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 s ...

Mukah Division Mukah Division is one of the twelve administrative divisions in Sarawak, Malaysia. It was established on 1 March 2002 and it has a total area of 6,997.61 square kilometres. Mukah Division contains five administrative districts: Mukah, Dalat, ...

Sarawak Sarawak ( , ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. It is the largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia. Sarawak is located in East Malaysia in northwest Borneo, and is ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

. It is situated by the

Oya River Oya River ( or ) is a river in Sarawak, Malaysia. The river mouth is located in Kuala Oya, Oya in Mukah Division. The 31 km long river has a basin area of 2,143.92 km2.

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 from

Gabungan Parti Sarawak The Gabungan Parti Sarawak (abbreviation, abbrev: GPS; English: Sarawak Parties Alliance) is a Sarawak-based national political alliance in Malaysia. It was established in 2018 by four former Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties operating so ...

. She won the seat in the 19th State Election 2021 for the fifth time. For

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

, Dalat district is under Parliament 213:

Mukah Mukah ( muːkəh), historically known as Muka, is a coastal town which has served 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 t ...

Geography

Similar to most areas in the

Rajang Delta Rajang may refer to: * Rajang (federal constituency), in Sarawak, Malaysia * Rajang River, in Sarawak, northwest Borneo, Malaysia * Rajang, Iran, a village in Nimbeluk Rural District, Nimbeluk District, Qaen County, South Khorasan Province * Raja ...

, 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 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 southeast Florida, United States ...

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

Demographics

Image:Templedalat.jpg, The temple dedicated to deity

Tua Pek Kong Tua Pek Kong (; Tâi-lô: ''Tuā-peh-kong'') is a Taoist deity in the pantheon of Peranakan folk religion practiced by ethnic Chinese in Malaysia, Singapore, and parts of Indonesia. Throughout Southeast Asia, Tua Pek Kong is referred as the "Go ...

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 (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, 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 Brunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, is a country in Southeast Asia, situated on the northern coast o ...

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,

Sarawak Malay Sarawak Malay ( Standard Malay: ''Bahasa Melayu Sarawak'' or ''Bahasa Sarawak'', Jawi: , Sarawak Malay: ''Kelakar Sarawak'') is a Malayic language native to the State of Sarawak. It is a common language used by natives of Sarawak and also as ...

, 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 Hokkien ( , ) is a Varieties of Chinese, variety of the Southern Min group of Chinese language, Chinese languages. Native to and originating from the Minnan region in the southeastern part of Fujian in southeastern China, it is also referred ...

and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

are also widely spoken. Main religions practised in Dalat are

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

(

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

and SIB),

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

, 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 Chinese people in Burma, Burmese Chinese, Chinese Singaporeans, Singaporean Chinese, Malays ...

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 Sago palm is a common name for several plants which are used to produce a starchy food known as sago. Sago palms may be "true palms" in the family Arecaceae The Arecaceae () is a family (biology), family of perennial plant, perennial, flowerin ...

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 Miri () is a coastal city in north-eastern Sarawak, Malaysia, located near the border of Brunei, on the island of Borneo. The city covers an area of , located northeast of Kuching and southwest of Kota Kinabalu. Miri is the second largest ...

via

Bintulu Bintulu is a coastal town on the island of Borneo in the central region of Sarawak, Malaysia. Bintulu is located northeast of Kuching, northeast of Sibu, and southwest of Miri, Malaysia, Miri. With a population of 114,058 as of 2010, Bintulu ...

and

. In around 2010, a bridge named Jambatan Temenggong Mat Win was built at Oya River to connect Sungai Kut road and Kampung Kekan Road. This bridge help the local from Kampung Sungai Kut Muara, Kampung Kekan and Kampung Baru to reach Pekan Dalat easier and a lot more fuel and time saving.

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 h ...

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 Kuala Lumpur (KL), officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, is the capital city and a Federal Territories of Malaysia, federal territory of Malaysia. It is the largest city in the country, covering an area of with a census population ...

particularly.

Water

River transportation is still very vital in Dalat. There are speed boats connecting Dalat and

Sibu Sibu is a landlocked city located in the central region of Sarawak, Malaysia. It serves as the capital of Sibu District within Sibu Division and is situated on the island of Borneo. Covering an area of , the city is positioned at the conf ...

with a fee of

MYR Million years ago, abbreviated as Mya, Myr (megayear) or Ma (megaannum), is a unit of time equal to (i.e. years), or approximately 31.6 teraseconds. Usage Myr is in common use in fields such as Earth science and cosmology. Myr is also used w ...

35. The journey takes approximately 2 hours.

Transport

Express Bus

Stage Bus

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 nine primary schools namely SJK (C) Chin Hua, SK Saint Bernard, SK Kampung Sungai Ud, SK Kampung Tanam, SK Kampung Medong, SK Kampung Sg Kut Tengah, SK Saint Kevin, SJK (C) Poi Yuk, SK Kampung Kebuaw. 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 A public hospital, or government hospital, is a hospital which is government owned and is predominantly funded by the government and operates predominantly off the money that is collected from taxpayers to fund healthcare initiatives. In almost al ...

, 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 (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...

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 po ...

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, Sar ...

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 RHB Bank Berhad () is a Malaysian bank based in Kuala Lumpur and founded in 1997. It is the fourth largest fully integrated financial services group in Malaysia. RHB Bank has over 200 branches in Malaysia and provides a range of banking produ ...

Culture and leisure

The Melanaus are famous for their traditional food such as ''umai'',

sago Sago () is a starch extracted from the pith, or spongy core tissue, of various tropical palm stems, especially those of ''Metroxylon sagu''. It is a major staple food for the lowland peoples of New Guinea and the Maluku Islands, where it is c ...

worms and the sago pearls. The importance of

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

Fatimah Abdullah Fatimah Ting binti Abdullah (born Ting Sai Ming; 1 February 1957) is a Malaysian politician from the Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), a component party of the ruling Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) coalition. She has served as the State Mi ...

- 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. * Albert Bansa - documentary filmmaker, and the FreedomFilmFest (FFF) 2019 grant winner for the film "''Pengidup Aku''" (My Life). * Fazilla Sylvester Silin - national

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

and

indoor hockey Indoor(s) may refer to: *the interior of a building *Indoor environment, in building science, traditionally includes the study of indoor thermal environment, indoor acoustic environment, indoor light environment, and indoor air quality *Built envi ...

player. She was born in Kampung Medong, 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.

References

{{Sarawak Dalat District Towns in Sarawak