HISTORY OF BUNG BRATAK

Bung Bratak is the ancestral home of the bidayuhs of the Jagoi-Bratak and other Bidayuh groups in Bau, Kuching and Lundu Districts.

It is confirmed by historians and researchers that Bung Bratak was founded more than 750 years ago. Some believe that the Bung Bratak's original settlers ccame from Sungkung, now a part of the Indonesian Province of West Kalimantan.

For hundred of years, the people of Bung Bratak lived peacefully, planting rice and other subsistence crops ata the foot-hills that surrounded the hilltop. The settlement was attacked and razed to the ground on 1st. May 1838 by raiders from the Skrang area. From then on, the people started to move out and started their own villages elsewhere. The last groups to move out were the people of Tembawang Sauh and Jugan who left in the early 1960s.

Bung Bratak was rebuilt by 1841 under the leadership of Panglima Kulow who sought the assistance of James Bruke, the First White Rajah of Sarawak.

Over thirty villages in Bau and Lundu Districts, one in Penrissen(Kuching District) and seven in the Seluas District of West Kalimantan, Indonesia originate from Bung Bratak. Many other villages in Bau (e.g,Kandis and Sungei Pinang) and Kuching (Bumbuk) alsi originated from Bung Bratak, they were established before the attack in 1838.

Because of its historical significance, Bidayuhs of the villages that claim their ancestry to Bung Bratak visit it on 1st. May each year to commemorate its fall in 1838,and to remember their past and origin.

Bung Bratak Day was initiated and proclaimed by the Dayak Bidayuh National Association (DBNA) in 1988, then headed by Dato' Peter Minos.