The Kelabit Highlands are a

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have ari ...

located in the northernmost part 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 ...

in the

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 ...

. It hosts the

Bario Bario is a community of 13 to 16 villages located on the Kelabit Highlands in Miri Division, Sarawak, Malaysia, lying at an altitude of 1000 m (3280 ft) above sea level. It is located close to the Sarawak-Kalimantan border, 178 ...

village. The highest mountains in this range are

Mount Murud Mount Murud or Muru ( ms, Gunung Murud) is a sandstone mountain located in Limbang Division, Sarawak, Malaysia At 2,424 m (7,946 ft), it is the highest mountain in Sarawak. Geography Mount Murud at the elevation of 2,424 m, is the highest ...

at , Bukit Batu Buli at , and Bukit Batu Lawi at . The current population of the

Kelabit people The Kelabit are an indigenous Dayak people of the Sarawak/North Kalimantan highlands of Borneo with a minority in the neighbouring state of Brunei. They have close ties to the Lun Bawang. The elevation there is slightly over 1,200 meters. ...

is about 6,800. Maligan Highlands, another highland nearby located within the Limbang Division, hosts the Ba'kelalan village.

Geography

The rocks of the Kelabit Highlands comprise

mudstone Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Mudstone is distinguished from '' shale'' by its lack of fissility (parallel layering).Blatt, H., and R.J. Tracy, 1996, ''Petrology.' ...

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicat ...

s, and

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

s ranging in age from the

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but t ...

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

periods. In terms of

plate tectonics Plate tectonics (from the la, label= Late Latin, tectonicus, from the grc, τεκτονικός, lit=pertaining to building) is the generally accepted scientific theory that considers the Earth's lithosphere to comprise a number of larg ...

, the region was a basin formed by warping at a

subduction Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at convergent boundaries. Where the oceanic lithosphere of a tectonic plate converges with the less dense lithosphere of a second plate, ...

zone where the

continental crust Continental crust is the layer of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks that forms the geological continents and the areas of shallow seabed close to their shores, known as continental shelves. This layer is sometimes called '' sial'' be ...

was forced upwards. The estimated rate of uplift is 20 mm per century for the last two million years. period, Bario showed a lowering in temperatures during the

Last Glacial Maximum The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Late Glacial Maximum, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period that ice sheets were at their greatest extent. Ice sheets covered much of Northern North America, Northern Eu ...

(LGM).

Villages

Bario

The area hosts 13 villages. Seven of these are in the

area while the others are around the outskirts of the plateau. 'Bario Asal' as the original longhouse within the plateau and Ulung Palang, Arur Dalan, Pa'Ramapoh Atas and Pa'Ramapoh Bawah, Pa' Derung, Padang Pasir and Kampung Baru are resettled villages in 1960s. To the east side are Pa'Umor, Pa'Ukat and Pa'Lungan and to the south are Long Dano, Pa'Dallih and Remudu. The other two villages are

Long Lellang Long Lellang (also known as Long Lelang) is a small village in the Kelabit highlands of Sarawak, Malaysia. It lies approximately east-north-east of the state capital Kuching. The village is predominantly populated by the Kelabit tribe, though a ...

and Long Seridan.

Economy

In 2011, Ceria Group, a Malaysian agricultural company introduced mechanised farming of rice in the region.

References

External links

{{Coord , 4, 13, 25.73, N, 114, 21, 58.02, E, display=title Mountain ranges of Malaysia Landforms of Sarawak Highlands