Introduction

The old name for Bau district is "Upper Sarawak" whereas the old name for Bau Town was "Mau San" or "Bukit Mau". European authors during the Brooke regime pronounced "Bau" as "Bow".


General View of Old Bau Town in the Year 1907.  The Background is Bukit Seringgok.

Bau has a historical connection with the destruction of the first Bau Bazaar at "Mau San" (Bau Lama) in 1857. It was estimated that at least a few hundred women and children were burned or died of suffocation inside the Ghost Cave and about 2,000 people including the followers of Liu Shanbang were killed in and around "Mau San" by the White Rajah Sir James Brooke's force.   Bau is one of the oldest and, perhaps, the richest (in term of mineral resources) districts in Sarawak. In the olden days, Bau was not only a well-known mining district in Sarawak, but also of great political importance. Since its establishment in about 1820, major events had occurred.

Bau Town, about 35 kilometers from Kuching, is the administrative and trading center of the district. Being an interior district in Kuching Division, its geographical features are composed of rugged terrain and dotted with sporadic limestone hills- It has an area of  884.40 square kilometers and shares a common boundary with Kalimantan Indonesia.