THE golden rays from the morning sun appeared to dance on Bakun Jetty as Sonia Lahung, her husband Musa Wan and a group of retirees stepped on board a roofed longboat - a 16 passenger watercraft powered by three 40-horsepower outboard engines.
Their destination was Long Jawe, a settlement perched on a hillock jutting out of the vast Bakun Lake.
The cheerful local tourists were on their way for a quaint four-day, three-night stay at a guest-house run by retired pastor Ucho Ding and his wife, Lohong Lawai.
Born in 1960, Ucho hails from Long Dungan, about an hour's drive from Belaga, while Lohong is a Long Jawe native, born there in 1966.
The couple had named their abode 'Blessed Home Retreat'.
It was built on a piece of land given to Lohong's cousin Bawing Tinggang, and much of the building materials came from friends in Sibu, Bintulu and Miri.
The serene homestay listed out many activities for the guests such as fishing, forest walks, and also cultural shows.
The boat journey to Long Jawe, usually taking about four hours, was definitely a feast to the eyes.
As the vessel cruised across the shimmering expanse of Bakun Lake towards the Balui River, the towering forested slopes, mirror-like waters, and the occasional hornbills in flight kept the travellers quietly mesmerised.
Sonia, a self-confessed 'pure science student' intended to learn from Ucho more about Long Jawe's history and traditions - stories that she never heard in school.
'A village beneath the lake'
Sonia, who had just retired from teaching, was impressed with Ucho's guest-house.
However, she knew that the present Long Jawe was a relatively new settlement.
The old site now lies beneath the waters of Bakun Dam.
Once home to the thriving Kenyah Lepo Kulit community on the banks of the Balui River, the village was partly relocated to Sungai Asap in 1999, when the impoundment for the Bakun hydroelectricity project submerged much of the land.
About 20 families chose to rebuild their house close to the new lakeshore.
Some crafted inventive floating residences, the 'jelatong' houses, using diesel drums or plastic barrels as pontoons.
Their floating Borneo Evangelical Mission (BEM) Church remains one of the rarest in the world.
Inside the guest-house, Sonia spotted something unexpected - a 'history gallery' of old photographs curated by Ucho himself.
The images conveyed stories of a village with a dramatic, and turbulent, past.
Ucho and Lohong had spent 30 years serving the Mission in Sibu.
Now they are on special leave from the BEM Church of Sibu to help serve the parish in Long Jawe, and another church in the predominantly-Penan area of Long Unai, a few hours by boat from Long Jawe.
Ucho's Penan friends from Long Unai had come to help build the church on the hill and also the retreat.
The materials had to be transported from Bakun Jetty using longboats. It took them a few years to complete the project.
Still, Ucho told Sonia that the 'jelatong' and the floating church had gotten too expensive to maintain since the old Long Jawe was submerged more than 20 years ago.
It is informed that the community is building a new church on land to replace the floating one.
"Long Jawe marked the furthest outpost of the Third Division of Sarawak (covering Rajang, Oya, Mukah, Matu and Bintulu).
"Kapit back then was already considered the 'end of the line' by many - imagine, Long Jawe lay much further up and 50 miles from the Sarawak-Indonesian border.
"Long Jawe, at the time, was reachable only by boat and even then, one must go through the treacherous Pelagus and Bakun rapids, which had claimed many lives," Ucho recounted.
On Sept 27, 1963, amidst the tense Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation, tragedy struck.
Indonesian guerrillas, with mortars and machine guns in hand, crossed the border and started a fierce battle. They captured and killed nine Sarawakian Border Scouts on Sept 28 that year.
Long Jawe, home to some 500 villagers then, was defended by six Gurkha guards, three Police Field Force personnel, and 21 Border Scouts.
In the battle, 33 Indonesians were killed; another 26 fell during a boat ambush days later.
"Still, the losses on the Sarawak side left deep scars," said Ucho.
The attack highlighted the urgent need for better intelligence, and more comprehensive outreach across the border areas.
The families of the slain Border Scouts, according to what have been said over the years, received neither pensions nor any compensation over their losses.
After the 'Battle of Long Jawe', the British Armed Forces sent helicopters and more Gurkha troops to Long Jawe.
The villagers were forced to pack up their belongings and move to other villages that were much safer, as directed by the army.
"It was a very disturbing time," Ucho recalled.
"Such relocation was the first ever experienced by the villagers, who had been living in the area in peace for hundreds of years.
"In their simple minds, the Kenyahs of Kalimantan were their relatives and friends.
After listening to these stories related to me by Sonia - a former teaching trainee of mine - I did my own research, where I found an article published in this newspaper on Sept 17, 2020 and written by Yunus Yussop, who interviewed Pudong Laing, one of the 21 Border Scouts.
The serviceman, then aged 87, remembered the names of 14 of the 21 Border Scouts stationed at Long Jawe: Unang Adang, Nyurak Jok, Jaang Pei and Awing Lirong from Uma Balui Ukap; Usat Anyi, Ili Epan, Liu Maling, Merang Apui, Bit Epa, Ipa Along and Endam Ulleh from Uma Kulit; and Uloi Tanyang, Kiweng and Anyie Chok from Uma Bakah.
In a post on one Facebook page, 'Pesara Dan Bekas Polis Sarawak', one of the members Sehari Idris wrote the names of nine Border Scouts - all of them Orang Ulu - who lost their lives during the Long Jawe attack on Sept 28, 1963:
The list was part of a long compilation of names recorded by the late ACP Khoo Kim Nyian, based on his memory and several interviews, wrote Sehari in the post.
Retired Belaga councillor Daniel Levoh, in a recent update on Facebook, said he had met Pudong, now aged 92, at the Belaga Regatta, which ran from Aug 1 to 10 this year.
This means that Pudong is now the sole survivor of the 'Battle of Long Jawe' and according to Daniel, he is 'well, and still alert'.
'The Mission'
Sonia and her friends were amazed by the many photos curated by Ucho, which showed many works undertaken by BEM missionaries, Pastor Ray Cunningham and his wife Evelyn, who came to Long Jawe in 1971.
The couple built a church, set up a Kenyah Bible translation centre, and even constructed a short-take-off-and-landing airstrip (STOLport), which brought aircraft to the village for the first time not long after their arrival.
"They were successful in translating the Bible into the Kenyah language with the help of the local villagers, as well as volunteers from Belaga and the nearby areas.
"It was painstaking work, though. Everything was done using typewriters," said Ucho.
There was already a primary school and a health clinic in the village in the 1960s.
Those who finished Primary 6 would go to Kapit Secondary School where eventually, they would enter Form 6 and go to higher education.
Lohong was among the successful students, who later graduated at diploma level from Miri Evangelical Bible College.
The Cunninghams' work in education, healthcare and spiritual leadership left a lasting legacy, one of which was the establishment of the Belaga Bible School, which continues to serve Kenyah and Kayan communities today.
Many of them who cannot afford to go to the mainstream schools provided by the government continued their education in the Bible school. Some have gone further afield to the USA and the UK to attain Master's degrees.
'The Bakun life'
Upon the commissioning of the Bakun Dam, the largest in Malaysia and was proposed in the 1990s, Long Jawe's fate changed forever.
Most villagers moved to the Sungai Asap Resettlement Scheme, where 15 longhouses were built by the government, with schools, clinics and basic amenities provided.
However, some of them chose to stay on their ancestral land like Lohong's family, adapting to a new way of life.
The Bakun Dam is an embankment dam located in the Belaga District of the Kapit Division in Sarawak. It is on the Balui River, a tributary of the Rajang River and some 60km east of Belaga.
Impoundment started in 2010, covering land the size of Singapore.
Some 10,000 indigenous people were affected.
Those having chosen to stay by the lake side continue their traditional way of life: fishing, hunting and farming.
The prized native 'empurau' fish, which could fetch a price of up to RM1,000 per kilogramme - alongside 'semah', 'sakam', 'labang', 'mengalan' and 'baong' - provide food and income.
The 'jelatong' lifestyle has become an iconic outcome of the Bakun project.
The Bakun Dam supplies up to 24,000 megawatts of electricity.
Meanwhile the Sungai Asap Resettlement continues to develop into a thriving township with modern amenities.
The resettled population continues to visit the Bakun Lake, about one hour by road from Sungai Asap.
Every Saturday, the Bakun Jetty (cum market) is full of fishermen, hunters and vegetable sellers who have come from the lakeside areas to sell their produce.
Consumers from as far as Sibu and Bintulu arrive in their four-wheel drive vehicles, with big cooler-boxes to be filled with fresh purchases.
Today's Long Jawe is a village housing 200 residents. Despite it being a relatively new settlement, it still retains its deep cultural roots and a slower, more harmonious pace of life.
At Ucho's retreat, visitors can enjoy home-cooked meals of deer meat, ferns, tapioca leaves, and freshly-caught fish; learn to make the Kenyah's 'selukung (rice wrapped in leaves); try their hands at traditional smoking techniques for fish and meat; spend the day fishing; or simply drink in the tranquillity.
The present 'Ketua Kampung' (village headman) is Jating Ebau.
'As beautiful as any European lake'
Sonia reminisced about her stay at Ucho's retreat with a smile.
"I've travelled to lakeside towns overseas including in Europe, but Bakun is just as beautiful.
"At Bakun, I can enjoy it with my own people, learning our history, eating food from the forest and river.
I'm definitely coming back, and next time, I'm bringing more friends and my children as well."
The Long Jawe of today is a place of peace, a far cry from the fear and bloodshed of the 1960s.
Its story is one of resilience, adaptation, and quiet beauty, and it is ready for a new chapter - perhaps, for more people to discover it before the rest of the world does.
May we also remember and honour the sacrifices of our Border Scouts, Police Field Force, the Gurkha troops and others who fought in Long Jawe for our nation Malaysia.