iban culture * Iban language * Iban people Given name Cycling * Iban Iriondo (born 1984) * Iban Mayo (born 1977) * Iban Mayoz (born 1981) Football * ...

Murut Murut may refer to: * Murut people, an ethnic group of the northern inland regions of Borneo * Murutic languages The Murutic languages are a family of half a dozen closely related Austronesian languages, spoken in the northern inland regions o ...

, Chinese and

Orang Ulu Orang Ulu ("people of the interior" in Malay) is an ethnic designation politically coined to group together roughly 27 very small but ethnically diverse tribal groups in northeastern Sarawak, Malaysia with populations ranging from less than 300 p ...

people. Other Sarawakian ethnic groups do exist, especially Bidayuh and Melanau, who migrate from various parts of Sarawak. It has one of the highest concentration of Orang Ulu and Kedayan people. Due to being so close to Brunei, the Malay dialect in Limbang Division is somehow distinct to other parts of Sarawak. It has more Kedayan, Brunei Malay and Sabah regional dialect influences to it. ''Note:''
¹ Excluding

.
² Including

and

ethnics such as

, Kelabit and

Penan The Penan are a nomadic indigenous people living in Sarawak and Brunei, although there is only one small community in Brunei; among those in Brunei half have been converted to Islam, even if only superficially. Penan are one of the last such pe ...

Members of Parliament

Economy

Limbang mostly relies on its agriculture, timber industry and tourism sector to keep growing. Commercial sector is thriving in Limbang because of its location is within Brunei vicinity. Limbang has one of the highest number of tourist in Sarawak whereby Bruneian and Sabahan as the main contributor. Main commercial areas in Limbang are: *Limbang *Lawas *Tedungan

Transportation

Road

Owing to its geographical location, Limbang is completely cut off from the rest of

's road network. It is however has good road links to both parts of

located to the east and west of the district. There is also a good local network of roads in the district. There are two road border crossing checkpoints in Limbang district, both into

. *Tedungan: Located 43 km west of Limbang, it is the road crossing into the main part of Brunei from Limbang. The Brunei checkpoint is called Kuala Lurah. *Pandaruan: This checkpoint is located 15 km east of Limbang on the Pandaruan River which forms the

border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders ca ...

between Sarawak and Brunei's

Temburong district Temburong District ( ms, Daerah Temburong; Jawi: دائيره تمبوروڠ) or simply Temburong () is the easternmost district in Brunei. It is an exclave — the land is separated from the rest of the country by Malaysia and Brunei Bay, a ...

. The crossing used to be done by ferry. Recently, a bridge has been built over the Pandaruan River and thus reduces the queuing time between the two checkpoints. The checkpoint on the Brunei side is called Puni and operates out of a wooden building located 500m from the ferry landing point. Lawas, however, by virtue of its geographical location, is also cut off from the rest of Sarawak's road network. It is however linked by main road to

and

. There is a good local road network around Lawas district which is relatively free of traffic jams. Two road border crossings are located in Lawas district. *Mengkalap: Located to the west of Lawas town is the Mengkalap border checkpoint for traffic headed to or from

. The new immigration complex at the border has been completed recently. Previously it was operating temporarily from a shoplot in Trusan Bazaar, 8 km from the actual Brunei-Malaysia border. The name of the Brunei checkpoint is Labu in

located at the border. *Merapok: To the east of Lawas town, this checkpoint is for traffic headed to or from

(Sarawak, despite being a Malaysian state, has autonomy over immigration matters). The Sabah checkpoint across the state border is Sindumin. Here are images of passport stamps from the ICQS checkpoints located in Limbang Division. File:MalaysiaExitTedungan.jpg, Malaysian passport exit stamp from Tedungan ICQS Checkpoint. File:MalaysiaEntryPandaruan.jpg, Entry stamp from Pandaruan ICQS Checkpoint. File:MalaysiaExitMengkalap.jpg, Exit stamp from Mengkalap ICQS Checkpoint. File:MalaysiaEntryMerapok.jpg, Entry stamp from Merapok ICQS Checkpoint. File:Malaysia limbang entry2.JPG, Entry stamp from the Limbang Wharf ICQS Checkpoint, for boat arrivals from Brunei and Labuan. Although Limbang is well connected to other parts of Sarawak with good networks of road through Brunei, river transports still play the vital role in Limbang. People of Limbang Division can opt for rural shuttle bus service to Ng. Medamit and Tedungan from Limbang town, and also Sundar and Trusan from Lawas town. There are some rural areas which are accessible by timber tracks and palm estate roads such as Long Tengom, Long Sukang, Merarap, Long Semado, Rutoh and Ba'Kelalan. Availability of transports to these areas are limited through bookings at Limbang and Lawas town, using private vans or four-wheel drive vehicles.

Air

There are existing small airports that served the division through

MASwings MASwings Sdn Bhd (doing business as MASwings) is a regional airline operating the Rural Air Services (RAS) in East Malaysia. It took over the routes operated by FlyAsianXpress (2006-2007) and the RAS flights by Malaysia Airlines (1965-2006), b ...

namely

Limbang Airport Limbang Airport is an airport serving the town of Limbang, in the state of Sarawak in Malaysia. The airport is from the town centre. The airport opened on the 15 July 2004, and is capable of handling 250,000 passengers per year. It is able to ha ...

Kota Kinabalu , image_skyline = , image_caption = From top, left to right, bottom:Kota Kinabalu skyline, Wawasan intersection, Tun Mustapha Tower, Kota Kinabalu Coastal Highway, the Kota Kinabalu City Mosque, the Wism ...

Kuching Kuching (), officially the City of Kuching, is the capital and the most populous city in the state of Sarawak in Malaysia. It is also the capital of Kuching Division. The city is on the Sarawak River at the southwest tip of the state of Sar ...

and

Miri ) , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = State , subdivision_name1 = , subdivision_type2 = Division , subdivision_name2 ...

Infrastructure

Education

Limbang Division has a moderate number of public schools. There are numbers of secondary school for both districts of Limbang and Lawas. As for primary schools, most of them are scattered throughout Limbang. Some of them are located deep in the Limbang Division's interior to cater for rural students. There is one Islamic secondary school which is SMKA Limbang. There is no public or private higher institution in Limbang Division.

Healthcare

Limbang Division has two government hospital which are Limbang Hospital (located 500m from the Limbang town) and Lawas Hospital. As for Ng. Medamit, Sundar and Trusan sub-district, all has their own health clinic. Smaller government health clinics do exist at various communal areas such as Ba'Kelalan.

Security

Limbang Division has two police district offices, namely at Limbang and Lawas. There are also police stations and police bits located at strategic locations, as well as rural areas. Despite being the fourth largest division, Limbang Division so far has no district military bases. Only small military camps do exist just to make presence.

Government services

Other government offices have set up their branches in both Limbang and Lawas districts (some at Ng. Medamit, Sundar and Trusan sub-districts and other smaller communal areas) such as Royal Customs, Fire and Rescue Department, Education Department, etc.

References

External links

* * {{coord missing, Malaysia